A Roster of Crimes Against Chhattisgarh State and DGP Vishwaranjan

Cases of Dr. Binayak Sen and Mr. T.G.Ajay: Terrorizing Human Rights Defenders / Development Activists?

1. Why is the State Afraid of the Good Doctor?
Question: Why does the State NOT specify charges against Dr.Binayak Sen NOR produce any evidence regarding his actions and yet keep him in jail for 534 days?

The chargesheet against Dr. Sen under CSPSA intentionally uses “vague” terms such as “sedition,” “waging war against the state” and “abetting unlawful activities.” He is charged with helping an illegal organization as a member by participating in it OR as a non-member by funding OR receiving funds OR by “hatching a conspiracy.” Dates, time or places of these “activities” are often not specified. This allows police to endlessly drag the trial by producing long list of witnesses without specifying their relevance.

2. Dr. Sen, Can We Presume?
Question: On what basis has the police determined that Dr. Sen is a “doctor in name only”?

The chargesheet against Dr.Sen says that he “is certainly a doctor: but is a big zero in terms of actual practice of medicine.” Does a gold medal from CMC Vellore, the 2004 Paul Harrison Award, Global Health Council’s Jonathan Mann Award 2008, and founding Shaheed Hospital in Chhattisgarh not matter?

3. No Evidence? Doesn’ Matter, Plant Some
Question: Why did the police try to fabricate evidence against Dr. Sen?

Even though the seizure memo in Dr. Sen’s case lists 10 items obtained from his premises signed by the Investigating Officer (IO), Dr. Sen and witnesses, the sealed bag of evidence opened in court had 11 objects, the extra one bearing only the signatures of the IO and prosecution witness.

4. Now, who is a threat to who?

Question: Can you explain why there is a consistent attempt to harass Dr.Ilina Sen (Binayak Sen’s wife and co-activist) -neither an accused nor a witness- both in and outside the court room?

On July 2nd, 2008, during the trial, the public prosecutor tried to implicate Dr. Ilina Sen by asking leading questions to a witness asking him to “identify” Ilina in court. On another occasion, the same prosecutor publicly threatened to falsely implicate Ilina by boasting that “if the defence wished they could make the wife of the accused an accused in the present case at anytime.”

5.No Chargesheet, But Imprisoned; Released, But Not Free
Question: Why was Mr. T.G. Ajay, an independent film maker jailed for 93 days under CSPSA, and with no chargesheet produced by the police at the end? Why is Ajay’s case not yet withdrawn?
Question: Why were police personnel threatening the women and children of the slum where Ajay’s school, Drksakshi operates despite all odds on issues of malnutrition, illiteracy and livelihood?

6. Entrapment?
Question: Why was Ajay being pressurized to sign a letter falsely implicating Binayak Sen and the PUCL as a condition for his release?

Despite efforts to try and frame him, Ajay had to be released on statutory bail. The police could not find any evidence of his wrong-doing. Yet, as shockingly revealed by PUCL legal team, Ajay was also being forced by the police to sign a statement against PUCL, Binayak and Ilina Sen as a condition for his release.

Salwa Judum:  Democracy Chhattisgarh-Style, State Impunity For State Violence Against Citizens?


1.When Report after Report Documents State Sponsored Violence…Can The Emperor Have Any Clothes?
Question: Will the DGP (as the senior most police officer in the State) be liable for murder? Since the State and its police dept. gives logistic and monetary support to Salwa Judum, shouldn’t they be considered accomplices?

In September 2008, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal after perusing the National Human Rights Commission report on violence in Chhattisgarh said, “The allegation is that the state is arming private persons. You can deploy as many police personnel or armed forces to tackle the menace. But, if private persons, so armed by the state government, kill other persons, then the state is also liable to be prosecuted as abettor of the murder.” Chief Justice Balakrishnan added “It is very painful to read the report. It says there is arson and looting, people are armed and they [Salwa Judum] are committing serious offences. It says people who are subjected to serious problems are still afraid of coming out.”

Question: What kind of police force has more than 85% of its officers commit crimes that got them “discharged”?

