RE: HRDA - India - Update of arrest of 5 Dait activists on 15th August 2010 - NHRC Case No No. 907/22/37/2010
Henri Tiphagne
GOOD NEWS on the Prevention of Torture Bill 2010
Congratulations to all who worked for this in different ways. Thanks to all our collective efforts, the Govt has agreed to send the Prevention of Torture Bill 2010 to a select committee. Mr. Sudharshan Natchiappan and Ms. Brinda Karat are in the committee. Committee to report by last day of first week of next session
Now of course we all have to get ready for much more effective lobbying and prepare all our representations for the Select Committee.
But for now we all deserve to celebrate.
Henri
From:
Henri Tiphagne [mailto:he...@pwtn.org]
Sent: 31 August 2010 16:55
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Subject: HRDA - India - Update
of arrest of 5 Dait activists on 15th August 2010 - NHRC Case No No.
907/22/37/2010
Dear Colleagues and fellow activists,
Am happy to pass on this updated information to you all. We are extremely thankful to you all for the support and solidarity that has been provided by many of you . We have not been able to document all the responses received but are happy to pass on to you the following responses received from Amnesty International, the Observatory ( OMCT / FIDH) , Frontline Defenders, Forum Asia, International Dalit Solidarity Network, WGHR, Asian Network of NGOs working with NHRIs (ANNI), AWID etc.
In order to make the update more informative, we are sending it in a chronological manner.
19th August 2010 :
The bail petition in respect of the 5 dalit activists was heard this morning in the Cheranmadevi Judicial Magistrate's Court and after a very long hearing where we had also submitted a lot of documents - all the registrations forms of the training program; the attendance sheets of the training programs; the schedule of the fact findings that all the 13 teams had been deputed to; another sheet showing where all the fact findings teams had gone and whom all they had met in terms of officials including photographs of collectors and other police officers that the other teams had met during their fact finding missions; the detailed program schedule- all documents of Dalit Foundation and PW such as FCRA, registration deeds, income tax exemption documents , 80 G exemption documents, 35 A in the case of Dalit Foundation etc.
After hearing the advocates for a long time the Judicial Magistrate went into his chambers and said that the orders will be after lunch. After lunch it was very surprising for our people there - Mr. Santosh Samal and our senior staff ( PW) and our advocates - to see a volley of senior police officials from the Police Station coming to the Court of the Judicial Magistrate - because they were very worried with the arguments that had been put forth and were almost sure that they needed to put more pressure on the Court.
Then in the evening the bail was ordered with the following conditions :
- that the accused should sign a personal bond for Rs 25,000;
- that the accused should produce sureties signed by the Thasildar ( Taluk level Revenue Administrator ) ;
- that the accused should sign twice daily before the Veeravanallur PS. in the morning at 10 AM and in the evening at 5 PM;
20th Aug 2010 :
Our plans were to get the sureties signed by the Thasildar since there are two accused from Karnataka - we had sureties ready - but then we had to ensure that we had to now abide by the conditions imposed by the court. It was equally surprising that we had been imposed such strenuous conditions and also that we had to sign twice a day.
It was not possible for us to get the sureties signed since the clerk who is to provide the first entry for such certificates in the office of the Thasildar was on leave and had left with the keys of his cupboard with him !!!
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took up for hearing in Crl.O.P. 9606 / 2010 the anticipatory bail that had been filed for Henri Tiphagne on the 18th August 2010. The police did not provide the Public Prosecutor any response and hence the court posted the same for hearing on 24th with the observation that the police should not disturb Henri Tiphagne in the meantime.
21st and 22nd Aug 2010 :
Week end and hence the court and the office of the Thasildar were closed. Henri Tiphagne, (HT) the trainer of the training course and cited as the 'absconding accused' by the police in the arrest card received by post in his office in Madurai a notice issued by the Inspector of Police of Veeravanallur to appear before the Investigation Officer at the Veeravanallur PS on 23rd Aug at 10 AM. to provide details of the case known to him.
HT also addressed a press meet in Tirunelveli telling the press what exactly had happened ni Veeravanallur PS on 15th Aug 2010 and this was well covered in the local language media.
