SOS e - Clarion Of Dalit: AEROPLANE Torture By Police

S.O.S - e - Clarion Of Dalit - Weekly Newspaper On Web
Working For The Rights & Survival Of The Oppressed

Editor: NAGARAJ.M.R… VOL.4 issue. 46…… 17/11/2010

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SOS Appeal to SUPREME COURT of INDIA

http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2010/08/s-o-s-appeal-to-supreme-court-of-india.html

Editorial : AEROPLANE RIDES FOR CORRUPT POLICE & CORRUPT JUDGES OF INDIA

TORTURE CHAMBERS OF INDIA - 3RD DEGREE TORTURE PERPETRATED BY POLICE IN INDIA - Gross violations of human rights by police

Aeroplane is the most cruelest form of 3^rd degree torture perpetrated by police on suspects. Many innocent people have confessed to crimes hey have not at all committed unable to bear the torture , pain. Many innocents have been murdered in lock-ups by police during these type of 3^rd degree torture. Even if we go by the logic of police that criminals only sing under torture & they rightly deserve it , when a petty criminal stealing Rs.10000 is fit for “AEROPLANE TORTURE” , what about criminals stealing crores of rupees , what about corrupt police who aid tens of such big time criminals by filing B-report , by putting weak case of prosecution , by delaying tactics allowing for destruction of evidences , etc , what about judges who acquits big time criminals , who give judicial orders while they are in a drunken state , who acquit big criminals by conducting hearings even on dates of government holidays (concocted). ARE NOT THESE CORRUPT POLICE & JUDGES FIT FOR “BUSINESS CLASS AEROPLANE RIDE TORTURE” as per the same logic of police ?

At the outset , e - Voice salutes the few honest police personnel who are
silently doing their duties inspite of pressures , harassment by
political bosses & corrupt superiors , inspite of frequent transfers ,
promotion holdups , etc. overcoming the lure of bribe ,those few are
silently doing their duties without any publicity or fanfare. we salute
them & pay our respects to them and hereby appeal to those few honest
to catch their corrupt colleagues.

The police are trained , to crack open the cases of crimes by just
holding onto a thread of clue. Based on that clue they investigate like
"Sherlock holmes" and apprehend the real criminals. nowadays , when
police are under various pressures , stresses - they are frequently
using 3rd degree torture methods on innocents. Mainly there are 3
reasons for this :
1) when the investigating officer (I.O) lacks the brains of Sherlock
holmes , to cover-up his own inefficiency he uses 3rd degree torture on
innocents.
2) When the I.O is biased towards rich , powerful crooks , to frame
innocents & to extract false confessions from them , 3rd degree torture
is used on innocents.
3) When the I.O is properly doing the investigations , but the
higher-ups need very quick results - under work stress I.O uses 3rd
degree torture on innocents.

Nowhere in statuette books , police are legally authorized to punish
let alone torture the detainees / arrested / accussed / suspects. Only
the judiciary has the right to punish the guilty not the police. Even
the judiciary doesn't have the right to punish the accussed /
suspects , then how come police are using 3rd degree torture unabetted.
Even during encounters , police only have the legal right , authority
to immobilize the opponents so as to arrest them but not to kill them.

There is a reasoning among some sections of society & police that use
of 3RD DEGREE TORTURE by police is a detterent of crimes. It is false
& biased. Take for instance there are numerous scams involving 100's
of crores of public money - like stock scam , fodder scam , etc
involving rich businessmen , VVIP crooks. Why don't police use 3rd
degree torture against such rich crooks and recover crores of public
money where as the police use 3rd degree torture against a
pick-pocketer to recover hundred rupees stolen ? double standards by
police.

In media we have seen numerous cases of corrupt police officials in
league with criminals. For the sake of bribe , such police officials
bury cases , destroy evidences , go slow , frame innocents , murder
innocents in the name of encounter , etc. why don't police use 3rd
degree torture against their corrupt colleagues who are aiding
criminals , anti nationals ? double standards by police.

All the bravery of police is shown before poor , innocents , tribals ,
dalits , before them police give the pose of heroes. Whereas , before
rich , VVIP crooks , they are zeroes. They are simply like scarecrows
before rich crooks.

Torture in any form by anybody is inhuman & illegal. For the purpose of
investigations police have scientific investigative tools like
polygraph, brain mapping , lie detector , etc. these scientific tools
must be used against rich crooks & petty criminals without bias.

Hereby we urge the GOI & all state governments :
1) to book cases of murder against police personnel who use 3rd degree
torture on detainees and kill detainees in the name of encounter
killings.
2) To dismiss such inhuman , cruel personnel from police service and to
forfeit all monetary benefits due to them like gratuity , pension ,
etc.
3) To pay such forfeited amount together with matching government
contribution as compensation to family of the victim's of 3rd degree
torture & encounter killings.
4) To review , all cases where false confessions were extracted from
innocents by 3rd degree torture.
5) To make liable the executive magistrate of the area , in whose
jurisdiction torture is perpetrated by police on innocents.
6) To make it incumbent on all judicial magistrates ,to provide a
torture free climate to all parties , witnesses in cases before his
court.
7) To make public the amount & source of ransom money paid to forest
brigand veerappan to secure the release of matinee idol mr. raj kumar.
8) To make public justice A.J.Sadashiva's report on "torture of
tribals , human rights violations by Karnataka police in M.M.HILLS ,
KARNATAKA".
9) To make it mandatory for police to use scientific tools of
investigations like brain mapping , polygraph , etc without bias
against suspects rich or poor.
10) To include human rights education in preliminary & refresher
training of police personnel.
11) To recruit persons on merit to police force who have aptitude &
knack for investigations.
12) To insulate police from interference from politicians & superiors.
13) To make police force answerable to a neutral apex body instead of
political bosses. Such body must be empowered to deal with all service
matters of police.
14) The political bosses & the society must treat police in a humane
manner and must know that they too have practical limitations. Then on
a reciprocal basis , police will also treat others humanely.
15) The police must be relieved fully from the sentry duties of biggies
& must be put on detective , investigative works.

Nowadays , we are seeing reports of corruption by police & judges in the media
and are also seeing reports of raids by vigilance authorities seizing crores of
wealth from such corrupt police. Some Judges have also amassed crores of wealth.
Who gives them money ? it is rich criminals , anti-nationals . By taking bribe &
hiding the crimes of criminals , the corrupt police & judges are themselves
becoming active parties in the crimes , anti-national activities. Those
shameless , corrupt police & judges are nothing but traitors & anti – nationals
themselves. When an innocent is subjected to 3rd degree torture to extract truth
with justification by investigating agencies that all for the sake of national
security , what degree of torture these corrupt , anti-national police & judges
qualify for ? what type of aeroplane or helicopter the corrupt police / judges
must ride ? ofcourse , for protection of national security. Here also police &
judges have double standards , what a shame.

We at e – voice are for "Rule of Law" & abhor all type of violence. Truly these
police & judges are not building a Ram Rajya of our Mahatma Gandhi's dream.

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.

Your's sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

Police Torture Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcIQU4pxQlM ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgS3eu6zVng ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkBwFWg86uY ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed0CWpYF_rc ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNfR7xmIC4w ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iojuKsRwBk ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNiivWoO-v8 ,

……………………..DECLARATION………………………

Name : ...........................NAGARAJ.M.R.

Address : ...................LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP
WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL , MYSORE - 570017 INDIA

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Owner/editor/printer/publisher : NAGARAJ.M.R.

Nationality : INDIAN

Body Donation : Physical Body of Nagaraj M R , Editor , S.O.S- e – clarion of Dalit & S.O.S-e-Voice for Justice is donated to JSS Medical College , Mysore , In case of either Unnatural death or Natural Death at the hands of criminal nexus , my body must be handed over to JSS Medical College , Mysore for the study purposes of medical students.

Eye Donation : Both EYES of Nagaraj M R , Editor , S.O.S- e – clarion of Dalit & S.O.S-e-Voice for Justice are donated to Mysore Eye Bank , Mysore , In case of either Unnatural death or Natural Death at the hands of criminal nexus , my eyes must be handed over to Mysore Eye Bank , Mysore WITHIN 6 Hours for immediate eye transplantation to the needy.

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Cell : 0 9341820313

I ,NAGARAJ.M.R. hereby do declare that information given above are true to the best of my knowledge & belief. If i am repeatedly called to police station or else where for the sake of investigations , the losses i do incurr as a result like loss of wages , transportation , job , etc must be borne by the government. prevoiusly the police / IB personnel repeatedly called me the complainant (sufferer of injustices) to police station for questioning , but never called the guilty culprits even once to police station for questioning , as the culprits are high & mighty . this type of one sided questioning must not be done by police or investigating agencies . if anything untoward happens to me or to my family members like loss of job , meeting with hit & run accidents , loss of lives , death due to improper medical care , etc , the jurisdictional police together with above mentioned accussed public servants will be responsible for it. Even if criminal nexus levels fake charges , police file fake cases against me or my dependents to silence me , this complaint is & will be effective.

If I or my family members or my dependents are denied our fundamental rights , human rights , denied proper medical care for ourselves , If anything untoward happens to me or to my dependents   or to my family members   - In such case Chief Justice of India together with the jurisdictional revenue & police officials will be responsible for it , in such case the government of india is liable to pay Rs. one crore as compensation to survivors of my family. if my whole family is eliminated by the criminal nexus ,then that compensation money must be donated to Indian Army Welfare Fund. Afterwards , the money must be recovered by GOI as land arrears from the salary , pension , property , etc of guilty police officials , Judges , public servants & Constitutional fuctionaries.

date : 17/11/2010…………………………..your's sincerely,

place : India…………………………………Nagaraj.M.R.

Corporate Takeover Of Indian Democracy

By Ravi S Ghosh

"If terrorism is uncontrolled, if Left Wing extremism continues to flourish in important parts of our country which have tremendous natural resources of minerals and other precious things, that will certainly affect the climate for investment."

No, it was not Vedanta head referring to Niyamgiri Hills. Nor was it Sudono Salim talking of Nandigram. This was a statement by our honorable and sensible Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in June 2009. It may be a slip of tongue or it may be the deep-rooted belief of the ruling party. If you can read Governmental English, then well and good. If not, let me translate it for you.

Source: Website of Prime Minister's Office

SACRIFICE WHY I? - What Mr PM means is that the foreign firms are not able to take over, extract minerals, and build factories in those mineral-rich regions of India due to naxalite presence. Yes, it is true that development of those dead corners of the land is impossible in the environment of political instability. Yes, it is also true that without industrialization and development, the nation would go nowhere nor would the quality of life improve. And yes, it is also true that not a single soul would like to trade his or her life and livelihood with the development of the nation. If me, my children, and my community are going to get their lives shattered, forget about getting any benefit out of the development, I would not mind remaining backward. Yes, it is true that the government promises to rehabilitate those who are ruined in the race to build factories and that too with public money. And it too is an undeniable fact that none of the promises of rehabilitation have ever materialized. The public money allocated for such projects and the billions collected as donations from gentle-hearted citizens vanish in air as smoke from a cigarette. And in the end, who has the time to look for the butt.

