People's Democracy

CHHATTISGARH

Police Beats Tribal Youth To Death, Says It Was Suicide

S Kumar

A TRIBAL youth was found hanging in police lock-up in Suhela police station in Raipur district, Chhattisgarh. The police version is that the said tribal youth has committed suicide. The fact is otherwise.

Ram Kumar Dhruv, a tribal youth, was arrested on August 11 night at about 1 a m by the assistant inspector at Suhela police station on the charge of theft. Earlier, he was called to the same police station on August 9. The police also took him to various places around Suhela, portraying him as a thief. On the 12th morning, then, he was found hanging in the toilet of the lock-up room.

After the panchnama, the post mortem was done at Simga health centre. The police wanted to cremate the body at Simga, but the person from Ram Kumar’s village, who was with the dead body, refused to sign at the dotted line. He said he would sign only if the body was taken to Bhalesur village. Ram Kumar’s body was then brought to the his village by the police. Here his father said that their tradition is to bury a dead body and not cremate it. It was thus that Ram Kumar’s body was buried. After the police has left the village a team from the electronic media arrived in the village to cover the incident. After the team heard the villagers’ version, the body was exhumed, all the bandages was removed and it was then found that there were blue marks of beating all over the body while the whole area in the leg, below abdomen, was black. This indicated that Ram Kumar Dhruv was severely beaten by the police inside the lock-up and that he has died due to this very brutal beating. It means that after killing the young man, in order to save themselves, the police had spread the rumour that Ram Kumar had committed suicide.

Later, a delegation of the CPI(M) consisting of S Kumar, Dharam Raj Mahapatra, Sanjay Parate, Dushyant Tiwari and Manoj Das went to Bhalesur village on August 16 and talked to Ram Kumar’s father and other villagers. Their opinion was that Ram Kumar had died of police beating and that it was not a case of suicide. The CPI(M) delegation also went to the Suhela police station, met the officer in charge and also inspected the latrine where Ram Kumar’s dead body was found hanging. This inspection of the place led the delegation to form an opinion that the suicide theory was totally false and just an afterthought on part of the police who wanted to save their skins. According to the police, Ram Kumar had torn the blanket that was given to him and used a portion of it to hang himself, that too from the ventilator which is about 12 feet above the floor. The walls of the latrine were absolutely plain, and it is impossible for one to climb such a plain surfaced wall to tie a portion of a blanket to the ventilator. In other words, it was a plain case of death due to police beating.

The party then asked for a judicial enquiry and Rs 5 lakh compensation to Ram Kumar’s family. The peculiarity is that the BJP did not make any comment even after many days had passed. The CPI(M) also accused the administration of hiding this heinous crime of cold blooded killing in a police station by beating him to death and then spreading the cooked-up story of suicide. The party has also taken up the matter with the National Human Rights Commission.

Later, after an NGO filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court at Bilaspur, the High Court ordered for a second post mortem. The CPI(M) welcomed the decision. The post mortem was done at the Medical College, Raipur. This order of the High Court rejected the claim of the police that it was a case of suicide. The party also staged an angry demonstration with placards and posters. Its state secretariat members Dharam Raj Majapatra and Sanjay Parate were present in the Medical College at the time of the second post mortem.

On August 31, the Adivasi Samaj organised a demonstration in front of the Suhela police station. The demonstration was peaceful. Though the police did resort to instigations so that there might be some violence and they could get a chance for lathi charge or firing. But even though nobody among the demonstrators assembled before the police station yielded to the police provocation, a police force initiated a brutal lathi charge and then resorted to firing. Some 68 people were arrested. The police chased the people in the villages around Suhela and also entered into the houses forcefully for making arrests in a bid to create terror throughout the area.

Sanjay Parate, the CPI(M) secretariat member who was on the Spot on August 31, reported after coming back that about 2000 tribals had taken out a peaceful rally and thereafter held a demonstration before the police station. He also reported that the police had resorted to the lathi charge and firing even though there was no provocation whatsoever. The police had even manhandled the print and electronic media persons. This shows the attitude of the BJP government towards the tribals. Instead of ordering an inquiry into Ram Kumar’s death and into the lathi charge and firing by the police, the state’s home Minister Brij Mohan Agarwal only issued statements in media to defend the action of the police. The CPI(M) has therefore asked for a judicial enquiry into the police lathi charge and firing and has also demanded the home minister’s resignation.

Along with some NGOs, intellectuals, the CITU, insurance workers’ union, the BSNL Union and other mass organisations, the CPI(M) then organised a march to the governor’s house on September 2, in order to register protest over Ram Kumar’s death in police custody and also against the firing and lathi charge on peaceful demonstrators.

On September 2, the whole area of Motibagh was cordoned off by the police who did not allow the procession to move from the Motibagh gate. This showed the undemocratic attitude of the BJP’s state government that does not allow even a peaceful demonstration. Instead of condemning the police firing and lathi charge, the home minister stated that such protests were the activities of persons who wanted to disturb peace in the area.

On September 6, a delegation of CPI(M) state committee and CPI(M) MP Mehboob Zahidi went to Bhalesur village to meet Ram Kumar’s wife and father. Ram Kumar’s wife, Jethia Bai, told the team that she was present in the August 31 demonstration in front of the Suhela police station, with her 8 months child in her lap. While she was standing in a corner with her child after the lathi charge and firing had dispersed the people, two policemen had come to her on a motorbike and told her that they could take her to her village Bhalesur. In view of the situation at Suhela, she consented to go with them to her village. But, instead of taking her to Bhalesur, the policemen took her to some unknown place and left her there. This happened on the 31st evening and, after wandering for 5 days along with her 8 months old child, she somehow reached her house just two hours before the CPI(M) team reached there on September 6. This was the most inhuman part of the whole episode. Her father in law also went to various places searching her and had reached his house back in the morning on the same day.

The CPI(M) team then went to Suhela Bazar. Many shopkeepers told the team their stories about police atrocities on August 31. According to them, the police had resorted to an indiscriminate lathi charge and even entered the houses, beating and arresting people. After the team went to the police station, Mehboob Zahidi inspected the toilet where Ram Kumar’s body was found hanging. He was also of the opinion that it was impossible for a person to climb up to the ventilator and hang himself.             

Later, in a press statement on September 9, the Chhattisgarh chief minister said the government would launch a case against the four guilty police personnel and that it had suspended the two doctors of Simga primary health centre who had conducted the first post mortem. The chief minister also assured about paying Rs 5 lakh as compensation and employment to Ram Kumar Dhruv’s wife, apart from 5 acres of land. Thus the chief minister did yield to certain of the CPI(M)’s demands. Yet the state government is still insisting that it was a case of suicide and not a result of severe beating by the police in lock-up.

The CPI(M) has, however, made clear that it would not buy the state government’s version. It was a plain case of death due to police beating and not a case of suicide. The party’s consistent stand and determined fight from the beginning has left a good impact on the common people.

At the CPI(M)’s call, the people observed September 21 as the day against atrocities against the tribal and Dalit people.