23rd Aug 2010:
Six sureties were got ready and produced in order to atleast get the 3 women activists in custody out, but only for of the sureties produced were accepted by the court - 2 for Bharathi Pillai and one each for the two ( Priya and Sudha ). Hence we decided not to take only one of the women out and continue to get fresh sureties the others were accepted tomorrow the sureties will be produced - and they will be taken out.
Henri Tiphagne (HT) appeared as requested before the Inspector of Police . The Inspector of police was not there till 10.30 AM and instead it was the DSP Mr. Ramu who had been there at the time of arrest who was there and was getting ready to examine (HT). When the Inspector finally arrived both the Inspector and the DSP left the police station leaving HT in the room trying to contact someone on their mobiles separately for almost 15 minutes and then retuned.
The entire proceedings was also being video graphed by someone who had a press ID card stating that eh was a reporter fit he Dinakaran news paper - but he was never stopped by the DSP or the Inspector who were formally investigating HT !!!! HT then provided a written statement with documents of 79 pages, received an acknowledgement from the Inspector and then left the PS.
HT then left with Mr. Santosh Samal the Executive Director of Dalit Foundation, Ms. Cynthia Tiphagne and Mr. Satish of PW to meet the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Mr. Shanmuga Rajeswaran IPS and presented to him a copy of the representation that was handed over earlier to the Inspector of Police at the Veeravanallur PS. he provided a very patient hearing and assured that he will look into the possibility of transferring the investigation in this case.
The Human Rights Defenders' Forum of Tamilnadu had convened a planning meeting at the SOCO Trust, Madurai and this meeting decided that a state level demonstration will be organized in Tirunelveli on the 30th Aug 2010.
24th Aug 2010 :
The remaining sureties were produced in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate in the morning at 10.30 AM and then had to wait till the court took up the case for considering the sureties produced after lunch and in the middle of the afternoon session at 3 PM and then after accepting the sureties, the JM signed the bond only at 5 PM as a result of which the bail bonds could only be taken to the Sub Jail for women that day in Kokarakulam in Tirunelveli ( a travel by car of 45 minutes) whereas the two male members who were originally in the Ambasamudram sub jail were transferred to the Central Jail in Palayamkottai where the bail bonds received after 5 PM are not released the same day.
Thus by about 6.30 PM the three women HRDs from the women sub jail were released and welcomed outside by members of the NGOs and Citizens for Human Rights Movement ( CHRM) activists. They travelled back to Madurai for the night where they were provided a rousing welcome by the CHRM and PW cadres at 10.30 PM.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took up for hearing in Crl.O.P. 9606 / 2010 the anticipatory bail that had been filed for Henri Tiphagne that was heard on the 20th and posted today. The court was pleased to grant the anticipatory bail with the condition that HT appears before the police whenever he is required to do so by the police.
25th Aug 2010:
The first thing in the morning was to ensure that the two male HRDs were released early in the morning from the Central Jail, Palayamkottai. Thereafter the 5 accused who were on bail travelled to the Court of the JM in Cheranmadevi to get the intimation from the JM Court to the Police station where the accused had been directed to sign twice a day.
The accused then signed both in the morning and in the evening at the PS.
A petition was also filed of relaxation of the condition imposed by the JM in this case. The JM then posted this for hearing with notice to the Police to be heard on the 30th Aug 2010.
HT was informed telephonically by the National Human Rights Commission's focal point Mr. AK Parashar that the NHRC has taken in file the various complaints received in this matter with the first one being the one from Mr Miloon Kothari and ordered notice to the Director Genera of Police of Tamilnadu and in addition an investigation by the Investigation team of the NHRC.
26th, 27th, 28th, Aug 2010:
The accused regularly signed before the PS twice a day.
29th Aug 2010:
A team of two officials from the NHRC's Investigation team, Mr. Sachin (DSP) and Mr. Ravi Singh ( Inspector of Police) arrived in Tirunelveli. Mr. Ravi Singh also briefly visited the office of PW in Madurai earlier on his way to Tirunelveli from Chennai.