Why shall I sacrifice my life for the development of the corporates?

AM I BIASED? - One may say I'm trying to twist the noble intentions of the noble prime minister. May be my dislike of the government is not allowing me to look at the positive side of the story. Being skeptic of your own skepticism is the best antidote of unreason. So, let me have a look at the behavior of the government to judge my own judgment or misjudgment.

FIRST EVIDENCE - A pointer to the government's intentions towards the adivasi community is the time when it woke up and saw the need to feed them and cloth them. No thought was given so far to even providing the most basic of the services to the hinterlands. Nobody seemed to be interested in taking control of those areas until recently. And now, suddenly with the rise of economic interest, the government's concern has sky-rocketed. Why weren't the Maoist any threat so far, and suddenly they became the biggest threat to internal security? Or is it that those regions weren't of much economic worth until now?

SECOND EVIDENCE - The insurgency situation in northeast states does not seem to be of as much concern nor does China's claims on Arunachal Pradesh or Pakisthan's occupancy of Kashmir. They aren't any mineral deposits there. Foreign firms are not interested in those ghostly lands. Why bother? People of those lands do not need to be fed or clothed! No ruler wants to rule the deserts, it's the fields that interest them. And what happens if desert turns out to be gold mines? PM's own statement along with the circumstantial evidence is the answer. The interest of the publicly elected government and the interests of the public do not coincide. Rather it's the corporates the government refers to when they mention of development and prosperity.

DIVIDE AND RULE - Is Salwa Judum just a way to combat Maoist? Or it is another face of the infamous divide and rule policy. Make the tribal stand against the tribal, weaken their social integrity, grab the land, gift it to corporates, secure a slice for retirement. Sometimes it is difficult to understand why naxalism and anti-naxal activities are so concentrated in mineral rich regions.

CONCLUSION - The foundation of development is always made up of dead bodies, bodies of souls that were attached to the land they never owned. There isn't any middle ground. Government owns all the land that is not owned by anyone else. This leaves no place to go for those who do not understand how can a piece of land be owned by an organism, have never bothered to get that registered in their names. Without the death of guinea pigs, no medication could have been developed. Countless human lives too are sacrificed to invent a life-saving drug. Yet, to acknowledge this very fact would mean a political suicide. We all know someone will have to be murdered and often commit this crime with full consent, but always call it an accident, collateral damage. Perhaps, acceptance of the crime is more immoral than the crime itself.

I MAY STILL BE BIASED - Probably, all of this evidence are mere creations of my dark mind. Probably, government is as uninterested today in those deserts as it was yesterday and it is just the media whose increased reach is the cause of this panic. Indeed, Maoist were a malignant cancer in 1970s which required ruthless genocide to protect the civil society (!), as the government says. Probably, Naxal movement is a projection of Chinese militancy towards India. Probably, there are other earnest reasons apart from commerce for the government to take control of untamed lands. Probably, the J&K and North East are no issues compared to Naxal movement. Probably, my thoughts are biased beyond repair.

In the end, I leave it to you to interpret PM's statement for yourself.

BIO:With the advent of internet, an individual's ability to express himself to the world got a steroid shot. Ravi took advantage of this new-found freedom and his views and thoughts found way to the virtual world. As a man's life has multiple aspects, his thoughts too are not restricted to a topic or two. He writes about a variety of topics ranging from contemporary events scattered around the daily life to deep-rooted sociopolitical issues. His writings derive strength from his ability to explore an entirely different point of view, analysis that goes beneath the surface. Ravi found CounterCurrents to be a suitable table to serve his thoughts across a wide range of diners, to connect with humans with similar imaginations and fantasies. "I am" that Ravi.
WEBSITE: www.ravisghosh.com
ravisghosh@gmail.com

LAND MAFIA silencing an Innocent woman in Puttaparthi Andhra Pradesh - LOCAL POLICE & JUDICIARY hand in gloves with the mafia - An appeal to Honourable supreme court of India

Land mafia with the support of local police are harassing an innocent woman by name Ms.Pushpa & her family in Puttaparthi , Andhra Pradesh. Ms.Pushpa & her family are living under threat to their lives , the approach road to their house is partly closed , they have suffered attempts of murder on their lives by police & rowdy elements , police have illegally entered her house & illegally confiscated her property. All for the reason that THEY REFUSED TO SELL THEIR PROPERTY TO THE NEIGHBOURING BUILDER (WHO IS AN INFLUENTIAL POLITICIAN) WHO IS ILLEGALLY BUILDING A HUGE COMPLEX . On top of this , the police have foisted false cases on Ms.Pushpa to silence her , circulated pamphlets , fake stories in the local media defaming Ms.pushpa & her family , offending the dignity of a woman .

The local Judiciary has failed to stop further injustices to this lady & failed to take legal action against public servants who failed to do their duty . These public servants – local police , local judiciary , PUDA officials , Jail officials , Government Doctor together with the complainant Ms.Pushpa must be subjected to narco analysis test. Till date Unauthorised construction by neighbouring builder (taking away the acess to Ms.Pushpa & her family’s property) is going on unhindered.

Ms.Pushpa presently an under trial in district jail , Ananthpur (admitted at Governement Hospital Ananthapur) IS UNDER FAST UNTO DEATH protesting against the inaction of Local Judiciary & Police , which is aiding the criminals to continue their crimes. If Ms.Pushpa & any of her family member dies , suffers bodily injuries , etc , the Local Jurisdictional Police , Jurisdictional Magistrate together with the Superintendent of police , District Collector & Pricipal District & Sessions Judge of the said Ananthapur District , Andhra Pradesh will be responsible for it.
Hereby , we do request the Honourable Supreme court of India , to conduct a thorough enquiry by a third party not belonging to Andhra Pradesh , to find the truth & give justice to the aggrieved. JAI HIND. VANDE MATARAM.

Your’s sincerely ,
Nagaraj .M.R.

JUDICIAL ATROCITY AGAINST AN INNOCENT WOMAN

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:16:50 +0530
Subject: Sir..I need your kind attention immediately as iam in need..urgent..
From: pkolasani7@gmail.com
To: naghrw@yahoo.com
CC: nagarajhrw@hotmail.com

sir..
humbly..Iam miss.Pushpa.Kolasani resident of puttaparthi,Anantapur Dist.AP. a law graduate but engased in to computer animation bussiness..problem is
I am on hunger strike for last 37 days demanding for judicial enquiry on magistrate who has given me for illegal judicial remand in a falsly implicated case against me by the police.Anantapur in Cr.No.50/10, U/s.353C.P.Cto bend me for compromise in S.C.No.13/08, S.C.No.367/05 ,pending in the court of Asst.Sessions Judge.Penukonda, C.C.S.R.02/09, pending in the court of JFCM.Penukonda and few other related cases linked with them in which police or directly involved and now they are at trail stage but they have even influenced my legal councel also..now I am permited to take the procecution side party in person in the place of PP and Spl.PP who were appointed earlier in them who made me arrested exactly one year before same like this though my recall petition was pending before the bench IN COUNTER CASES..now again it has been repeated thats why i have started hunger strike since then to put an end for their dramma once for all..i have sent a petition to the NHRC and the Chief Justice of High Court.AP but of no use at all..now I am under the treatment of Govt.General Hospital.Anantapur..police are forcing them too to not to issue any copyies of my medical reports to submit to the court..as i am taking a risk of sending this mail to you with the help of hospital staff only..may not e all the times possible..so i shall engage my sister Mrs.S.Ch.Padma to contact you over phone in this regard on behalf of me..i need your guidence and timely help..at any cost Iam not ready to let them go free..in this 3 magistrates and even GJ of anantapur is also involved now..i am ready to put forth all the clear and documentary evidence to prove their faults..my sisters phone Nos are...09441552129, 09441111772..pls o respond immediately..
thank you sir,
regards,
pushpa.k
D/o.K.Venkatesu.
6/20-D.kolasani buildings,
university road,
puttaparthi,Anantapur.Dist.A.P.

The Ugly Face of Media

By Prabhat Sharan

They say in plague rats die first and ironically the germs of plague are spread by none other than rodents themselves. In an economically sick society, if not the first, the journos have managed to grab the second position in the list of fatalities, and ironically like the rodents they were also responsible for spreading the germ of conservative exploitative economic structural adjustment which they glorified by calling it, “neo-liberal economy.”

Within a span of two years, the corporate establishment media is back with the rat poison hacking the hacks as well as the handful honest committed journalists who bravely carry the cross of integrity. The vanguard for this impending hacking like in earlier ‘Operation Raticide,’ is none other than a so-called national commercial newspaper which except for providing business news carries propagandistic fabricated material emanating from ‘private treatises,’ under the veneer of ‘news.

Hacks, like the rats are once more desperately seeking a rat hole, burrow and shelter from the epidemic of economic plague and so-called massive retrenchment. Till some time back, the same journos went around the town tom tomming about the grandiose success of the late 19th century economic system. Courtesy, they (read journos) were getting ginger bread spread with jam even if it was the same as the one made in some rural area, this species like the sick rodent family went to the town casting the germ of superfluous consumerism and promoting it as the need of every human being even if it meant shackling them and sucking out their very life and joy. They espoused the age old maxim-greed is good mentality.

Like the mythical scientist Dr Frankenstein who created the monster only to be killed, by it, the journos are now dying by the very own creation. A case in point is the resignation of the much-hyped Outlook Money’s editor, just a year ago. In her post-resignation letter to her colleagues from the magazine, the editor made a startling admission that the reason behind her quitting the job lay in the management’s pressure on her to blow-up insurance companies profile in the periodical.

Not an uncommon, occurrence in the world of corporate media where deals are fixed and so are the reports and articles. In fact the flurry of newspapers, periodicals and television news channels in the last one and a half decade took everybody by surprise.

More surprising was that journalism which hitherto had always attracted half-starved socially committed person on the one the end of spectrum and those who wanted to go up the political-industrial power broking lobby on the other end suddenly became the top sought after jobs amongst youngsters.

The reason was of course the sudden emergence of media from the façade of being mission oriented to brainwashing propaganda machine for the corporate world which wanted to fashion the thinking and obliterate the logical and emotive aspect of the masses in India.

With a token of anti-establishment news reports mainly criticising the public sectors and other state machinery, an impression was created that the corporate governance was the sole solution to the people’s ills. The sycophancy towards MNCs and TNCs ideology reached a crescendo during the Indo-US nuke deal when the Indian corporate media crawled on its stomach to get it cleared hiding all the insidious facts from the masses. The media blatantly forgot its role of being a mirror to the reality.

