People's Democracy

‘Ensure Time-Bound Probe By CBI’

The following is the text of the letter written by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and MP, Brinda Karat, to union home minister Shivraj Patil on … regarding the gruesome killings in Nithari village.

I WRITE to you in connection with an aspect of violence, which has come into the forefront after the terrible Nithari killings in Noida. As is known most of the victim children belonged to very poor migrant families mostly from Bengal, Bihar and eastern UP. Their extreme economic vulnerability and social and cultural isolation was brutally reflected in the utterly callous if not criminal indifference of the administration to their complaints. Unfortunately the administrative attention usually given to these social sections enhances the stereotype of the migrant as the ‘criminal’. The social realities of their existence, which are quite the opposite of their portrayal as the aggressive criminal, are ignored. While this particular case of serial murders and sexual abuse of children has been exposed, the number of parents, belonging to a similar social category, who have come to the region in search of a living and who often live in the most appalling conditions. The women usually work as domestic helpers in neighbouring colonies. Children are left to fend for themselves and become vulnerable targets to criminals. Sensitisation of respective administrations and governments to the specific problems faced by these communities is essential.

I request you to call a meeting of home ministers of states in the NCR region to discuss measures to identify and specifically monitor areas where these poor migrants live and to ensure their complaints are properly dealt with. The police stations in such areas should have a special mechanism to monitor all cases of missing children and adolescents for periodic assessment of status of the cases. I am sure you will agree such a policy specifically geared to protecting the security and well being of migrant communities in the NCR region will help to avoid the recurrence of the Nithari nightmare.

As far as the specific case is concerned now that a CBI inquiry has been ordered, though belatedly, the country expects a time bound probe which will bring out the truth behind the terrible killings including an investigation into the suspected links with an organised gang involved in the organ trade. I seek your positive intervention in ensuring a time-bound probe by CBI.