30th Aug 2010:
A team of three persons, from Dalit Foundation and PW, comprising Mr. Pandian ( one of the three training co-ordinator at the DHRM training of Dalit Foundation recently) Mr. G. Ganesan, State Co-ordinator, Human Rights Monitoring at PW, Ms. Cynthia Tiphagne, Secretary to the Executive Director of PW have provided them assistance by providing various documents in our custody and also made available the 5 victims (5 accused persons ) to depose before them. Depositions were also made by the three-member team, our lawyers and other witnesses on what had actually taken place. The team is expected to stay on till the 1st of September in Tirunelveli. The NHRC investigation team also met the police officers and their witnesses in the Veeravanallur PS.
The petition for relaxation of the bail conditions came up today when the JM posted it for tomorrow ( 31st Aug 2010)
The 5 accused and HT filed two processes before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court - one to quash the FIR filed by the police which does not contain any of the ingredients of the sections of the Indian Penal Code under which the FIR was filed; and the second a writ petition to transfer the investigation to an independent police unit other than the local district police. It is expected that both the petitions may come up for hearing no the 2nd of September 2010.
The State level protest demonstration organized by the Human Rights Defenders Forum - Tamil Nadu , CHRM and other NGOs form throughout the state including Dalit Foundation partners from throughout the state took place in from of the Tirunelveli Railway station from 11 AM to 1 PM. Over 1500 activists took part in this demonstration condemning the arrest of the 5.Dalit Human Rights Defenders who were arrested by Veeravanallur Police on the Indian Independence Day - the 15th of August. Mr. C. J. Rajan, Director - Tamil Nadu Human Rights Programs, People's Watch and the State Co-ordinator of the Human Rights Defenders Forum - Tamil Nadu presided over the demonstration and various member organizations and movements of the forum like SOCO Trust, CHRM, Vizhuthugal, Vaanmuhil, Evidence, Campaign for Abolition of Child Labour and Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam were represented. The demonstration drew a crowd of over 1500 people.
The senior state level leaders present there and who addressed the demonstration were: Mr. Ramasamy, Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing the Srivilliputtur legisaltive constituency and from the Communist Party of Indian ( Marxist ) ; Mr. Mahaboob Batcha of the SOCO Trust and Member of the National Core Group of NGOs of the NHRC ; Mr. Balamurugan, State General Secretary of the PUCL Tamilnadu unit ; Mr. Rahamathullah, State Treasurer of the Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam ( TMMK); Prog Kalvimani, President of the Irular padugappu Sangam; Mr.. Paranthaman, State General Secretary of the Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam; Ms. Ponnuthai, Representing the Tamilnadu Womens Collective; In addition leaders of various local and state level NGOs including partners of various NGOs which are partners and Fellows of Dalit Foundation also participated.
Some of the demands put forth by the protestors at the demonstration were that (i) The false case filed against the 5 Dalit Human Rights Defenders arrested at Veeravanallur Police Station be withdrawn. (ii) Case be filed against Ms. Rosaline Savio, Sub Inspector, Mr. Murugan, Sub Inspector of Police, Mr. Murugesan, Inspector of Police and Mr. Ramu, Deputy Superintendent of Police who were responsible for the filing of the false case and they be suspended. (iii) The National commission for Scheduled Castes, the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women should take up the case suo moto for investigation and due action. (iv) The Govt. of Tamil Nadu should withdraw its order banning the use of the word “human rights” in the names of organizations and should also withdraw the false cases foisted against human rights defenders. (v) That the Govt. of Tamil Nadu should stop its vengeful attitude towards Umashankar, Officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) who exposed the corrupt ways of politicians and top level Govt. officials in Tamil Nadu. Some photos of the protest are enclosed.
31st Aug 2010: The NHRC investigation team continues its inquiry in Tirunelveli.
I shall keep you all informed of the further developments and the legal action that will follow as well.
Do not worry we are doing our level best and we are sure to win the final battle soon - but the first and foremost is to look into the interest of our DF partners who are now signing before the PS twice daily and get their condition relaxed.
Thanks once again for the solidarity provided and do hope it could continue in all cases referred to you on behalf of the Human Rights Defenders' Alert - India in respect of other HRDs across the country.
Henri Tiphagne
National Co-ordinator, Human Rights Defenders' Alert - India, Executive Director, People's Watch and Trustee, Dalit Foundation.