By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
NEW DEHLI, India –Chunchun Kumar is an ordinary citizen from Bihar’s Nawada district and while he was drinking tea with his friends, a group of drunken policemen vandalized the tea house and brutally beat Kumar and his friends. The six police officers were beating up a temple priest at a village temple before going to the teashop. According to Kumar, he and his friends were beaten “black and blue” before the police started shooting at them. Kumar was shot in the abdomen.
Kumar and the villagers complained to the police authorities. India police acknowledged the incident. Bihar Anil Sinha, the director general of police said, “Two of the policemen who were inebriated vandalized 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.”
Activist say that torture is rampant in India, especially among the poorer societies. Henri Tiphagne of People’s Watch, a nongovernmental organization, said, “The problem of torture is very serious. Today we have around 1.8 million cases of police torture in India.” Tiphagne added, the victims of torture “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.”
However, Anil Sinha denied that police torture was widespread in India, “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 penalize the guilty.”
According to Meenkshi Ganuly of Human Rights Watch, almost all the police stations in India are guilty of torture.
Kashmir Singh was a Pakistani prisoner held captive in Indian prisons for 14 years. In 2005, Singh and five other Pakistani prisoners were released as a sign of good-will from the Indian government. However, Singh has lost his kidney and mental stability due to torture during his years in captivity. Sigh’s sister said, “It had shocked us, as Pakistanis were never treated like this. This does not mean, we want the Indians being subjected to the inhuman treatment, but our government must prevail on India to review its torturous policy.”
For more information, please see:
BBC – The Wrong Side of Law – 18 November 2008
The News – Pakistanis Subject to Brutality in Indian Jails – 27 November 2008
Wikio – India: On the Wrong Side of Law – 19 November 2008
