[Reader-list] Top Cop Grilled!

[Sanjay Kak]

Am posting an account of what sounds like a productive afternoon:
do take a look at the pictures and videos too
Sanjay Kak


Chief of Police of Indian State under Fire for Human Rights Record at
Berkeley Conference

Please forward widely: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddp3w2ff_32hcwr52gj

"Arresting Film-maker May Have Been a Mistake": Vishwa Ranjan
DGP of Chhattisgarh faces roomful of protestors

For a change, it was the turn of Vishwa Ranjan, the high profile DGP
(Director General of Police) of the Indian State of Chhattisgarh, to be
interrogated.  Questioning the DGP about the massive human rights abuses
perpetrated by the police under his direction were students, faculty and
members from a coalition of South Asian community groups at a conference on
Indian Democracy at Berkeley, California, where he was one of the invited
speakers.

And some of the 'confessions' that emerged from him were startling. The
arrest of film maker Ajay T.G., Vishwa Ranjan said, was a 'technical
mistake'. The continued incarceration of Dr Binayak Sen in Raipur jail was
the responsibility of the Chhattisgarh government and not the police.

Apparently, the chief police official of Chhattisgarh is so unused to
questioning that he became flustered and signed a post-card to the Prime
Minister asking for Dr Sen's release! The card he signed reads 'The
imprisonment of this brave and good man is outrageous. I demand his
immediate unconditional release.'

Read on for a full account of the conference...
Videos, Photographs available below

The FDRI/Berkeley Conference on Indian Democracy held at the University of
California, Berkeley, on September 26 and 27, 2008, had a 2-hour session on
the human rights situation in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh.  The panel
consisted of Justice Srikrishna (former Justice of the Indian Supreme
Court), Vishwa Ranjan (DGP of Chhattisgarh), Nandini Sundar (Professor of
Sociology, University of Delhi), Sunil Kumar (Editor, Daily Chhattisgarh)
and Dipti Bhatnagar (Students for Justice in Chhattisgarh).

Free Binayak Sen postcard signed by DGP Vishwa Ranjan

Chhattisgarh is the site of an ongoing conflict between Naxalites (Maoist
insurgents) and state security forces, including the state-backed "Salwa
Judum" vigilante army.  Counterinsurgency programs have displaced over
300,000 tribals from their villages.  The state security forces, including
the Salwa Judum, have been implicated in many instances of extrajudicial
killings, rapes, extortion, torture and theft from adivasis, the main
inhabitants of the mineral rich southern part of the state.  Human rights
activists who have criticized state actions, journalists reporting on state
atrocities, and tribals resisting forced dislocation have been aribitrarily
detained, harassed and/or imprisoned under the draconian Chhattisgarh
Special Public Security Act of 2005, and accused of working for the
Naxalites.

Dr. Binayak Sen, an acclaimed human rights activist and development worker,
has been imprisoned in Raipur jail since May 2007, despite calls for his
release from Nobel Laureates, Amnesty International, national and
international organizations of physicians, and thousands of individuals from
around the world.  Ajay T.G., who made a film about the circumstances
surrounding Dr. Sen's arrest, was himself arrested by Chhattisgarh police in
May this year, but had to be released after 93 days in jail because the
police were unable to produce a charge-sheet (final police report).  Almost
five months after his arrest, although out on statutory bail, the charges
against Ajay have neither been filed, nor dropped.

The Panel

Panelists
The first speaker at the panel was Justice BN Srikrishna.  He forcefully
pointed out that there was no role for vigilante armies in a democracy, and
who was or was not a Naxalite or what punishment should be meted out to a
Naxalite, are questions that only a court of law can decide, not private
citizens.  Next, DGP Vishwa Ranjan defended the Salwa Judum's "peaceful,"
"spontaneous," nature, despite widely available evidence to the contrary,
including a recent report by Human Rights Watch enumerating numerous violent
abuses by the militia.  Nandini Sundar challenged the DGP's description of
Salwa Judum.  She traced the collusion of the state in supporting and arming
the Salwa Judum, and detailed some cases from the widespread murder, rape,
arson, and theft committed by Salwa Judum.  She also talked about the
increase in Naxalite violence in the past three years.

However, Sunil Kumar alleged in his presentation that human rights activists
only speak out against violence by the state and disregard Naxalite
violence. He was directly challenged by Nandini Sundar who reminded him that
when she had written a letter condemning the Naxalite driven blackout in
Bastar and the Salwa Judum violence earlier this year, all papers in
Chhattisgarh, including Sunil Kumar's Daily Chhattisgarh, had refused to
carry it.  The audience were appalled to hear Sunil Kumar claim in his
presentation that the"little political understanding" of the people of
Chhattisgarh, unlike that of a "mature democracy" such as the US, makes them
incapable of appreciating the difference between state and extra-state
actors.

The final speaker was Dipti Bhatnagar, a UC Berkeley graduate student who
had been added to the panel at the request of student groups. She challenged
Vishwa Ranjan, as the chief of Chhattisgarh police, to explain his role in
suppressing dissent in Chhattisgarh.  She highlighted specific cases, such
as the fabrication of evidence in the trial of Dr. Binayak Sen, the arrest
of documentary film maker Ajay T.G. without any charge-sheet, and the tacit
complicity of the security forces with Salwa Judum when it exacted revenge
on residents of Nendra village for testifying against it in front of the
National Human Rights Commission.

