Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Saturday, November 16, 2013
In Ghaziabad’s prisons, pay up or pay the price
Families claim that Ghaziabad police have to be bribed to ensure prisoners aren’t tortured in custody
November 14, 2013
We’re now bribed to ensure that the person in custody is not beaten in lockup’
‘When we arrest someone for interrogation, the family members are ready to pay 10-20 thousand rupees’These statements by two policemen posted at different police stations of Ghaziabad district in Uttar Pradesh reveal how money is being made in the name of policing. When asked why there is such terror of the police in the district, a sub-inspector responds, “A number of deaths in custody have cast a spell of terror among people and the police take advantage of it.”
In a judgment passed in 2010, the Supreme Court declared that policemen found guilty of crime deserve more severe punishment than a regular criminal because they are the upholders of law and must preserve its sanctity. The constable accused of castrating a man in custody was sentenced to 5 years in jail. Criticizing the psychology of the police, the Court said that our democracy had no place for illegal methods like third degree.
But there is no stopping custodial violence. Statistics from the National Human Rights Commission reveal that in the past three years 417 deaths have taken place in police custody and 4285 in judicial custody. In 2005, an amendment in CrPC provided for a judicial investigation in case a person dies, goes missing or is raped during custody. But this has not restrained the police.
According to a sub-inspector posted in the area across Hindan River, Ghaziabad is like Dubai for the police department with good opportunities to make the extra buck. The amount received for not torturing men in custody is distributed among shareholders ranging from the highest management to lower level figures of authority.
Ghaziabad has witnessed half a dozen deaths in custody within the past one and a half years, three of which are quite recent cases. In July this year, Lakhan Saxena was arrested from Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad. He was accused of throwing acid on a married woman. The police arrested him the next day on 28 July and took him to the police station. It was later reported that he had hanged himself in the toilet of the jail. He was rushed to a local hospital where he succumbed to death. Saxena’s brother Ramsharan alleges that he died because of police torture. Five policemen were suspended in the case.
In June, another similar incident took place in Ghaziabad’s Kavi Nagar police station. The police had arrested a truck driver, Shakeel, on theft charges. He later died in police custody. When his family protested, the government hastily compensated them with 5 lakh rupees and 9 policemen were suspended. A case of murder was also registered against them. Shakeel’s father Khaleel says that on 13 June the police came to his house at around 10:30 in the morning and arrested his son instead of their neighbour. He says, “We told them that my son was not the one they were looking for but they assured us that they will let him go after a brief interrogation. The next day we reached the police station and met Shakeel. He was scared and pleaded us to get him out or the police would kill him.” A local resident, Mohammed, alleges that the SHO Sudhir Tyagi demanded Rs 80,000 as bribe for releasing Shakeel. When they told him that they could arrange for only Rs 10,000, the police turned them away. According to the police, Shakeel fell ill on the night of 14 June. He was taken to the nearby Sarvodya Hospital where doctors referred him to Delhi’s GTB hospital because of his serious condition. He succumbed to death on the way.
The DIG, Meerut Range, Satyanarayan says that he was wanted in several cases of vehicle-theft and had confessed to involvement in many cases while in custody. According to him, the police were taking him to Ferozabad to recover stolen vehicles when he fell ill on the way and died. When asked about marks of injury found on his body in the post mortem, he said that he was suffering from TB
A Wayward Rocket
BJP digs up the ISRO spy case, a scientist faces a bitter past
The Spy Who Never Was
A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
- December 1994 ISRO spy scandal hits headlines. Scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran accused of selling cryogenic technology. Two Maldivian women dragged into the case.
- 1995 Kerala CM Karunakaran resigns
- 1996 CBI clears Narayanan’s name, reinstated in ISRO
- 1998 SC acquits all accused
- 1999 Narayanan files compensation suit
- 2001 NHRC orders state govt to pay Rs 1 crore compensation
- 2012 HC orders immediate payment of interim relief, Rs 10 lakh paid
- 2013 BJP rakes up issue in its tirade against R.B. Sreekumar
***
Politics has a habit of dredging up old dirt. The scandal that shook
the political and scientific establishment in Kerala long ago—the 1994
ISRO spy case—is back in news. The case had not only ruined the careers
of senior scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran but also led to
the fall of the K. Karunakaran-led Congress government and cast
aspersions on former DGP Ramon Srivastava. The charges against the
scientists were dismissed in ’96 and was thrown out by the Supreme
Court in ’98. Activist-lawyer A. Jayashankar says, “It was a conspiracy
between certain media houses and groups within the Congress. The media
blew it out of proportion. It was tragic that good scientists like
Narayanan and Sasikumaran were dragged into this.”A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
A Wayward Rocket
BJP digs up the ISRO spy case, a scientist faces a bitter past
The Spy Who Never Was
A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
- December 1994 ISRO spy scandal hits headlines. Scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran accused of selling cryogenic technology. Two Maldivian women dragged into the case.