The half-starved journo whose anger against the exploitative system roiled along with the rumbling in his or her stomach suddenly found that there was too much food on the plate. Industrialists, multi-nationals executives were being eulogised with superlatives which they certainly did not deserve. In fact worse for the Indian journalism scene was not just the anointing those who toed the line of conservative economic structural adjustment with fancy designations like ‘Quality Editor,’ et.al but relegating the critics of the regressive exploitative economic system to queues of unemployable and rope in the most inexperienced just-out-of-college students for journalism with a strap line - “experience not required.” The result the corporate world got what it wanted: A dumbing down of journalism and a facade of frivolous reporting.

The masses were duly hypnotised by the glitz and glamour in the media which pontificated with religious fervour the maxim that greed and consumption is the way to social ladder and happiness. Usurping hinterlands, erecting vertical slums, possessing senseless, mindless gadgets coupled with the power of spending were being deliberately epitomized as the quotient for one’s success.

Though the Outlook Money editor took quite a substantial time to realise the covert media machinations, which is quite surprising, given the fact that the periodical was devoted to woo the masses into the speculative trading world by imparting them kindergarten lessons in the world of stock market, the fact is that resignation also has another hidden facet.

The other fact which is more gruesome is that even as the bubble of non-existent capital keeps exploding at an alarming regularity, in the same space and time warp, the media bubble also fizzles out like the air from a soda water bottle leaving the once effervescent water devoid of all air.

The result; the hoarding painters who lustily paint the minds of the masses with the greatness of economic system, again and again find themselves totally redundant and useless for the class which controls the reins of the monies.

The new fangled term, nothing but an old wine in a new bottle-financial inclusion, which if analysed was to extract money from small and minor land holders in the rural India for playing in the speculative money market, has also lost its fizz.

The corporate governance which the media used to go around shining it into the eyes of the masses, are all biting dust. Where does, that leaves the media? Nowhere. The so-called top-notch journalists and media management which talked about the corporatising of journalism, are now adrift in a whirlpool created by their own erroneous logic, greed, servility and hypocrisy.

Thus, it was not surprising that the media world a couple of years back desperately sought help from the state to bail it out from the economic bankruptcy. The reason for seeking bailout was that jobs had to be saved; and the first casualty in the media world- like in any corporate-governed sector-were the journalists at the lower echelons.
The argument presented by the managements for justifying retrenchment is a case in point of a warped and erroneous logic. Even as the management of various newspapers went with a begging bowl with pockets overflowing with profits, launches of newer and newer magazines never come to a stop nor does the pressure on their once blue-eyed drum-beaters to leave the fold. The media world is facing the same sting which other sectors are facing; the only thing in the world of journalism is that the paths taken to retrench are different.

And most of the times it glosses the underbelly of the dark reality of the economic structures which it loudly proclaims to the world. In fact during the ‘feel-good’ maxim spouted for the dying and miserable masses, the relationship between the corporate world and corporate media had become something like that of donkeys who in the weddings of the camels, become songsters and sing how handsome the groom is and are answered by the camels with praise for the beauty of their voices and words.

Prabhat Sharan is a Senior Journalist with interest in social, working class, wild-life conservation, media, philosophical and literary studies. He can be contacted at: sharanprabhat@gmail.com

But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others...

By Karthick RM

For the past 110 days, a man called Seeman, leader of the Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam, is languishing in a prison in Tamil Nadu, arrested under the NSA. His crime was grave indeed: he voiced his opinions on the plight of the Eelam Tamils in pretty strong words, supporting their right to self-determination. And he was booked under a variety of charges, including for talking against ‘national integrity’. And not a single ‘radical intellectual’ (read as Delhi based intellectuals who make statements on a variety of prominent issues) condemned it.

And then happens the meeting on Kashmir in New Delhi on 22nd October. And then the circus in the pigsty, the right wing elements baying for the blood of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Arundhati Roy, the media trials. And then the reaction from the civil society. And of course, our radical intellectuals. ‘Freedom of speech and expression’, ‘sedition is colonial’, ‘draconian laws’ and other such terms were used to counter the absurd logic of the loony fringe. The chaps in Tamil Nadu, those who condemned the arrest of Seeman, also used the same terms. Sadly, it neither made to the ‘national’ dailies nor to the ears of our defenders of democratic rights. (I need to note here that many of the activists who condemned Seeman’s arrest do not agree with his line of politics. Neither do I. But I assume he has the same right to express his democratic opinion on political issues as does Roy.)

Maybe its got something to do with the issue Seeman was talking about. The genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka happens to be the worst case of systematic state violence against a people in South Asia. And the least talked about in India’s intellectual circles. Apart from Tamil activists and some party intellectuals affiliated to the CPI(Maoist), no one else did an honest appraisal of the struggle of the Eelam Tamils or gave a condemnation worthy of the horrors that the Lankan government perpetrated. Intellectuals who talked about repression on Mars, Jupiter and Pluto were conspicuous by their silence on the repression in a country not far from home. Even Arundhati Roy, who has written brilliant essays on Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq etc had but a 200 word article on Sri Lanka (and a consecutive interview to Sri Lanka Guardian). But even Ms Roy, with all her positions on grave issues, stopped short of recognising the political demands of the Tamils.

This is not an attempt to undermine the issues taken up by these intellectuals. Rather, it is an attempt to understand why some issues get perennially neglected, issues which are as important, where oppression is similar or worse. For instance, how many times have we seen conventions in the capital on the rights of the people of the North-East? But on Palestine, whoa! The oppressed in South Asian countries, like others in the Third World, are treated worse than animals. But if one were to observe the patterns in the ‘internationalist concerns’ of the Indian intellectuals, in an Orwellian sense, some animals appear to be more equal than others.

Condemning the attempted assault on the freedom of expression of popular intellectuals and leaders is necessary, but at the same time let us also recognize that silencing of ordinary activists happens on a day-to-day basis, of those who work on the ground among the masses in Kashmir, in Chattisgarh, in Tamil Nadu, in Manipur and so. Recently, Anthony Shimray, a NSCN(IM) leader, was arrested by the Indian authorities. And the Indian state is supposed to be on a Ceasefire Arrangement (CFA) with the NSCN(IM). How do you arrest someone with whom you have a CFA with? What of his ‘freedom of speech and expression’? Who will take up his case the way the intellectuals and civil society took up cudgels for the democratic rights of Ms Roy? Or the case of the Dalit Human Rights Mission activists who are hounded by the Kerala state government?

These are questions one can ask the intellectuals. For one is indeed tempted to believe that these intellectuals are in someway, maybe unconsciously, subscribing to the logic of the media market - maximum coverage to that which gets maximum attention. Should this be the case, then the intellectuals are doing a great injustice to the radical politics that they claim to represent. For radicalism is not making the loudest statement about the flashiest issue. On the contrary, it lies primarily in highlighting those issues which have been avoided, even should it make one ‘unpopular’ in intellectual circles.

For the lack of recognition of these issues is, from a Fanonist perspective, as good as opposition.

Karthick RM is a student-activist based in JNU, pursuing Masters in History. He is associated with the Delhi Tamil Students Union, a Periyarite-Marxist group.

COICA Kills Free Speech: Write Sen. Leahy

By Chris Pratt

Blacklisted domains and terminated websites are both possibilities if bill S.3804 becomes law. It is called “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act” (COICA) and it was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy on September 20, 2010.

Hard to imagine that the same man who could say:

“I commend Secretary of State Clinton for reaffirming our nation’s deep commitment to openness and freedom of expression on the Internet. The Internet has become a vital tool to protect and ensure the rights and basic freedoms of Americans and the human rights of people everywhere.”
Released by Leahy’s Office in January 2010

–or–

“Why did 9/11 happen on George Bush’s watch when he had clear warnings that it was going to happen?…. Had there been an independent congress, one that could ask questions, these questions would have been asked years ago. We’d be much better off…..”
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy — interview with Amy Goodman, 9/29/2006

is now proposing legislation that will allow the government to blacklist and close down websites engaged in “infringing activities.”

Although “infringing activities” are ill defined by this legislation, it appears that websites engaged primarily in copyright infringement are targets. Websites like mine and thousands of bloggers and documentarians who use the copyrighted material of others to develop their work could well be in Leahy’s cross hairs.

As a Citizen Journalist and a Citizen Filmmaker, I was so appalled by what I saw first under Republican rule and now under Democratic leadership that I produced a film, deceptions, with zero background and for less than $1,000. I then made this film available to the public on a website I created called www.deceptionUSA.com. Rady Ananda reviewed deceptions as a “brilliant clarion to save the Internet.”

If Leahy’s proposed legislation becomes law, however, my site could be closed down by the DOJ (Dept of Justice) for engaging in an “infringing activity.” You see I am not a professional movie man with oodles of film making know-how and financial backing. I am a citizen who would not have been able to produce this documentary without the use of material developed by others. What is missing from Leahy’s bill is any mention of “Fair Use,” which is part of section 107 of the Copyright Law and protects sites like mine where information is freely being rendered. I think it is called freedom of speech.

Under this provision the use of copyrighted material is not an infringement of copyright law if used for such things as the criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Think about it, almost every invention, every non-fictional piece and many fictional works are based on someone else’s efforts. Most of the world’s advancements have occurred by standing on the shoulders of others. Up there we have a better view of what has happened or can prognosticate better about what might happen.

Without ‘fair use’, citizen journalists, citizen filmmakers, scholars, political satirists and several authors, composers and inventors would not have been able to produce much their work. This is why the ‘fair use’ provision exists and why it has survived years of court challenges. Hmm ….I wonder how You Tube, a website which relies heavily on copyrighted material uploaded by everyday citizens, would fair under Leahy’s Law?

Now, I have absolutely no problem with closing down sites that sell and profit from another’s work. That is called plagiarism and, last I knew, it is well condemned under intellectual property law. However, sites like mine and others, which exist solely for the purpose of engaging the public in critical thinking and awareness, should not be terminated by the government.

Come on! I am making NO money from other peoples work. I am a one man show, a registered non-profit; a tiny little David trying to fight a corporate Goliath and an ultra elite who are now attempting to control words as effectively as they have money.

Let’s add it up. If the original copyright holders do not have an issue with ANYTHING I have said and I am not profiting in any way, why should an appointed government official be blacklisting my domain and shutting down my website? There is only one reason for such an action and that is to prevent controversial viewpoints from being seen or heard.

CNN quotes Al Franken a Senator from Minnesota saying that net neutrality “is the foremost free speech issue of our time”

Leahy’s Law is a giant step into the Dark Ages of government censorship, a view which is shared by most open Internet advocates and a law that stands in sharp contrast to Leahy’s professed support of free speech.

But perhaps myself and thousands of others are all wrong, so tell me, Mr. Leahy, where does my website fall? Look at the film, look at the site, look at the credits and render your opinion. You are a lawyer, a former prosecutor and this is your legislation. This film and this site rely heavily on ‘fair use’ and the works of others. It definitely is engaged in infringing activities – should it be blacklisted and shut down? Or was your intention just to go after the counterfeiters? Please advise.

