Indian security forces and police rape women

Indian security forces and police rape women if they protest,
Indian Parliament rocks

Wed, 2007-03-21 03:32

By Subash Mohapatra (www.asiantribune.com)

In Nandigram the massacre of farmers and rape of women by security forces and police stalled proceedings in Indian Parliament for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, forcing adjournment of both Houses.

At least 14 people were killed and 71 injured in Nandigram in East Midnapore, about 150km southwest of Kolkata on March 14 as police opened fire to quell mobs protesting acquisition of farmland for a special economic zone (SEZ).

Two women, who are under treatment at the Tamluk hospital, had filed a formal complaint with police. In a statement, the victims, both housewives aged 27 years and 25 years, alleged that police personnel cornered them during the melee after the firing at Sonachura village on March 14 and raped them.

Indian security forces and police are charged with many allegations of rape and torture, and mostly the incidents are denied without any investigation. This is not an isolated case or an exception. It exposes the inhuman and barbaric face of Indian law enforcement officials.
On March 9, the National Commission for Women in India received a petition stating that 8 tribal women were raped in Sirisguda village of Chhattisgarh including a student in the 10th standard on Feb 26. The victims were dragged out of their home in the morning and gang raped by police personnel, some in uniform. These women victims were opposing the land acquisition by the government for the TATA Steel Company. A rape victim was able to read the nameplate of one of the men who raped her and his surname is Sahu. The Superintendent of Police refused to register the complaint in a first information report.

On February 3rd 2007, while returning from the market at 5 P.M., a young tribal woman was dragged into the forest and gang raped by 4 members of the Mizo Security forces deployed in Dantewada. The men of the Mizo Security force gagged her to prevent her from shouting and she lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, she was alone and naked in the woods. Her back was badly injured and her arms and legs were scratched and bruised from rocks and branches in the forest and now she can hardly move.

The officer-in-charge of Nakulnar police station denied her the right to register the case. With help from two other women, the victim submitted a written statement of the incident seeking justice but the Superintendent of Police of Dantewada refused to accept it and denied her case without investigation. However, she asked for help from the media, and finally, one week after the incident the complaint was registered against the un-identified persons. So far, no arrest has been made.

On November 28th, the UT Chandigarh Head Constable Ramkumar and three others brought Santosh Kumar from Karnal to Chandigarh and kept her in police lock-up on charges of illegal sale of alcohol despite claims by her husband and neighbors that she was innocent. She was sexually harassed and raped in the police station by Ram Kumar and an unidentified policeman. She was then moved to the Burail jail, where she was kept for 14 days until she was granted bail by the court.

“I was sexually exploited in the police station lock-up by two police personnel on the night of November 28,” Santosh Kumar alleged. She added “I kept telling the police that I had never even seen a police station in my entire life and that they were wrongly arresting me. My neighbors, too, stood by me, but the police refused to listen to anybody and sent me to jail here.”
On 27 December 2006, after the guilty party – another woman from the village named Santosh Singh - confessed in court, a fact-finding inquiry was marked to the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (South) DSP K I P Singh. Instead of expediting the matter and providing justice to the innocent Ms. Kumar, who had endured the mental agony, trauma and humiliation of being in jail for 14 days through no fault of her own, the inquiry officer took her fingerprints and sent these to the Fingerprints Bureau.

The inquiry report, which was received in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate on 19 January 2007, clarified that Santosh Singh was found guilty and Santosh Kumar was innocent of the charges.

Despite the fact that the victim Santosh Kumar has been repeatedly raising serious allegations of sexual harassment she experienced while inside the police lock-up, the Chandigarh Police denied her allegations without any investigation.

In an alleged murder case 3 tribal women were arrested and taken to Sundarpahar police station on January 9. The women were allegedly physically assaulted, and witnesses confirm that there were marks of police brutality on their bodies. The three female victims (all aged between 28 and 31) claimed that they were illegally detained, and that during that detention they were subjected to torture, raped, stripped and paraded naked around the police station.
They also claim that the police stole Rs.120 from them. The victims have identified the perpetrators as the officer-in-charge Dipnarayan Mandel and another officer, Mahadev Oraon. Rajmahal Member of Indian Parliament Hemlal Murmu claims to have visited the ladies at the jail where they are being detained. He alleges to have seen marks of violence on the women’s bodies. A doctor from Godda sadar hospital who examined the women also confirmed (on condition of anonymity) that the bleeding of one of the victims had not yet stopped.

According to Indian National Human Rights Commission, there were 1,039 cases of human rights violations by the security forces from 1990-1999, an average of 109 per year. The National Human Rights Commission reported a marked decline since that period, with 16 cases reported in 2003, and 4 in the current year. The NHRC reported that it registered 756 cases against the military, 172 against paramilitary forces and 109,902 against the police since 2001.
The National Crime Record Bureau records report that the courts tried 132 policemen for custodial rape in 2002 but only 4 were convicted. The Ministry of Defence reported that it filed 17 rape cases against army personnel from 2003-2004. To date only one rape case ended in a guilty verdict. In the remaining cases, the investigations are still in process.