The Question & Answer Session
Rajeev_Dhavan_PS

Rajeev Dhavan, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, started off the
question and answer session by challenging DGP Vishwa Ranjan's facts and
asking for his resignation. Students attending the event silently carried
signs that, among other issues, voiced protest about children being held in
police custody, about a Chhattisgarh superintendent of police accused of
rape and murder, and about the ongoing harassment of Dr. Binayak Sen's
family.  One protestor carried a placard pointing out that even Gandhi would
be jailed as a dissenter under Chhattisgarh's black law (CSPSA).  The DGP
was handed a letter written by 106 academics calling for him to address a
number of egregious human rights and police brutality cases; the signatories
included professors from many universities including UC Berkeley's Center
for South Asia Studies, the organization co-hosting the conference.

The DGP evaded most of the pointed questions from conference attendees. When
asked why independent filmmaker Ajay was arrested and jailed for 93 days,
given that the police has not been able to come up with charges even after
150 days, the DGP replied that it might have been a "technical mistake"! If
so, then why has the police still not withdrawn the case against Ajay? How
many other such technical mistakes are there?

The DGP was asked that based on his claim that there are 3,200 SPOs today,
and his recent article in the Pioneer where he wrote that 3,250 SPOs have
been discharged for indiscipline, can one draw the conclusion that most SPOs
have engaged in criminal behavior?  He neither answered nor acknowledged
this question.

Given that the chargesheet against Dr. Binayak Sen is very vague, mentioning
no date or time or place, nor a description of any actual illegal act, the
DGP was asked to list the specific charges for which Dr. Binayak Sen has
been imprisoned.  But instead of answering the question, the DGP merely said
that the charges were about providing "logistical support" to Naxalites. The
DGP also claimed that he had nothing to do with Dr. Sen's imprisonment since
the arrest happened before he became the DGP of Chhattisgarh, and that Dr.
Sen's supporters should petition the government.  The DGP is either
obfuscating, or being disingenuous, because as chief of police, it is within
the DGP's power to withdraw the charges against Dr.  Sen, and to not oppose
his bail application in the court.

When asked about recruitment of child soldiers as SPOs, a very common
practice in Chhattisgarh, DGP Vishwa Ranjan replied that the police do not
deliberately recruit children, but go by whatever age the applicant claims
to be. This means that despite reports by several independent human rights
groups--including Human Rights Watch, Forum for Fact-Finding Documentation
and Advocacy (FFDA), and Asian Center for Human Rights--that large numbers
of children are being employed by the state as soldiers, the police has
taken no steps to verify the ages of the SPOs.  This is a war crime under
the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court, and the DGP is liable
for this gross human rights abuse.

The Demands

Apart from the unconditional release of Dr. Binayak Sen and other political
prisoners, community members also demanded that the Salwa Judum be disarmed,
the Black Law (Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act of 2005) be
repealed, and the use of child soldiers in counter-insurgency measures be
prohibited.

Videos:

1. DGP Vishwa Ranjan on Ajay TG's case: http://tinyurl.com/3lqm5c
2. DGP Vishwa Ranjan answering Srividhya's question on Dr. Binayak Sen's
arrest: http://tinyurl.com/422bbr
 3. Attorney Rajeev Dhavan says charges against Dr. Binayak Sen false; asks
DGP to resign:  http://tinyurl.com/45cp56
4. Protestors chanting slogans after the session is over:
http://tinyurl.com/52dvcq

Photos: Available at: http://tinyurl.com/4uoqpc

Organizations:
* Students for Justice in Chhattisgarh
* Alliance of South Asians Taking Action:  (www.asata.org)
* Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South  Asia (
http://www.alliancesouthasia.org/)
* Association for India's Development  (http://www.aidindia.org)
* Friends of South Asia  (http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/)
* Campaign to Free Binayak Sen
* Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (www.stopfundinghate.org/)
* Hesperian Foundation, Berkeley (http://www.hesperian.org/)
* International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (www.bhopal.net
* Progressive Bengali Network: ( http://www.bengali.net/pbn/ )
* People's Health Movement, USA (http://hesperian.org/ )
* Sanhati (http://sanhati.com/ )

Background:

1.FDRI/Berkeley conference is an annual conference organized jointly by the
Federation of Democratic Reforms in India (www.fdri.org ) and the Center for
South Asia Studies, Berkeley
2. Human Rights Watch report on Chhattisgarh:  "Being Neutral is Our Biggest
Crime" Government, Vigilante, and Naxalite Abuses in India's, Chhattisgarh
State, 2008 http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/india0708/index.htm
3. Faculty Petition with signatures: http://tinyurl.com/3mywo7
4. Questions for the DGP available at : http://tinyurl.com/4yjvjf
5. Front and Back copy of the post card signed by DGP of Chhattisgarh,
Vishwa Ranjan : http://tinyurl.com/42ne68
6. Text of the speech delivered by Dipti Bhatnagar:
http://tinyurl.com/4yzjmp  [See selected slides ]

For more information, write to freebinayaksen at gmail.com