In a recent interview in Pioneer, the DGP admitted that 3,250 Special Police Officers (SPOs, the official title for Salwa Judum employees) were “discharged on various grounds of indiscipline.”  The DGP has also claimed (to HRW) that there are 3800 SPOs altogether (the SP Dantewada claimed 3500). If this is the admission of the top police officer, then is it difficult to see why SPOs murder, rape, & forcibly displace?

Question: Will the DGP now include the Supreme Court justices in his list of “Maoist sympathizers” who are demoralizing the Indian state?

The DGP is fond of calling anyone who condemns the Salwa Judum as “maoist sympathizer”. This list includes so far Shankar Guha Niyogi–labour leader founder of India’s largest mass organization, the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha; sociologist Nandini Sundar, historian Ramachandra Guha, author Arundhati Roy, journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary, human rights groups such as PUCL, Gandhians such as Kanak Tiwari, Himanshu Kumar and Sandeep Pandey, the entire Planning Commission Experts Committee–in short he includes anyone who dares to dissent in his terrorized state.

2. How to Make a Terrorist? A State Primer
Question: Why does the Chhattisgarh police arm children under 18 years? Does the DGP know that “Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities” constitutes a war crime under the “Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998″?

“The police asked me also to become an SPO [special police officer] but I refused because I did not want to become an SPO and commit heinous crimes. I did not want to shoot and kill people. … They do not ask anyone how old they are. Even 14-year-olds can become SPOs if the police want them to become SPOs.”
– Poosam Kanya (pseudonym), former resident of Errabore camp, December 2007 (Human Rights Watch)

3.Deny First Information Reports (FIRs), Claim no Evidence= No Atrocities
Question: Why are FIRs not filed for cases when victims have requested that they be filed?

On 18th March 2008, three tribals in Matwada Salwa Judum camp in Bijapur district were brutally killed by the Salwa Judum/police. On August 11th, 2008, Salwa Judum/police killed 5 people at the Arlampalli village. The police refused to file any FIRs in both cases despite constant requests by Himanshu Kumar of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram. On March 31, 2007 the Salwa Judum/police killed six or more aboriginals in Santoshpur/Ponjer, a fact that was testified later by the “team leader of SPOs” to a journalist.

4. Meritocracy in the Bureaucracy: Murder, Rape, Torture as Credentials

Question: Why has no action been taken against former SP Kalluri for his crimes?
S.R.P. Kalluri, (Former) SP,Balrampur has been implicated in Custodial rape of Ledha Bai and murder of her husband, Police beatings in Ambikapur,  Lathicharge of Rozgar Adhikar Yatra (March for Right to Employment), custodial torture, fake encounters and Intimidation of Lawyers. Kalluri has been promoted and made DIG, Anti-naxal operations, in the capital city of Raipur.

5. Who is in charge in Chhattisgarh?
Question: Why does the Chhattisgarh government harass NGOs by speaking in two voices?

In August 2007, Chhattisgarh state tried to ban NGOs, including Medicine Sans Borders (MSF or Doctors without Borders). Why did a local DC (Dantewada) and SP (Bijapur) claim that NGO’s (and MSF) are assisting Maoists, whilst the State government in Raipur expressed full cooperation with MSF? Why did the media rush to declare MSF as banned, leading to harassment of MSF personnel by Salwa Judum?

Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) is a new version of extraordinary laws such as POTA and TADA that bypass many routine forms of due process through a broad definition of an unlawful activity and acceptance of vague and unreliable evidence, all in the name of national security.

Salwa Judum: State sponsored militia set up in 2005 ostensibly to counter Maoist-led violence in mineral rich districts of Chhattisgarh, home to a large population of aboriginal groups now the predatory target of Indian and foreign multinational corporations. Many human rights groups and independent citizen’s groups such as Asian Center for Human Rights, International Association of People’s Lawyers, People’s Union of Civil Liberties/People’s Union for Democratic Rights/Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) West Bengal, and Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Indian National Human rights Commission have documented the details of how Salwa Judum has been responsible for killing, looting, rapes and forced eviction of people from their homes to camps with inhuman conditions.


