People's Democracy

WHILE welcoming the belated decision announced by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister to hold a CB-CID enquiry into the Hathras brick kiln mass murder, the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) has wondered whether this measure was taken to help the victims or the criminals.

According to the AIAWU, the said murders reflect how UP has degenerated into a police state today, with the police taking over the role of paid hirelings of criminals. The facts are as follows.

On the night between April 6 and 7, the sons of a brick kiln owner Bhanulal Gupta, their friends, the accountant and guard of the kiln, and some others reportedly tried to outrage the modesty of a good-looking mother of five and her eight years old daughter. Later they set fire to her hut to wipe out any trace of evidence, killing the mother and her five children. Having wiped out any trace of her hut, the culprits went some way to destroy the bodies as well.

This was the time when local people called the police. An FIR no. 105/2001 was registered by the deceased woman’s husband. The man, Naresh Majhi of Nawada district in Bihar, was a bonded labourer on Gupta’s brick kiln and had dispute over money due to him. Unfortunately, instead of arresting the murderers, the police held the man illegally for 14 days and tried to make him confess to the murder of his wife and children. They even used third degree methods, including electric shocks, for the purpose. This was done as a result of pressure from two UP ministers from Mathura and the MLAs of Sasni and Sikandra Rao. All these dignitaries belong to the BJP.

It was only with the concerted efforts of two CPI(M) MPs Subodh Roy and Baju Ban Riyan, the AIAWU’s all-India joint secretary Suneet Chopra, CPI(M) MLC Ram Sumer Yadav who raised the issue in the UP legislature, Swami Agnivesh and intellectuals from Aligarh like Dr K P Singh, Dr Namita Singh, V K Pachauri, youth leader Pushpendra Tyagi and advocates Zalim Singh and Harnarayan Singh who made repeated trips to the area but were not permitted to meet Naresh Majhi despite all efforts, that the police were kept in check and the life of Naresh Majhi was saved. But justice has not yet been done, as CB enquiry only prevents the immediate arrest of the real criminals and does nothing to get compensation for a family that has suffered such terrible atrocities without any of the main culprits being arrested as yet.

The AIAWU has warned the people of UP, who are facing such arbitrary scuttling of law and order, that justice is being denied to thousands of people in the state. Even university professors like eminent sculptor Balbir Singh Katt from the Banaras Hindu University can disappear without trace, never to be found again. This is an appalling state of affairs and must be stopped at once, by all means possible.

The AIAWU has demanded adequate compensation to the surviving head of the family, immediate arrest of the criminals, and thorough police enquiry into bondage, as promised, to end this illegal practice that is flourishing in UP under the BJP rule today.