To Contact Senator Leahy’s office and join me in a clarification simply follow this link: http://leahy.senate.gov/contact/

You can also Petition the Senate.

Chris Pratt is a former systems analyst, a certified nutritionist, filmmaker and producer of the 2010 film deceptions, at www.deceptionsusa.com, and author/producer of the Brain Sense Program at www.brain-sense.org

AN APPEAL TO THE HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT OF USA , CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA & CHIEF JUSTICE OF PAKISTAN
- By American Citizens

Our country was known as " Heaven On Earth" , "Land of Equality & Equal
Oppurtunity" & the "Statue of Liberty" rightly symbolized the spirit of our
country. Now USA is known as a "Terror State".

In the last 3 – 4 decades , the persons who occupied the office of President USA
,in their individual capacity took wrong , inhuman decisions , meddled in the
internal affairs of other sovereign nations , spent our resources to create
terrorist outfits like al-queda , Taliban in those countries.

In turn these terrorist outfits terrorized , murdered millions of innocents &
this Frankenstein monster came home to roost on September 9 / 11 . After
September 9 / 11 , each terror suspect is severely tortured in hell like Abu
Garibh prison , elsewhere by our authorities. For argument sake let us accept
that these terrorists who murder innocents don't deserve kid glove treatment &
rightly
deserve 3rd degree torture. When a single terrorist deserve such inhuman 3rd
degree torture , what quantum of punishment , torture – previous presidents of
USA deserve – who created , aided & abetted thousands of such terrorists ,
terrorist outfits ?

Herby, we appeal to the honourable Supreme Court of USA to order the federal
government to to make public :

1. how much US resources were spent from US TREASURY , to finance terrorist
outfits , military juntas in other sovereign nations ?

2. is not Al-queda , Taliban creations of USA ?

3. did September 9 / 11 WTC attack truly happened by hijacked airplane or was it
planned by US authorities ? see
http://www.neiu.edu/~ayjamess/hmmm.htm#Main

4 . is racial profiling , profiling a particular community & suspecting all the
muslims as terror suspects , right?

5. if it is right , the cretors of such terrorist outfits – past presidents of
USA – who were Christians makes it logical to assume whole of our Christian
community as terror suspect ?

6. is not use of 3rd degree torture on all type of suspects in US prisons & in
the prisons of US allied countries at the behest of US authorities , right ? is
it not violation of human rights & US laws ?

7. did US find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq , which was the main
reason for US attacking Iraq ?

8. why not US authorities use scientific interrogation techniques like polygraph
, lie detector tests instead of inhuman 3rd degree torture on terror suspects &
suspects in other criminal cases ?

9 . what legal right our President of USA have , to illegally spend billions of
our dollars on inhuman , llegal acts of terrorism , military coup , creation ,
aiding & abetting of terrorists , etc , in other sovereign nations ? while we
are suffering from loss of jobs ,loss of home due to natural calamities , etc ?

Crux , Foundation of all religions is humanity , kindness & universal
brotherhood. It is the preachers who misrepresent it. Terrorism created , aided
, abetted by anybody is inhuman & wrong . Terrorism is creation of power hungry
, selfish people & they must be legally punished .

Hereby , we appeal to the honourable court to legally prosecute Previous
PRESIDENTS OF USA in the last 4 decades , for crimes of terror , as per the
present US anti-terror laws.

Recently , in the issue of last week "The Week" , cabinet minister of government
of srilanka (previously a deadly terrorist & right hand man of LTTE chief
Prabhakaran ) Mr. Karuna , Himself has stated in an interview that LTTE received
arms training in Tamilnadu State of India , to wage war against Government of
Srilanka. The Justice Jain Commission Of Enquiry , which probed late PM Rajiv
Gandhi's assassination case , also stated that Tamil Terrorist outfits in
Srilanka Received monetary , financial , arms training support from government
of India. GOI has even setup a radio station for tamil terrorists of srilanka ,
within Indian territory. GOI spent billions of dollars of Indian taxpayer's
money for aiding & abetting terrorism , while billions of Indians were half
starving & going without a single meal , without proper health care.

Recently in the last week , in a media interview the president of Government of
Pakistan Mr. Jardari himself has confessed that in the previous years the
government of Pakistan has aided & abetted Terrorism for tactical gains of
Pakistan , spending billions of dollars of Pakistani taxpayer's money. While
ordinary ordinary Pakistanis were suffering from starvation , lack of health
care , etc.

All the above proves that Previous Presidents of Government of USA , previous
Presidents of Government of Pakistan & Previous Prime Ministers of Government of
India were the real master minds of TERRORISM , founded , aided , abetted
TERRORISM FOR THEIR OWN SELFISH GAINS. In turn murdering lakhs of innocent human
beings.

These guilty previous presidents & prime ministers are deadly than OSAMA BIN
LADEN.

Hereby , we appeal to the supreme courts of USA , INDIA , PAKISTAN &
INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL , to legally prosecute the previous Prime
Ministers of INDIA , the previous presidents of USA & PAKISTAN , on charges of
master minding TERRORISM.

CRIMINALS IN POLICE UNIFORM
- An appeal to union home minister & Karnataka state home minister

The ABC of police force in India is apathy ,
brutality & corruption . in India, police are not impartially enforcing
law instead are working as hand maidens of rich & mighty. The corrupt
police officers are collecting protection money from criminals ,
collecting money to go slow on investigations , to file B- reports , to
fix innocents in fake cases , to murder innocents in lock-up /
encounters . they are hand in league with land mafia , today C.M of
Karnataka himself issued a warning to police officials about this.
Even in lock-ups , jails, the rich inmates bribe
officials get better food from outside , mobile phones , drugs , drinks
, cigareetes , etc. they get spacious cells & get best private medical
care . where as the poor inmates are even denied food , health care ,
living space as per the provisions of law. The corrupt jail officials
instigate rowdy elements in the jails to assault poor inmates & to toe
their line. More corrupt the police more wealthier he is. Even CBI
officials are no different. The only beacon of hope is still there are
few honest people left in the police force.
Hereby , e-voice urges you to make public the following
information in the interest of justice.

1.how many CBI officials & Karnataka state police officials are facing
charges of corruption , 3rd degree torture , lock-up/encounter deaths
, rapes , fake cases , etc ?

2.how you are monitoring the ever increasing wealth of corrupt police
officials?

3.how many officials from the ranks of constable to DGP have amassed
illegal wealth?

4.what action you have taken in these cases ? have you got
reinvestigated all the cases handled by tainted police?

5.how many policemen have been awarded death penalty & hanged till
death , for cold blooded murders in the form of lock-up deaths /
encounter deaths ?

6.why DGP of Karnataka is not registering my complaint dt 10/12/2004 ,
subsequent police complaints ?
is it because rich & mighty are involved ?

7.e - voice is ready to bring to book corrupt police officials subject to
conditions, are you ready ?

8.how many police personnel are charged with violations of people's
human rights & fundamental rights ?

9.how many STF police deployed to nab veerappan were themselves
charged with theft of forest wealth?

10.how you are ensuring the safety , health , food , living space of
inmates in jails?

11.how you are ensuring the medical care , health of prisoners in
hospitals & mental asylums?

12.How you are ensuring the safety , health , food , living space of
inmates in juvenile homes ?

TORTURE CHAMBERS OF INDIA

They are our own Gitmos. Where, far away from the eyes of the law, 'enemies of
the state' are made to 'sing'. THE WEEK investigates

By Syed Nazakat

Little Terrorist, as the intelligence sleuths came to call him, turned out to be
a hard nut to crack. No amount of torture would work on 20-year-old Mohammed
Issa, who was picked up from Delhi on February 5, 2006. The Delhi Police
believed that he had a hotline to Lashkar-e-Toiba deputy chief Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhwi, who later masterminded the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. At a secret detention
centre in Delhi, the police and intelligence officers tried every single torture
method in their arsenal-from electric shock to sleep deprivation-to make Issa
sing. He stuck to his original line: that he had come from Nepal to visit a
relative in Delhi. Only, they refused believe him.

According to the police, the youth from Uttar Pradesh, who had moved to Nepal in
2000 along with his family after his father, Irfan Ahmed, was accused in a
terrorism case, returned to India to set up Lashkar modules in the national
capital. More than six months after he was picked up, the police announced his
arrest on August 14. He has since been shifted to the Tihar jail. His lawyer
N.D. Pancholi said Issa was kept in illegal custody for months. If not, let the
police say where he was between February 5 and August 15, he challenged.

Issa could have been detained in any of Delhi's joint interrogation centres,
used by the police and intelligence agencies to extract precious information
from the detainees using methods frowned upon by the law. As one top police
officer told THE WEEK in the course of our investigation, these torture chambers
spread across the country are our "precious assets". They are our own little
Guantanamo Bays or Gitmos (where the US tortures terror suspects from
Afghanistan and elsewhere for information).

Not many admit their existence, because doing so could result in human rights
activists knocking at their doors and bad press for the smartly dressed
intelligence men. It is a murky and dangerous world, according to K.S.
Subramanian, Tripura's former director-general of police, who has also served in
the Intelligence Bureau. "Such sites exist and are being used to detain and
interrogate suspected terrorists and it has been going on for a long time," he
told THE WEEK. "Even senior police officers are reluctant to talk about the
system." So are people who have been to these virtual hells that officially do
not exist.

THE WEEK has identified 15 such secret interrogation centres-three each in
Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Kolkata and one in Assam.
(One detention centre that is shared by all security and law enforcement
agencies is in Palanpur, Gujarat.) Their locations have been arrived at after
speaking to serving and retired top officers who had helped set up some of these
facilities. Those who have spent time in these places had no idea where they
are. They were taken blindfolded and were allowed no visitors. The only faces
they got to see were those of the interrogators, day in and day out.

The biggest of the three detention centres in Mumbai, the Aarey Colony facility
in Goregaon, has four rooms. The Anti-Terrorism Squad questioned Saeed Khan
(name changed), one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006,
here. He was served food at irregular intervals (led to temporary
disorientation) and was denied sleep. Another secret detention centre maintained
in the city by the ATS at Kalachowky has a sound-proof room. Sohail Shaikh,
accused in the July 2006 train bombings, was held here for close to two months.
"He was kept in isolation for days together," said an officer. "He crumbled
after being subjected to hostile sessions. Intentional infliction of suffering
does not always yield immediate results. Sometimes you have to wait for many
days for the detainee to break. It is a tedious process." The smallest of the
three facilities at Chembur has just two rooms.

Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district in Kashmir, was illegally detained
in Delhi for over a month for allegedly trying to plot mass murder in the
national capital on behalf of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Delhi Police's
chargesheet says he was arrested from the Azadpur fruit market in Delhi on
October 14, 2006. But according to Parvez's flight itinerary, he travelled from
Srinagar to Delhi on September 12 on SpiceJet flight 850. The flight landed at
Delhi airport at 12.10 p.m. He had to catch another flight at 1.30 p.m.
(SpiceJet flight 217) to Pune, where, according to his parents, he was going to
pursue his Ph.D. But he never boarded the Pune flight as he disappeared from the
Delhi airport.

Parvez wrote an open letter from the Tihar jail, where he is currently held, in
which he said he was arrested from the airport on September 12 and kept in
custody for a month. Apparently, he was first taken to the Lodhi Colony police
station and then to an apartment in Dwarka, where electrodes were attached to
his genitals and power was switched on. (Delhi's secret detention centres are
located at Dwarka in south-west Delhi, the Inter-state Cell of the Crime Branch
in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi, and the Lodhi Colony police station in south
Delhi.)

"After my arrest on September 12, I was taken to Pune, where I was shown
pictures of many Kashmiri boys," Parvez said in the letter. "They wanted me to
identify them. As I didn't know any one of them, they brought me to Delhi again
and threw me into the torture chamber of Lodhi Road [sic] police station. They
took off my clothes and started beating me like an animal, so ruthlessly that my
feet and fingers started bleeding. I was later forced to clean the blood-stained
floor with my underwear. They gave me electric shocks and stretched my legs to
extreme limits, resulting in internal haemorrhage. I started passing blood with
my urine and stool. Later I was shifted to one flat near Delhi airport [he later
identified the place as Dwarka]. From the adjacent flats, voices of crying and
screaming had been coming, indicating presence of other persons being tortured."

Throughout his detention, wrote Parvez, he was asked to lie to his parents that
everything was fine. In the letter he also gave the mobile number from which the
calls were made-9960565152. His family is trying to collect the call site
details of the number to prove his illegal detention.
Delhi-based journalist Iftikhar Geelani, who spent nine days in the Lodhi Colony
police station after his arrest in 2002 on spying charges, is yet to get over
the traumatic experience. "There are lock-ups with such low ceilings that a
person will not be able to stand," he said. "There is an interrogation centre
within the police station where people are brutally tortured with cables, and
some are completely undressed and abused. They also have a facility to raise the
temperature of the cell to a point where it is unbearable and then suddenly
bring it down to freezing cold."

Assistant Commissioner Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for the Delhi Police, denied the
existence of such facilities. "Nobody ever asked me the question [about secret
detention centres]," he said. "We don't operate any such facility in our police
stations."
But Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB, confirmed the existence
of secret detention centres in Delhi and other parts of the country. He was
convinced that detention outside the police station and torture are an
inevitable part of the war on terrorism. "Now I would never dream of doing the
things I did when I was in charge," said Dhar. "But security agencies need such
facilities." Interrogating suspected terrorists at secret detention centres, he
said, is the most effective way to gather intelligence. "If you produce a
suspect before court, he will never give you anything after that," he said. In
other words, once you record the arrest you are within the realm of the law and
you have to acknowledge the rights of the accused-arrested and contend with his
lawyer.

An officer who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme
physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo
Bay, is used to extract information from the detainees. It includes assault on
the senses (pounding the ear with loud and disturbing music) and sleep
deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly
administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity. "The
interrogators isolate key operatives so that the interrogator is the only person
they see each day," he said. "In extreme cases we use pethidine injections. It
will make a person crazy."

Molvi Iqbal from Uttar Pradesh, a suspected member of the
Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami who is currently lodged in Tihar, was held at a secret
detention centre for two months according to his relatives. They alleged that
during interrogation a chip was implanted under his skin so that his movements
could be tracked if he tried to escape. "He fears that the chip is still inside
his skin," said one of his relatives. "That has shattered him."

Kolkata has its own Gitmos in Bhabani Bhawan, now the headquarters of the
Criminal Investigation Department, and the Alipore Retreat in Tollygunj, a
bungalow that is said to have 20 rooms. They were bursting at the seams at the
height of the Naxalite movement, but are more or less quiet now. "A large number
of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after
being taken to such secret detention centres," said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based
human rights lawyer. "Their bodies would later be found, if at all, in the
fields."

That was how militancy was tackled, first in Punjab and then in Kashmir. Today
no secret prison exists in Kashmir officially after the notorious Papa-2
interrogation centre was closed down. But secret torture cells thrive across the
state. The most notorious ones are the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp
in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district. Then there are
the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Anantnag district and Talab
Tillo and Poonch areas in Jammu region. Detentions at JICs could last months.
Lawyers in Kashmir have filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the
whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.

The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who
was picked by the SOG from Alucha Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family
alleged that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly
beaten up. He died the same night. Following public outrage, the officer in
charge of the camp was dismissed from the service in June.

Maqbool Sahil, a Srinagar-based photojournalist who was held at Hariniwas
interrogation centre for 15 days, says it is a miracle that he is alive today.
"If you tell them [interrogators] you are innocent, they will torture you so
ruthlessly that you will break down and confess to anything," he says.
Human rights organisations are understandably concerned. Navaz Kotwal,
coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that there should
be an open debate on the illegal detention centres. "The US had a debate on the
Gitmos. Our government should come forward and respond to these allegations,"
she said.

No one wants to compromise the nation's safety, but the torture becomes
unbearable, and questionable, when innocent people like the 14-year-old boy
Irfan suffer (see box on page 30). The security of the country and its people is
important and terrorism should be crushed at all cost. But the largest democracy
in the world should also ensure that human rights are not violated.

Dhar defended the secret prison system, arguing that the successful defence of
the country required that the security establishment be empowered to hold and
interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without
restrictions imposed by the legal system. "The primary mission of the agencies
is to save the nation both by overt and covert means from any terrorist threat,"
he said. "But to keep the programme secret is a horrible burden."
with Anupam Dasgupta

Forty secret interrogation cells unveil real face of India [The Nation] 05 Jul,
2009

Worlds oldest democracy United States may have been forced to close Guantanamo
Bay detention centre, but the largest democracy India runs 40 such secret
chambers across the country, where suspects are subjected to extreme
interrogation for months and years.
A leading news magazine The Week in its forthcoming issue, accessed by KT News
Service (KTNS), revealed the horror of torture chambers, far from the eyes of
law.
The investigating team of the magazine identified 15 secret interrogation
centres-three each in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in
Kolkatta and one in Assam. Officials admit that there could be more and roughly
put their numbers at 40. In Palanpur region of Gujarat all security agencies
share one detention centre, the magazine report said. It maintained that mostly
suspects were brought blindfolded so they could hardly pinpoint the place,
adding, the only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators.
The magazine quoted Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district, a student in
Pune University, who was illegally detained in Delhi, as saying that he, in his
open letter, from notorious Tihar jail, wrote that electrodes were attached to
his genitals and power was switched on during interrogation in the centre.
A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have
disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres, said Kirity Roy,
a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer.
The report further said that in Kashmir, there were many interrogation centres
like the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar
and Humhama in Budgam district.
There are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Islamabad district
and Talab Tillo in Jammu and one in Poonch.
It said that the lawyers in Kashmir had filed 15,000 petitions since 1990
seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without
avail.
The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who
was picked by the SOG from Aloochi Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family
said that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly
beaten up.
He died the same night.
Quoting KS Subramanian, former Director General of Indian police who had also
served in the Intelligence Bureau, the report said that these sites existed and
were being used to detain and interrogate suspects and it had been going on for
a long time.
An officer, who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme
physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo
Bay, was used to extract information from the detainees.
It included assault on the senses like sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners
naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through
the rectum to further break down their dignity.

In India, Torture by Police Is Frequent and Often Deadly

By Rama Lakshmi

MEERUT, India -- Rajeev Sharma, a young electrician, was sleeping when police
barged into his house a month ago and dragged him out of bed on suspicion of a
burglary in the neighborhood, his family recalled.

When his young wife and brother protested, the police, who did not show them an
arrest warrant, said they were taking Sharma to the police station for "routine
questioning."

"Little did we know that we would lose him forever," said Sunil Sharma, Rajeev's
brother, recounting how he died while in police custody. "Their routine
questioning proved fatal," he added, sitting beside his brother's grieving
widow.

Rajeev Sharma, 28, died at the police station within a day of his detention.
Police said he committed suicide, but his family charges that he was beaten and
killed.

The case highlights the frequent use of torture and deadly force at local police
stations in India, a practice decried by human rights activists and the Indian
Supreme Court. A little more than a decade after Parliament established the
National Human Rights Commission to deal with such abuses, police torture
continues unabated, according to human rights groups and the Supreme Court.
According to the latest available government data, there were 1,307 reported
deaths in police and judicial custody in India in 2002.

"India has the highest number of cases of police torture and custodial deaths
among the world's democracies and the weakest law against torture," said Ravi
Nair, who heads the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center. "The police
often operate in a climate of impunity, where torture is seen as routine police
behavior to extract confessions from small pickpockets to political suspects."
He said that laws governing police functions were framed under British colonial
rule in 1861 "as an oppressive force designed to keep the population under
control."

Police records show that, two weeks before his detention, Rajeev Sharma made a
electrician's service call at the home of a wealthy businessman. On that day,
the man reported that $500 worth of gold jewelry and about $100 in cash were
missing, police said.

After Sharma's detention, his brother called the police station and was told
that Sharma had confessed to the theft, he said. The brother said he and other
family members rushed to the station and were able to see Sharma briefly.

"His eyes were red, his mouth was bleeding and he could hardly walk. They had
beaten him very badly. That was the last glimpse we had," said Sunil Sharma, 35.
"By the evening, the police informed us that he had committed suicide in the
lockup by hanging himself with a blanket. The suicide story is a coverup; my
brother died of police torture."

The death in police custody sparked two days of rioting and protests in Meerut,
about 45 miles from New Delhi, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Angry
residents surrounded and threw stones at the police station, burned police
vehicles and blocked traffic.

Thousands participated in Sharma's funeral procession; protesters demanded an
open inquest by a panel of physicians and the immediate arrests of those
responsible.

Police conducted an autopsy in private, lawyers close to the case said. But
authorities did issue arrest warrants for the man who said he had been robbed
and for six police officers, an apparent reaction to the unusual popular outcry,
family members and lawyers said. The merchant is in jail, alleged to have
participated in beating Sharma, but the police officers apparently have fled,
authorities said.

Although the Indian government signed the international Convention Against
Torture in 1997, it has not ratified the document. Some members of Parliament
have argued against ratification, saying they oppose international scrutiny and
asserting that Indian laws have adequate provisions to prevent torture. Human
rights advocates said Uttar Pradesh ranks highest among Indian states in the
incidence of police torture and custodial deaths.

Some police officers justify the use of torture to extract confessions and
instill fear.