DGP Vishwaranjan: Highest ranking police officer in Chhattisgarh, consistent apologist for CSPSA, Salwa Judum

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September 27, 2008 | Filed Under Protests, articles | Leave a Comment 

DGP VISHWA RANJAN: Why Are Justice And The Law Being Trampled Into Dirt By The Police In Chhattisgarh?

In the Indian State of Chhattisgarh, tribal communities are being forced off their ancestral lands by the state in the name of fighting a violent Maoist insurgency.  Government security forces and a state-supported civilian militia, the Salwa Judum, have destroyed hundreds of villages and uprooted several hundred thousand people from their homes over the last three years.

We, a coalition of individuals and organizations desiring peace, justice, and human rights for the people of Chhattisgarh, condemn violence in all forms by all parties involved—the State, the Salwa Judum, and the Maoist insurgency.  The state has a particular responsibility to ensure not only that it stays within legal bounds, but also that it does not enable proxies to perform extra-judicial acts. But in Chhattisgarh, Mr. Vishwa Ranjan, as the Director-General of Police (DGP) of Chhattisgarh, not only heads a police force responsible for widespread violence and brutality against tribal communities [1], but also one which supports, enables, arms, and legitimizes the Salwa Judum.

Mr. Vishwa Ranjan goes after anyone who speaks out against the Salwa Judum, or questions the high-handed, brutal and illegal actions of the police in its purported drive to put down the insurgency. Ranjan labels all those who oppose him or question his actions as “Maoist sympathizers,” and if they continue to speak out, they are likely to end up in prison, charged with “anti-national” activities—as has happened to Dr. Binayak Sen, a distinguished doctor, public health activist, and civil rights leader.

Now Mr. Vishwa Ranjan is to speak at a seminar on Indian Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, while simultaneously denying freedom of speech for journalists, human rights activists, and the people of Chhattisgarh.

Join us in challenging Vishwa Ranjan as he defends police-state tactics at this open forum

Justice and the Law: Case Study of Chhattisgarh
SATURDAY 09/27, 2.30 PM
Barrows Hall, 8th Floor, Lipman Room
University of California, Berkeley

Ask the DGP
Why do you justify state brutality and repression of the citizenry?

Demand that the DGP
STOP supporting Salwa Judum
STOP imprisoning human rights activists
STOP silencing voices of dissent in Chhattisgarh
DROP CHARGES against and RELEASE Political Prisoners

Endorsed By

Students for Justice in Chhattisgarh - Association for India’s Development, Berkeley
Friends of South Asia - Alliance of South Asians Taking Action
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate - Hesperian Foundation, Berkeley
People’s Health Movement, USA - Sanhati
What is the Salwa Judum?

  • A civilian militia group, largely armed and supported by the Government of Chhattisgarh [2], and directly controlled by the police under Mr. Vishwa Ranjan
  • Forcibly recruits civilians, including kids under the age of 15 [3]; attacks entire villages it perceives as being pro-Naxalite, and forces villages to relocate to Salwa Judum Camps - squalid shanty towns, often enclosed in barbed wire, where villagers have no regular supply of food, or any way to make a living, and live in constant fear [1,2]
  • Result? Over 600 villages “abandoned” and nearly three hundred thousand people displaced from their ancestral lands and divorced from their livelihoods [4]
DGP VISHWA RANJAN: Why Are Justice And The Law Being Trampled Into Dirt By The Police In Chhattisgarh?

Salwa Judum members.

What is the CSPSA, why is it a Black Law?

  • CSPSA (Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act) dramatically broadens what is deemed unlawful. Any activity that may have even a tendency to pose an obstacle to the maintenance of public order is now deemed illegal [5]
  • The act prohibits the media from reporting on any activities that can be seen as ‘unlawful’ activities, which in effect bars the media from reporting on the Maoist party.This is a violation of international standards and the National Constitution [6]
  • These Black Laws have been used to silence voices critical of the Government or of the Salwa Judum [1,6]
 DGP VISHWA RANJAN: Why Are Justice And The Law Being Trampled Into Dirt By The Police In Chhattisgarh?