- 1995 Kerala CM Karunakaran resigns
- 1996 CBI clears Narayanan’s name, reinstated in ISRO
- 1998 SC acquits all accused
- 1999 Narayanan files compensation suit
- 2001 NHRC orders state govt to pay Rs 1 crore compensation
- 2012 HC orders immediate payment of interim relief, Rs 10 lakh paid
- 2013 BJP rakes up issue in its tirade against R.B. Sreekumar
***
Politics has a habit of dredging up old dirt. The scandal that shook
the political and scientific establishment in Kerala long ago—the 1994
ISRO spy case—is back in news. The case had not only ruined the careers
of senior scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran but also led to
the fall of the K. Karunakaran-led Congress government and cast
aspersions on former DGP Ramon Srivastava. The charges against the
scientists were dismissed in ’96 and was thrown out by the Supreme
Court in ’98. Activist-lawyer A. Jayashankar says, “It was a conspiracy
between certain media houses and groups within the Congress. The media
blew it out of proportion. It was tragic that good scientists like
Narayanan and Sasikumaran were dragged into this.”A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Demand grows for reservation for West Bengal Muslims
Demand grows for reservation for West Bengal Muslims
Justice Sachar Committee report has disclosed the worst condition of Muslims in West Bengal where Left Front has bee in power since last three decades. This eye-opening report provided reasons for Muslims who constitute 25% of the total state population to rethink about continuing their supports to the Left Front.
The cynical role of state government in gloomy incidents of Singur and Nandigram as well as Rizwanur Rahman murderer case increased the anger of Muslims towards it. Consequently, Muslims switched their political allegiance to Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress which led to Left Front’s debacle in the last General and Panchayat elections.
Now in an attempt to win back the Muslim vote bank in next assembly election expected to be held next year, the state government is planning to follow the pattern of Kerala and other southern states to include more Muslim sub-castes into the OBC category to extend the reservation benefits to more members of the community.
Considering that the recent erosion of the Left Front vote in the minority areas was the big reason for lower performance of the Front, Forward Bloc, one of the partners in Left government, was the first to initiate in this regard by writing to the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a few days ago to take up the matter of reservations for Muslims as early as possible to win them back. The CPI and CPM leaders have also agreed to this proposal but the lone partner within the Left Front, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) differed on the issue.
Ironically, Muslims who are most backward community have only 2% share of reservation under the OBC folder in West Bengal while half of the Hindus, who are the 71% of the state population, are enjoying reservation as SC/ST.
However, avoiding the constitutional bar which is against religion-based reservations state government is going to bring as many Muslim castes in the OBC category as possible. Currently, only 12 Muslim castes are under the OBC but now Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has asked West Bengal Backward Classes Commission to identify another 28 Muslim castes to include them in OBC list. If it will be implemented nearly 10% reservation will be available for Muslims in the state.
According to Sayed Masudal Hussain, member of West Bengal Backward Classes Commission presently Muslim castes like Ansaris (weavers), Qureshis (butchers) are among the 12 Muslim castes under OBC reservation. But now castes of Muslims like Beldar (grave diggers), Abdal (sweepers), Mahaldar (fishermen), Kahar (palanquin bearers) and many others will be able to get reservation through the OBC quota. The work in this regard is going on.
On the other hand the West Bengal Minorities Commission has backed the demand for reservation of Muslims and termed it necessary for bridging the widening gap between Hindus and Muslims in all spheres of the society. Chairman of the commission, S Z Adnan, said it was time for the government to take emergency measures like reservation to maintain the balance between two communities.
Meanwhile, state unit of Jamia’t Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) also raised the voice in the favor of reservations for Muslims to solve their educational and social backwardness at a conference organized in famous Dharmatala ground, Kolkata on January 29th.