"The police in India are under tremendous pressure, as people need quick
results. So we have to pick up and interrogate a lot of people. Sometimes things
get out of control," said Raghuraj Singh Chauhan, a newly assigned officer at
the station where Rajeev Sharma died. "After all, confessions cannot be
extracted with love. The fear of the police has to be kept alive -- how else
would you reduce crime?" he added, fanning himself with a police file folder.

A senior police officer in Meerut, on condition of anonymity, openly discussed
torture methods with a visiting reporter. One technique, he said, involves a
two-foot-long rubber belt attached to a wooden handle.

"We call this thing samaj sudharak," the officer said, smiling, using the Hindi
phrase for social reformer. "When we hit with this, there are no fractures, no
blood, no major peeling of the skin. It is safe for us, as nothing shows up in
the postmortem report. But the pain is such that the person can only appeal to
God. He will confess to anything."

Last September, in a written ruling in a case of police misconduct, the Supreme
Court criticized the use of torture. "The dehumanizing torture, assault and
death in custody which have assumed alarming proportions raise serious questions
about the credibility of the rule of law and administration of the criminal
justice system," the court said. "The cry for justice becomes louder and
warrants immediate remedial measure."

In addition, the severity of the torture problem is probably worse than
statistics indicate, because victims, fearing reprisals, rarely report cases
against the police, human rights advocates said.

"About 40 percent of custodial torture cases are not even reported. They are
just grateful for God's mercy that they are alive and free," said Pradeep Kumar,
a human rights lawyer who has represented police torture victims in Uttar
Pradesh. "Torture sometimes leads to permanent disability, psychological trauma,
loss of faculties."

The National Human Rights Commission, led by a retired Supreme Court justice,
has faced criticism that it is too dependent on the government and lacks
enforcement power.

"We have not been able to build a human rights culture in the police force,"
said Shankar Sen, a former police officer and an ex-member of the commission.
"It is not only individual aberration but a matter of systemic failure."

The commission has ordered that cameras be installed in police stations to
monitor and deter police brutality.

"In the past year we have spent about $600,000 to equip most of the police
stations in New Delhi with a camera. This will make police functioning
transparent and have a big impact on torture," said Maxwell Pereira, a senior
police official in the capital.

But critics and families of victims said they had not seen changes. In a
much-publicized case in New Delhi last fall, five policemen were charged with
beating and killing Sushil Kumar Nama at a police station.

Nama had been detained on suspicion that he was working with neighborhood
gamblers. Four of the police officers were arrested in April, but one remains at
large, authorities said. Police officials denied that Nama was tortured, saying
he died of a heart attack after he was released from custody.

"My two children are so traumatized that now they run home scared every time
they see a policeman on the street," said Nama's wife, Rekha, 29. "They know
that danger lurks behind that uniform. They are not policemen, they are wolves."

On the wrong side of law

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Chunchun Kumar

Chunchun Kumar's wound is still raw

For Chunchun Kumar of Bihar's Nawada district, it was just another evening as he
lounged around at a tea stall in his village along with a friend.

But, then something happened that changed his life.

"It was 17 March of this year. There were six of them. When we first saw them,
they were beating up the temple priest. He was lying on the ground, they were
kicking and punching him," Kumar says.

"Then they started hitting two other men. Then they came into the tea shop and
they beat us black and blue. Then they fired at us."

Kumar lifts up his shirt to show a bullet mark on his abdomen. The wound is
still oozing.

The perpetrators were no ordinary criminals.

Says Kumar, "They were all policemen. I don't know why they were angry. They
were all drunk, they were like drunk elephants, they went on a rampage."

The shocked villagers complained to the police authorities, and the offending
policemen were suspended from duty and arrested.

'Very serious'

Additional director general of police in Bihar Anil Sinha confirmed the
incident.

"Two of the policemen who were inebriated vandalised the tea shop and began
firing despite protests from their other colleagues. They were arrested and,
although they have been released on bail, they are facing criminal charges."

Kumar's fight for justice recently brought him to the Indian capital, Delhi,
where he narrated his story at India's first National People's Tribunal on
Torture.

Activists say torture by police is rampant in India.

"The problem of torture is very serious. Today we have around 1.8 million cases
of police torture each year in India," says Henri Tiphagne of People's Watch, an
NGO.

Policemen in India

The police are often a law unto themselves, say campaigners

Mr Tiphagne says the victims mostly are from the poorer sections of society.

"They are generally the (low-caste) Dalits, the tribals and the Muslims. And
torture is used by those who are in power, those who possess, the landlords and
the companies who put pressure on the police to carry out torture," Mr Tiphagne
says.

Mr Anil Sinha says cases of human rights violations involving the police are
"exaggerated" by activists.

"It's a kind of stereotype being dished out by the NGOs and activists. And
because police have a bad reputation, so people take such allegations to be
correct.

"We do not condone any human rights violations by police in any manner, and such
cases are rare. We have a mechanism in place to deal with such cases and
penalise the guilty," Mr Sinha says.

Shankar Sen, a retired police officer and former member of the human rights
commission, says: "The policeman's work is very complex, there are pressure on
him to deliver results, the police are exposed to extraneous influences and
pressures."

But, he says, that does not condone torture. "It's illegal, and as a policeman I
know it doesn't work."

Mr Sen admits that police torture is prevalent. "Torture does take place, it's
very common, but it's unacceptable. Some allegations against the police are
shocking."

Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch says nearly every police station in
India can be held guilty of torture.

'Arbiter of justice'

In many parts of the country, she says, the situation is so bad that people will
not got to a police station to file a case fearing prosecution and retribution.

"There is this pattern of impunity. The fact that police believe they can get
away with it has added to the problem," Ms Ganguly says.

"The greater problem is that an average policeman believes himself to be the
arbiter of justice. Instead of going to the court, he himself is delivering
justice.

Arun Kumar with parents PP Raju and Lakshmi

Arun Kumar's mental age has been reduced to one year

"The policeman is not supposed to punish the criminal, he is supposed to catch
the criminal," she says.

For the victims of torture and their families, it is a long haul.

Arun Kumar of the southern city of Bangalore was picked up by the police after
his employer suspected him of having an affair with his wife.

Kumar's parents, PP Raju and Lakshmi, say their family home was ransacked, Kumar
was taken to the police station where he was beaten up and tortured for days.

Unable to bear the pain and the trauma, Kumar drank pesticides in an attempt to
kill himself.

He survived, but his parents say their son's mental age has been reduced to one
year - he is on medication and requires constant care.

The guilty policeman was suspended for a week, but reinstated later. The family
has a long fight ahead of them.

'Deterrence'

Says Mr Tiphagne, "A case I initiated in 1981 ended in 2007 with the dismissal
of the officer. So I have hope in Arun Kumar's case too."

But, he says, this long wait can be a huge deterrence for even the most
determined.

Henri Tiphagne of People's Watch.

Mr Tiphagne says nearly 2 million cases of torture take place in India every
year

"The torture at the police station ends, but the torture of institutions
continues. It's more of a psychological and mental nature, it is very
challenging. Most people don't have the courage to withstand that, very few
survive that," Mr Tiphagne says.

So while the victims continue to live with the trauma, most of the perpetrators
get away.

They are also emboldened by the fact that India has no clear law on torture.

The country signed the UN Convention on Torture in 1997, but even 10 years
later, it has not ratified it.

"We have to change our culture. We have to create awareness that torture is
illegal. The civil society will have to get involved," says Meenakshi Ganguly.

"People will have to get past the fact that torture happens only to other
people. And once that happens, it will change," she says.

href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/11283133/Police-Torture-and-Police-Reform"
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Torture and Police Reform

INDIA: No to torture, establish rule of law!

The first Prime Minister of India Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru said "Police is standing
on a quadrilateral from where they can protect and also violate human rights?"
But it seems that his words are of no use in India today since there is an
enormous increase in the incidents of police torture during past few decades.

It is apparent that police is the largest agency constituted with the purpose of
establishing the rule of law and human rights. One can read into the Indian
Penal Code, with certain difficulty, the prohibition against torture. Statements
recorded from witnesses under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code are not
blindly admissible in a criminal trial. If the law is so, the next obvious
question is then why do the police resort to torture?

The main reasons are feudal and colonial structure of police, scarcity of
resources in the police department, political intervention and the lack of an
independent agency to investigate the crimes committed by the police themselves.
Modern investigation is unheard of within the police department. In addition,
India's feudal society condones the use of torture.

The definition of torture as envisaged in the UN Convention Against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defines torture as an
"act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a
third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third
person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or
coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any
kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or
with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in
an official capacity."

Section 176 (A) of Cr.P.C. have provisions for the investigation in the each
case of custodial death. However, this section is not used in any case in the
entire Uttar Pradesh state. Neither have any Magistrates issued search warrants
under Section 97 of Cr.P.C. when persons were taken into illegal custody.

The Supreme Court of India had issued guidelines to be followed by
law-enforcement officers at the time of arrest and questioning in the case D.K
Basu vs. West Bengal. It is mandatory for the law-enforcement agencies to
follow, but is been negated in the state. Regarding encounter killings, the
National Human Rights Commission has directed the country's police to register
cases in every case of reported encounter killings. The Commission has also
directed to send it a video of the post-mortem examination in each case of
custodial death. This also is not followed in the state and to the information
of the PVCHR anywhere in the country. The question than is what is the value of
the Supreme Court and the NHRC in the country?

There is a provision for interim relief to be awarded as compensation under
Section 19 of Human Right Act. Article 21 of Indian Constitution guarantees the
right to life with dignity, which is also against torture. But torture
continues unabated in the state. Do laws in the country have any meaning then?

If we look at the statistics, it is mostly the poor, the marginalised, the
Dalits and the members of the minority and backward communities are subjected to
torture. Those who have mafia gangs and known antisocial elements are not
victims of this, cruel practice other than some rare occasions. Only the
ordinary people are afraid of the police and the torture they practice. So does
India have two types of citizens -- the one with rights and those who do not
have them?

Police along with the criminals have established the rule of the lords.
Corruption and discrimination are no more mere practices, but the second nature
of the police. Rule of law can be established without preventing police torture.
Let us come together to enlighten ourselves and fight against torture to stop it
and thus establish rule of law.

What you can do?

1) Protest on 26th June against the practice of torture by street plays,
organising discussions and sending letters to the Prime Minister, and through
press releases in newspapers condemning torture and inform us what you did;
2) Indian Government has signed the UN Convention in 1997 but has failed to
ratify it. Send letters to the Prime Minister and the President of India asking
them to require the government to accede the convention;
3) In protest of the cases of torture happening right under the nose of the
National Human Rights Commission, organise a protest in front of the Commission;
4) Write letters to the editor of publications condemning torture;
5) To sensitize the people about torture and its forms, take down cases that
you come across and send it to us so that we could follow it up on your behalf;
6) Write to the Supreme Court asking why its orders and guidelines are not
followed;
7) Write to the government urging the government to provide resources to the
police to function properly.