Who are the Maoist insurgents (Naxalites) in Chhattisgarh?

  • Naxalites call for a total transformation of the existing political system to create a new social order ending what they see as the exploitation of marginalized and vulnerable communities [1]
  • Tactics include forced land re-distribution, destruction of state infrastructure, attacks on state officials and police, extortion of money and food, coerced recruitment (including children [3]), killing of “traitors” [1]

Who is Dr. Binayak Sen? Why is he in jail?
DGP VISHWA RANJAN: Why Are Justice And The Law Being Trampled Into Dirt By The Police In Chhattisgarh?
Dr. Binayak Sen is a pediatrician, public health specialist and Vice President of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He has served the poorest and most marginalized communities in the interior and tribal areas of Chhatisgarh for over 25 years. In April 2008, Dr. Sen was awarded the Jonathan Mann award, the highest international honor in Global Health and Human Rights.

Dr. Sen has been a prominent critic of the Salwa Judum and the Government’s high-handed tactics in the State, and has participated in many investigations that exposed these violations. Sixteen months ago Dr. Sen was arrested on  false charges of sedition under the CSPSA “Black Law.”
References
1.“Being Neutral is our Biggest Crime: Government, Vigilante and Naxalite Abuses in India’s Chhattisgarh State. “ Human Rights Watch, July 2008.
2. “When the State Makes War on its Own People”. A report by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and four other Indian human rights organizations, 2006.
3.“India: All Sides Using Children in Chhattisgarh Conflict.” Human Rights Watch, Sep 2008
4. “Salwa Judum and the tale of 644 deserted villages”. Rediff.com, Sep 2008.
5. Memo to President of India on the CSPS Bill . People’s Union For Democratic Rights (PUDF), Mar 2006.
6. “Journalists in trouble when reporting on tribes”. Reporters Without Borders, 2006.
REPEAL the Black Laws!   DISBAND the Salwa Judum!
RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS, Including Dr. Binayak Sen!
RESTORE DEMOCRACY!

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September 27, 2008 | Filed Under Protests | Leave a Comment 

EVER QUESTIONED A REAL LIVE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATOR?

This Saturday, come question Vishwa Ranjan, the head police official in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, where police are responsible for:

Ranjan will be speaking at a conference at UC Berkeley on Saturday, and we need your help to ask him the tough questions that his local critics haven’t been able to ask. Join us, in solidarity with the embattled Tribal communities of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh!

Stand up to Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan
The Berkeley Conference on Indian Democracy
Saturday 9/27, 2:00 pm
8th Floor, Barrows Hall

More details:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/india0708/
http://www.binayaksen.net/
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/sep/18naxal.htm
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Report_Chhattisgarh-2.pdf

Call for endorsements:

Please endorse the attached flyer, protesting the actions of Vishwa Ranjan, the Chief of Police of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, who’ll be speaking at a UC Berkeley conference this Saturday (2pm, September 27, at Barrows Hall).The Chhattisgarh state government has been implicated in numerous human rights violations, including the imprisonment of noted physician and human rights activist Dr. Binayak Sen for the last 16 months, mass diplacement and disenfranchisement of approximately 300,000 tribals, and the sponsorship of the violent Salwa Judum militia movement.
Despite an international campaign to ensure due process, including an appeal signed by 22 Nobel laureates, Dr. Sen and other human rights activists, lawyers, and journalists continue to be harassed by police.The DGP (Director General of Police) of Chhattisgarh is an invited speaker at a panel during “Justice and the Law,” a conference on Indian democracy at UC Berkeley this weekend. Given his active role in silencing and vilifying human rights critics in his own state, it’s
critical for us to speak out.

We ask you to:

1. Endorse our flyer by sending email to freebinayaksen@gmail.com
2. Express your solidarity with the people of Chhattisgarh by attending the panel and supporting our representative who has been invited to participate in the panel to challenge the DGP:

Barrows Hall, UC Berkeley
Saturday, September 27, 2:00pm (show up at 1:30pm)

3. Demand that the DGP:
STOP supporting Salwa Judum,
STOP imprisoning human rights activists,
STOP silencing voices of dissent in Chhattisgarh
DROP CHARGES against and RELEASE political prisoners,
including Dr. Binayak Sen, Ajay TG and others.
Thank You!

