NEW DELHI: Responding to the pressure from international human rights organizations, notably Amnesty International, the Government has prepared for the first time a document responding to specific allegations made by the Amnesty about custodial deaths in India in the past 10 years.
Some of the Government’s clarifications over specific incidents, however, do not carry much conviction. Some of the cases listed as “not substantiated” in the Government document do not have an adequate explanation about the Cause of the death.
Delhi has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of custodial deaths, listed by Amnesty at27, of which 19 have been listed as unsubstantiated by the Government.
There are 21 incidents in the Amnesty list on Kashmir, but the State Government has claimed that 20 of them are unsubstantiated, 13 of them because Amnesty has not furnished essential details.
While the Government may not have cleared its security agencies of the responsibility for the custodial deaths in all these cases, it has been able to refute some of the allegations.
In some of the cases, the Government has a definite response, such as the case of Bipin Gogoi, alleged to have been arrested, tortured and shot by the Army in Assam. The document stated that Bipin Gogoi was no arrested by the Anny but was killed by ULFA militants.
In another case, one Virendra Bahadur Singh was said to have been arrested on June 9,1986, and died in police custody in Uttar Pradesh. The document stated that he was alive and lived in Bakshi ka Talab, Lucknow, and drives a taxi in the town.
Last year the Amnesty had published a report titled “India: Torture, Rape and Deaths in Custody,” listing 415 custodial deaths covering a period of 10 years.
The Government has not allowed the human rights organization to visit the country and investigate human rights violations by the securely forces.
The Government has not given a specific response to Amnesty’s charges either.
For the first time the Union Government has collated information and details of cases listed in the report from the State Governments to provide a response to the human rights organization’s allegations. In majority of the cases, the charges were not established upon investigation, and there were large number of other cases where essential details were not provided in the report, and no meaningful enquiry was possible the report said.
The document has taken up 28 incidents of custodial deaths and rapes in custody. In 65 of these cases, prosecution has been launched against police personnel involving 243 persons. Twelve cases were still under investigation, while the document holds that 153 cases were “not substantiated.” Some of these cases require further explanation; So far no official has been made responsible for neither the extrajudicial killings nor any detrimental action taken according to informed sources.
The case of Gopal Singh, who was arrested and found dead in Jadavpur police station on June 30,1987, was listed as not substantiated, Further details stated nothing adverse against police personnel.
The case of Akbar Mondal found hanging in a West Bengal police station was also not substantiated properly. It was stated that death was due to the effects of ante mortem hanging,” without any details of the manner of his death.
Obviously, the Government means “ante mortem” hanging, as of the person who was hanged when he was alive. The defence seems to be that, the person was: not killed and then hanged in order to make it look like a suicide. That precisely may be the point Amnesty is making.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 23, 1993