Thank you

Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi
Convener - PVCHR
SA 4/2 A, Daulatpur
221002Varanasi
INDIA
Telephone: +91-9935599333
E-mail: pvchr.india@...

Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib... Bagram?
INVESTIGATION: US detention centre under suspicion as eerily familiar claims OF torture and rendition flights surface from the airbase on the outskirts of
Kabul. by Ian Pannell, BBC Afghanistan Correspondent

NOOR HABIB'S hands shake as he draws a picture of how he says he was abused. He
claims that he was taken to a small, darkened cell where his arms were tied to
the ceiling and he was made to stand in waist-deep water for six hours at a
time.

[Mohammad Nasim says he was asked if he knew Osama Bin laden.]Mohammad Nasim
says he was asked if he knew Osama Bin laden.

He says he was beaten, threatened with dogs, and deprived of sleep. He also
claims there was nothing unusual about his treatment, "everyone else has the
same story".

Habib was an inmate at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, an American
military detention center outside Kabul. Now, for the first time, detailed
allegations of widespread abuse and neglect have been made about this top-secret
camp.

"I didn't think a prison like Bagram ever existed on earth. It is a place that
has no rules or law," says Sabrullah, another ex-inmate.

Over a period of more than two months, we tracked down 27 former detainees.
There were others, but they were afraid to speak or had been warned not to. Just
two said they had been treated well. Many allegations of ill-treatment appear
repeatedly in the interviews; physical abuse, the use of stress positions,
excessive heat or cold, unbearably loud noise, being forced to remove clothes in
front of female soldiers and in four cases, being threatened with death at
gunpoint.

The account of an inmate known as Dr Khandan is one of the most harrowing. He
says he was kept in isolation for months and treated worse than an animal: "They
deprived us of sleep, they put us in a cold room and turned the air conditioning
on and would take away the blanket. They poured cold water on you in winter and
hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol to your head
and threatened you with death. They put some kind of medicine in the water to
make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you."

All the men who spoke to us were interviewed in isolation and they were all
asked the same questions. They were held at times between 2002 and 2008 and they
were all accused of belonging to or helping al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

None of the inmates were charged with any offense or put on trial; some even
received apologies when they were released. While none of the allegations can be
independently verified, the ill-treatment they describe also appears in an
inquiry by US Senators into the handling of detainees in US custody, and they
match the findings of interviews with ex-inmates conducted by human-rights
organizations and legal groups. They are very similar to the methods that were
used at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

"The conditions at Bagram were harder than Guantanamo," says Taj Mohammed. The
camp has held thousands of people over the last eight years and a new
multi-million dollar detention center is currently under construction.

Most of the inmates are Afghans but some were captured abroad and brought here
under a process known as "extraordinary rendition", including at least two
Britons. The Obama administration says they are dangerous men and it classifies
them as "terrorist suspects" and "enemy combatants" rather than "prisoners of
war".

It is a legal classification that critics say deliberately denies inmates access
to lawyers or the right to appeal or even complain about their treatment.

The Pentagon has denied the charges and it insists that all inmates are treated
humanely. We were not allowed to visit Bagram, nor was anyone made available for
an interview. Instead, a spokesman for the US Secretary of Defense responded to
written questions. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright insisted that conditions at
Bagram meet international standards for care and custody. In a statement, he
said: "Department of Defense policy is and always has been to treat detainees
humanely. There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not
followed, and service members have been held accountable for their actions."

The US military said it would investigate any serious claims of abuse, but none
of the men interviewed had been made aware of any formal complaints procedure.

But another former inmate, known as Mirwais, said: "They have no respect for
human beings. They blame others for violating human rights. You just go and see
how they violate human rights."

Since coming to office, president Barack Obama has banned the use of torture and
ordered a review of its policy on detainees, which is expected to report next
month. But unlike Guantanamo Bay, the prisoners at Bagram have no access to
lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention.

Tina Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, a legal
support group which is bringing a test case in the States to try to win
representation for four detainees, says the inmates at Bagram are being kept in
"a legal black hole, without access to lawyers or courts".

She is pursuing legal action that, if successful, would grant detainees the same
rights as those still being held at Guantanamo Bay, but the Obama administration
is trying to block the move.

Last summer, the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo should be
given legal rights. Speaking on the campaign trail, Obama applauded the ruling:
"The Court's decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration's attempt to
create a legal black hole at Guantanamo. This is an important step toward
re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and
rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas
corpus."

Foster accuses Obama of abandoning that position and "using the same arguments
as the Bush White House".

In its legal submissions, the US Justice Department argues that because
Afghanistan is an active combat zone it is not possible to conduct rigorous
inquiries into individual cases and that it would divert precious military
resources at a crucial time. Pentagon spokesman Wright says: "Detention during
wartime is not criminal punishment and therefore does not require that
individuals be charged or tried in a court of law."

Obama has also ruled against an earlier decision to release photos that show
abuse of prisoners in US custody in Afghanistan.

Ex-inmate Esmatullah says he has trouble breathing when he thinks about Bagram,
he gets nervous at the very mention of its name. Like many others, he also
claims that he was beaten and threatened during interrogation: "The Afghan
translator told me he has orders to take out my eyes, break my legs and hands. I
said I am not afraid of dying. Then he hit me with a stick so hard that I had
severe pains in my back for a month and a half."

Unlike Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Bagram has received scant attention so
far. The men would like an official apology, recognition of the abuse they say
they have suffered and compensation.

These revelations come at a time when president Obama is trying to re-set
America's relationship with the Muslim world and he is redoubling US efforts to
win the war in Afghanistan. It is a controversy that has already attracted much
attention in the Afghan and Pakistan media and seriously threatens to tarnish
the image of the new Obama administration on both sides of this troubled border.

INDIA: Structural breakdown of the justice system must be addressed

The reports that appeared yesterday in the Indian media quoting 'informed
sources' that the Tamil Nadu state police has decided not to produce detainees
in courts exposes the extent to which the justice institutions have broken down
in India. According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 it is
the statutory duty of the state police to assist the courts in the country for
its day-to-day functioning. It is also mandatory for the police to produce the
detainees remanded to judicial custody before the courts, as and when required
by the courts. Any decision by the police, express or implied, against this
official duty must not go unpunished.

The decision of the Tamil Nadu state police is a wilful dereliction of official
responsibility, negation of judicial supremacy and the very function of the
police in maintaining law and order. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and
its sister concern the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have been
continuously reporting instances suggesting the systematic breakdown of rule of
law in India, particularly concerning the police. The decision by the state
police of Tamil Nadu to disregard the provisions of law, substantiates ALRC's
position that there are apparent and deep-rooted problems affecting the rule of
law in India.

Lawyers engaged in professional misconduct, judges failing to perform duties and
police officers committing crimes, assaulting persons and destroying property
have become the defining characters of the justice dispensation system in the
country. The structural breakdown is apparent. Yet, instead of gearing up to
repair the ruptures, it appears that the government is forcing the people to get
used to the reality.

The approval by the Government of India for recruiting, training and deploying
Salwa Judum, in Chhattisgarh state, in the excuse of countering Naxalite
activities in that state is an example. Salwa Judum is nothing but an armed
mercenary group operating with impunity in Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh state
administration finds it convenient to arm a faction of organised civilians to
fight anti-state movements like the Naxalites. By promoting Salwa Judum, the
state is trying to absolve from its responsibility of maintaining law and order
in its territory.

The Government of India, instead of preventing the Chhattisgarh state
administration from continuing with the deployment of Salwa Judum, insisted yet
another state administration, the Manipur state government, to resort to similar
tactics in 2008. The same practice was implemented years ago in the state of
Jammu and Kashmir during the time of rightwing BJP led government in India.
Neither in Jammu and Kashmir, nor in Chhattisgarh or in Manipur, has the
situation improved since then.

In the past two years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of
extra-judicial executions reported from India. In the Indian context, such
murders are referred to as 'encounter killings'. As of now, there is no legal
framework in the country by which an impartial enquiry and investigation is
possible in a case of encounter killing. The practice is, a superior officer and
later the court, accepts a report sent in by the police involved in the murder
and no further action is initiated. The murder is often rewarded by the
administration, so much so, there are more than three dozen 'encounter
specialists' serving as police officers in various parts of the country.

Impunity for the police to murder and the lack of punishment trivialises the
practice of custodial torture in the country. The practice of torture is
widespread and is accepted as an essential requirement for law enforcement.

On June 15 this year, the Speaker of the Kerala State Legislative Assembly, Mr.
K. Radhakrishnan, declared at the annual conference of police officers of the
state, that the use of third-degree methods by the state police cannot be
condemned. The Speaker during his keynote address argued that it is ridiculous
to insist that the police officers in India respect human rights. According to
him, it is difficult to do policing and respect human rights at the same time.
He made it clear that when the police investigate a crime, it is natural and
often required for the investigating officer to use torture to prove the case.
Among those listening to these remarks were the Director of the State Police
Training College and the Director General of Police.

Breach of law by the law enforcement agencies in the country meets no bounds.
Corruption, nepotism and the disregard to the law flourish within state
agencies, particularly in the police. The society quiver under the writ of fear
when the law enforcement agents commit crimes with impunity. In spite of
repeated and legitimate requests from national and international human rights
groups and the thematic mandates holders of the UN like the Special Rapporteur
on the question of torture, the Government of India has failed to criminalise
the practice of torture or to ratify the Convention against Torture.

In fact, the government has failed in implementing the directives of its own
Supreme Court. The directives of the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case are
yet to be implemented in the country. The implementation of the Court's
directives is important for improving the state of policing in India, since half
of the issues concerning the police, including the practice of torture and
participation in crimes by the police officers, are carried out at the behest of
corrupt politicians in the country. Having a law against torture while the
ultimate writ above the police entrusted with a corrupt politician will not
improve policing in India.

It is in this context that the protest called in by the Tamil Nadu state police
becomes relevant in exposing and addressing the situation of rule of law in
India. The very fact that the police can intentionally negate the supremacy of
law shows the vacuum of authority in the country. The incident illuminates the
impunity that the police have enjoyed so far that they have now dared to openly
challenge judicial supremacy.

Instead of actively engaging in the situation, the Tamil Nadu state government
has allowed the police to continue with their follies. The police action on
February 19 inside the compound of Madras High Court that injured police
officers, lawyers, judges, court staff and ordinary persons is not of such
triviality that it could be resolved by a fast declared by the state Chief
Minister. The police-lawyer confrontation and the subsequent sequels of
non-cooperation between three important limbs of the justice dispensation system
of the country is not an issue that can be camouflaged with political gimmicks
and ignored.

The February 19 incident is the clarion call for intervention by a system, which
is left to breakdown and disintegrate. The subsequent protest orchestrated by
the state police refusing cooperation to the functioning of the judiciary is a
failure of the constitutional machinery that require a legitimate intervention
by the Government under Article 356 of the Indian Constitution. The failure of
the Government of India to take affirmative actions to correct and revitalise
its criminal justice system poses legitimate challenges to India's democracy and
the country's position in the UN Human Rights Council.