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September 26, 2008 | Filed Under Protests, announcements | Leave a Comment 

Brief report of public meeting with Ajay TG in Pune

A brief report of the public meeting with Ajay TG in Pune, organised the day before yesterday.

Public meeting with Ajay TG in Pune on 20th September

Yesterday (20th September 08) the ‘Release Dr. Binayak Sen committee’ in Pune organized a well attended public meeting and also a separate smaller discussion with activists, with Ajay TG as the main speaker. As we all know, Ajay TG is a film maker and PUCL activist from Bhilai who was imprisoned for three months by the Chhattisgarh government, and was released recently since there was no evidence and the police could not even file a chargesheet against him.

The public meeting was attended by over a hundred citizens of Pune and was presided over by Justice PB Sawant, retired Supreme court judge. Besides Ajay, the meeting was also addressed by the noted film maker Anand Patwardhan and the human rights lawyer, Asim Sarode, and was moderated by Anant Phadke. The meeting started with screening of the films ‘New State, Old Problems’ and ‘Anjaam’ (directed by Ajay TG) which graphically depicted the growing repression in Chhattisgarh, the problematic nature of Salwa Judum and of course the background to Binayak’s arrest.

In his address, Ajay TG brought home to the audience very effectively the almost surreal circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment. With no charges, no evidence and no basis to even suspect his doing anything illegal, he was picked up on 4th May and put in jail, without even allowing him to meet his lawyer or family. He described the sub-human circumstances in the jail, the tremendous demonisation by media of himself and his family leading to cutting off all forms of social support, and the highly biased nature of the entire law and order machinery in the state. His only ‘crime’ was that he was persistently attending Binayak’s trial hearings and as a PUCL activist he dared to not be cowed down despite the widespread repression.

When the police finally realized that they had nothing that could be held against Ajay, and he would have to be released, in a last-ditch attempt the police tried to make him sign on a document indicting Binayak of having links with Maoists, which Ajay bravely refused to comply with. Delivered in a simple and straightforward style, Ajay’s story was really chilling since it gave a glimpse of the kind of ‘undeclared Emergency’ that today prevails in Chhattisgarh, and seems to be rapidly developing in many other parts of the country.

Read more

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September 26, 2008 | Filed Under Protests, solidarity | Leave a Comment 

Know for yourself the Sinister ways of Chhattisgarh Police : Kavita Srivastava

DIARY NOTES

Events of the Third Phase of Dr. Binayak Sen’s Trial & Incidents Preceeding Ajay TG’s Bail

Since Dr. Sen’s trial is disproving the prosecution’s case the police is openly trying to fabricate evidence both inside and outside the court. The police even tried to use Ajay’s TG legitimate release against Dr. Sen, hence the events of both the cases have been written together

The third phase of the trial of Dr. Binayak Sen case began on the 29th of July and lasted till July 31st. The key witnesses, the material witnesses had already deposed in the first two phases of the trial and some were tendered off. The subsequent witnesses were to be mostly seizure witnesses or police and jail personnel. Since most of the 20 witnesses who had deposed in the first two rounds of the trial had in no way confirmed the police case, the prosecution in an act of desperation had filed an application of recalling three of the witnesses who had deposed in the second phase between the 1st of July and the 4th of July. This was slated for argument in the course of these three days.

This was also the period when it became clear that charge sheet was not being filed in the Ajay TG case and that statutory bail was imminent however, we were suddenly filled with the hope that perhaps the case itself would be closed as Ajay had not committed any criminal act and hence there was no evidence to that effect.

29th July. 2008

No hearing happened as a senior member of the bar had passed away. Before we reached the Court, Dr. Binayak Sen, Pijush Guha and Narayan Sanyal had been already taken away to the jail. We were very disappointed that we had missed him. Read more

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September 26, 2008 | Filed Under articles, trial updates | Leave a Comment 

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