Talking to TwoCircles.net, Maulana Siddiqullah Choudhury, general secretary of West Bengal JUH, said: “10% reservation will not be enough to solve the West Bengal Muslim problems. Therefore, we demand 20% reservation because currently only 2.5% Muslims are in government job while they comprise 30% of the total population of the state.”
It was the first such impressive conference on reservation issue which was attended by almost 1.5 lak people from across the state as well as outside of it. “We gave ultimatum to the government to take the decision on the matter on earliest because we can not wait any more. We have fed up of promises since last 30 years now government has to step in practically” he added.
About the next step in this connection Maulana Choudhry who is also the president of a political party namely Public Democratic Conference of India (PDCI) said: “We are going to hold a vehicle-rally from January 6th to 8th which will begin from Kolkata and will be visiting all Muslim dominated areas of the state to create awareness among the community. It will not be our last step but our efforts will continue until demands are fulfilled.”
“Almost all leading Muslim organizations and groups including Jam’at Islami Hind, Indian Muslim League, All India Milli Council and Republican Party of India are with us in this struggle” he continued.
He further said that government policies pushed the community to the appalling condition. So, it is its responsibility to restore their lives and that would be possible only by reservation.
He also criticized Congress and Trinamol Congress: “These two parties promised in the recently concluded election manifestos that they will ease the way for Muslim reservation but now they are keeping silent. They should learn from the fiasco of Left Front” he said.
Keeping an eye on Assembly elections, the Left Front besides considering the reservation for Muslims, it also ordered concerned agencies to expedite job-oriented development projects in the Muslim-dominated blocks of Murshidabad, North and South 24-Parganas, Malda, Nadia, Birbhum, Howrah, Burdwan and Kolkata to regain the confidence of the minorities.
However, it will be interesting to see that how state government will settle the matter because if it fails to take decision about reservation then it will heavily pay for it in the coming assembly elections as it already got warning bells in Lok Sabha as well as in Panchayat elections and its decision in the favor of reservation may bring dispute among allieshild smuggling' arrests in Haiti Haitian police have detained 10 US nationals for trying to bus 33
| hild smuggling' arrests in Haiti | |||||
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Haitian police have detained 10 US nationals for trying to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic. Yves Christallin, the Haitian social affairs minister, said on Sunday that police arrested five men and five women with US passports, along with two Haitians, as they tried to cross the border on Friday night. "This is an abduction, not an adoption," Christallin said. He said the US citizens did not have the proper documents from the government to take the children out of Haiti, nor letters of authorisation from their parents. The Americans were identified by Christallin as members of an Idaho-based Baptist group called New Life Children's Refuge. He said two pastors were also involved, one in Haiti and one in Atlanta, Georgia. Their plan was to take around 100 children by bus to a rented hotel at a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, where they planned to establish an orphanage.
Laura Silsby, the group's leader, said on Sunday: "In this chaos the government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing." She told The Associated Press news agency that the group only had the best of intentions and paid no money for the children, whom she said they obtained from Jean Sanbil, a Haitian pastor at the Sharing Jesus Ministries. When asked if she thought it was naive to cross the border without adoption papers at a time when Haitians are so concerned about child trafficking, Silsby said: "By no means are we any part of that. That's exactly what we are trying to combat." "American diplomats have visited the detained Americans and are in communication with Haitian authorities," the embassy said in a statement. "As always, US embassy officials will take all appropriate steps to ensure the wellbeing of US citizens detained abroad." Trafficking fears Amanda Weisbaum, from the non-profit organisation, Save the Children, told Al Jazeera that taking children out of their home country is not in their best interests. "Experience has shown it is better to keep the children in the place, and with the people, they know," she said. "The Haitian government was quite right to halt these people at the border if they felt they didn't have the right paperwork." Haitian officials have voiced fears that child traffickers will take advantage of the chaos after Haiti's 7.0 magnitude January 12 earthquake to leave the country with children in illegal adoption schemes. There is also concern that legitimate adoption agencies may rush to take earthquake orphans out of the country before proper checks have been conducted to confirm that their parents have died. The United States has urged citizens moved by Haiti's earthquake to show patience in adopting children, and Haiti said its prime minister will have to sign off on every | |||||
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