Match Fixing in Cricket , IPL , Police , Judiciary & Government in India
Match Fixing in Indian Judiciary ? Questions CJI is Afraid to Answer & Crimes CJI is covering-up
http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/match-fixing---are-you-sleeping ,
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/match-fixing-in-indian-judiciary ,

Failure of duties & questions not answered by public servants

Circle Inspector of Police , Vijayanagar Police Station , Mysore City , Karnataka

http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/police-not-registering-fir-complaint ,

NICE Corridor Questions to CHIEF MINISTER .Mr.Yediyurappa

Read full questionnaire
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/nice-corridor-questions-to-chie\
f-minister

CROSS EXAM OF HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF

INDIA -

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI –

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE –

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF GOVERNOR , RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ , http://theftinrbi.rediffblogs.com/

, http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/

CROSS EXAM OF MUDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA , MYSORE –

http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/
, http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF BDA COMMISSIONER , BDA , BANGALORE –

http://crimesofbda.blogspot.com/ , http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,

CORPORATE CRIMES RPG CABLES LIMITED

http://crimesatrpg.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesatrpg.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/218

MEGA FRAUD BY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,

http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196

are you ready to catch tax thieves ?

http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,

http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196

MOBILE PHONES , CURRENCY SCANDALS

http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,

http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196

reliance industry where is accountability ?

http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,

http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196

crimes at infosys campus

http://crimeatinfy.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimeatinfy.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/214

crimes by B.D.A against a poor woman

http://crimesofbda.blogpot.com/ ,

http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212

crimes of land mafia in India

http://landscamsinindia.blogspot.com/ ,

http://landscam.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212

currency thefts in RBI Press

http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ ,

http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/80

killer colas & killer medicines of India

http://deathcola.blogpot.com/ ,

http://deathcola.wordpress.com/ ,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/201

POLICE NOT REGISTERING COMPLAINT AGAINST CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA & OTHERS

From,
NAGARAJ.M.R.
LIG-2 / 761, HUDCO FIRST STAGE,
LAXMIKANTANGAR, HEBBAL,
MYSORE - 570017.

Through,
Honourable DG & IG of Police ,
State Police H.Q ,
Bangalore.

To,

Honourable Circle Inspector of Police,
Vijayanagar Police Station,
Mysore.

Honourable Sir,

Subject : Violation of FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & HUMAN RIGHTS by Honourable Chief Jusice of India & H.E.Honourable President of India & other public servants
Karnataka Police are NOT registering & acting on my complaint to them dated 04.07.2009

The Vijayanagar police in mysore stated that they don’t have legal jurisdiction to book the criminals I have mentioned in the complaint & by taking a statement from me to that effect closed the case temporarily on 11.09.2010 after sitting over the complaint for years together. Is it not the duty of DG&IGP to seek the permission from home ministry to legally prosecute the alleged criminal VVIPs ? Why he was silent ? Ofcourse the lower rung police officers practically don’t have power to prosecute high & mighty ?

Hereby , I do request the DG & IG OF Police , Government of Karnataka to seek the legal sanction from union home ministry & Karnataka state home ministry , for the prosecution of below mentioned criminal VVIPs & to reopen my complaint here with.

In India , as per constitution of india all citizens are equal , have right to equal oppurtunity & equitable justice irrespective of caste , creed , religion , etc. the constitution has guaranteed these to every Indian citizen by way of CONSTITUTIONAL FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS. Also , every humanbeing on earth has got HUMAN RIGHTS, by virtue of his / her birth.
However in india , CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARIES / PUBLIC SERVANTS have forgotten this & are acting as lords , autocrats - unquestionable public masters. CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARIES are PUBLIC SERVANTS appointed to serve the public, public are the kings of democracy , they are the taxpayers & paymasters of this very same public servants. In India , corruption has spread it's tentacles far & wide , it has not even spared the judiciary. The last resort of commonman for seeking justice is judiciary , even there corruption has spread.In present day India , if one is rich , he can committ any type of crime & get away clean from courts of law. there are corrupt police officials who modify FIR , suppress evidences ,manipulate evidences , takes up different line of investigation , fix innocents , coughs-up false confessions from innocents by 3rd degree torture , file B report closing the case , decides not to appeal in higher court of law , etc , ALL FOR A PRICE. Just see the list of millionnaire police officials who are caught by karnataka lokayukta.
Next step , the prosecutor & defense advocate strikes a deal , manipulates evidences , manipulates way of presentation of case & way of argument favouring the rich crooks for a price , as observed in high profile BMW case involving public prosecutor IU KHAN & defense counsel RK ANAND. In this way , if corrupt police & advocates , together manipulate the due process of law , the presiding judge is left high & dry eventhough the judge is honest, he is left helpless. to add to this , when the judge himself is corrupt , people's last hope , democracy is dead. Nowadays we are hearing too many reports of irregularities in judiciary.
our publication has filed many appeals as PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION before hon'ble supreme court of India but the vested interests there are not accepting it as PILs. WHAT DOES PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION MEANS ? ISSUES WHICH ARE OF PUBLIC CONCERN AFFECTING MANY NUMBER OF PUBLICS.
The issues raised by us for sample :
1. sale of fake medicines & adulterated food products , beverages , colas affecting the health of millions of Indians & public of importing nations who are importing the same dangerous products from india .
2. demolition , eviction of houses , lands belonging to poor dalits , tribals , backward castes by government authorities whereas regularising illegal land encroachments , illegal buildings by high & mighty people in total disregard to law. in some cases government has even made contempt of court , by defying court orders & enacting special laws all to favour rich land grabbers.
3. take the cases corporate frauds, violation of labour laws , pollution board laws , tax laws , etc by companies.
4. The reports in media about certain highly placed public servants leaking india's defense secrets to foreign countries & some politicians , film stars attending parties hosted by anti nationals DAWOOD IBRAHIM & underworld dons in gulf countries & elsewhere. these type of appeals are for public good , national security , as public are affected by them. still supreme court of india is not considering
our repeated PIL Appeals.the courts have the authority to consider even a post card , e-mail as a PIL Appeal , the courts even have the right to initiate suo-motto action for public good , inspite of absence of any appeals / complaints. over & above this at the time of my very first appeal my income was very low & i was a retrenched factory employee who was eligible for free legal aid, even free legal aid was not given to me. Now , even to my repeated RTI Appeals the Honourable chief justice of India & H.E.Honourable President of India are not giving the requested information . these action of CJI & PRESIDENT OF INDIA is aiding high & mighty criminals , anti nationals , amounts to suppression of information , truth , evidences , which is a cognizable offence.

SOS Appeal to SUPREME COURT of INDIA
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2010/08/s-o-s-appeal-to-supreme-court-of-india.html

CROSS EXAM OF HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF INDIA -
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/  ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/  ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/  ,
CROSS EXAM OF UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/  ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/  ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/  ,
CROSS EXAM OF DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/  ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/  ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/  ,
CROSS EXAM OF GOVERNOR , RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/  , http://theftinrbi.rediffblogs.com/
, http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/
CROSS EXAM OF MUDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA , MYSORE –
http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/  , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/
, http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/  ,
CROSS EXAM OF BDA COMMISSIONER , BDA , BANGALORE –
http://crimesofbda.blogspot.com/  , http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/  ,
CORPORATE CRIMES RPG CABLES LIMITED
http://crimesatrpg.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crimesatrpg.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/218
MEGA FRAUD BY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/  ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
are you ready to catch tax thieves ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/  ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
MOBILE PHONES , CURRENCY SCANDALS
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/  ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
reliance industry where is accountability ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/  ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
crimes at infosys campus
http://crimeatinfy.blogspot.com/  ,
http://crimeatinfy.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/214
crimes by B.D.A against a poor woman
http://crimesofbda.blogpot.com/  ,
http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
crimes of land mafia in India
http://landscamsinindia.blogspot.com/  ,
http://landscam.wordpress.com/   ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
currency thefts in RBI Press
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/  ,
http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/80
killer colas & killer medicines of India
http://deathcola.blogpot.com/  ,
http://deathcola.wordpress.com/  ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/201

We do have highest respect for all constitutional bodies , public servants , but it is an appeal to the honest few in public service ,to bring to book their corrupt colleagues.The Honourable Chief Justice of India & H.E.Honourable President of India have violated their oaths of office , failed in their constitutional duties , suppressed material truths / informations & thereby repeatedly violated my Constitutionally guaranteed FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS & Obstructing me from performing constitutionally prescribed FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES AS A CITIZEN OF INDIA.
Hereby , i do request you to legally prosecute the below mentioned public servants viz
1. H.E.Honourable President of India
2. Honourable Chief Justice Of India
3. Union Home Secretary , GOI
4. Governor , Reserve Bank Of India
5. Director-General & Inspector General Of Police , government of karnataka
6. Commissioner , Bangalore Development Authority
7. Commissioner , Mysore Urban Development Authority
8. Commissioner , Mysore City Corporation
9. Labour Commissioner , government of karnataka and
10. all public servants belonging to tax dept , pollution control board , etc mentioned in the above cases with web links.
on the above mentioned charges. the whole issue of this news paper & the related materials at the weblinks provided, forms part of this complaint. If i am repeatedly called to police station or else where for the sake of investigations , the losses i do incurr as a result like loss of wages , transportation , job , etc must be borne by the government. prevoiusly the police / IB personnel repeatedly called me the complainant (sufferer of injustices) to police station for questioning , but never called the guilty culprits even once to police station for questioning , as the culprits are high & mighty . this type of one sided questioning must not be done by police or investigating agencies . if anything untoward happens to me or to my family members like loss of job , meeting with hit & run accidents , loss of lives , etc , the jurisdictional police together with above mentioned accussed public servants will be responsible for it. Even if criminal nexus levels fake charges , police file fake cases against me or my dependents to silence me , this complaint is & will be effective.
if anything untoward happens to me or my dependents , the governmentof india is liable to pay Rs. one crore as compensation to survivors of my family. if my whole family is eliminated by the criminal nexus ,then that compensation money must be donated to Indian Army Welfare Fund. afterwards , the money must be recovered by GOI as land arrears from the salary , pension , property , etc of guilty police officials , public servants & Constitutional fuctionaries. Thanking you.
Jai Hind , Vande Mataram.

Date : 10.10.2010 your's sincerely,
Place : Mysore nagaraj.m.r.

edited , printed , published & owned by NAGARAJ.M.R. @ : LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR ,HEBBAL , MYSORE -570017 INDIA cell : 09341820313

home page:

http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/Home , http://groups.google.co.in/group/e-clarion-of-dalit . http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/ , http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/e-clarionofdalit/

e-mail : nagarajhrw@hotmail.com , naghrw@yahoo.com

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