[Reader-list] WSS STATEMENT OF CONCERN ON PROLONGED POLICE CUSTODY OF DEBOLINA, MATANGINI MAHILASAMITI, KOKATA

[asit das]

* **WSS STATEMENT OF CONCERN ON PROLONGED POLICE CUSTODY OF DEBOLINA, MATANGINI
MAHILASAMITI, KOKATA *

* *

*WSS is extremely concerned by the continued police custody of activist
Debolina Chakrabarty, secretary of the Kolkata based women’s organization,
Matangini Mahila Samiti, and the recent reports in the press that she has
developed some eye problems while in CID custody. The manner in which her
custody was sought by the CID and then granted by the Magistrate is also
very disturbing; it only heightens our apprehensions and anxieties of
ill‐treatment and torture of Debolina. In view of the blatant lawlessness
in the custodial torture of Soni Sori in Chhattisgarh, we fear the worst
during such `interrogation’ by he police; it could very well be the same or
a worse form *of `intimidation’ and torture.

Earlier, on 4th  April the Kolkata police had brutally lathi‐charged a
peaceful protest rally of slum‐dwellers who had been evicted over the
previous week from their hutments in Nonadanga in south Kolkata. Among
those subjected to this indiscriminate lathi‐charge were children and a
pregnant woman. On 8th April another peaceful demonstration against this
eviction was broken up by the police, and nearly 80 people, including a
child were arrested from this demonstration; Debolina and six other
activists were also arrsted along with these people.



All seven activists were produced in court on 9th April and remanded to
police custody till 12th April. They have been charged with unlawful
assembly and assault on police. On 12th, when they were produced in court,
all were sent to jail custody till 21st April. In the evening when the
lawyers of the accused were about to leave, the CID put up papers in a
secretive manner for the police remand of Debolina in three other cases —
two of which are old and allegedly connected with incidents that supposedly
took place in Nandigram and Bishnupur, for which charge‐sheets had already
been submitted, and the third in connection with a case of 2011 in
Nandigram for which an FIR was secretly filed in the P. S. The magistrate
granted the custody to the CID, without even listening to the response of
the lawyers of the accused. Despite the protests by the other arrested
activists, Debolina was forcibly taken away by the CID in a police car to
Bhabani Bhawan for `interrogation’, while the other six prisoners were sent
to lipur Central Jail. Debolina has also been tagged in a murder case under
the draconian UAPA. Debolina is a former student of the International
Relations Department of Jadavpur University, and has been associated with
several mass movements. She has participated in the people’s movements of
Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh, and has been a member of many fora,
including the SEZ Birodhi Prachar Mancha. She has also been a member of
various fact‐finding teams. Debolina has been with the people’s movement
for quite some years, functioning openly and participating in various mass
movements that took place from time to ime. . According to press reports,
Debolina has started a hunger strike in CID custody.



While we welcome the granting of bail on April 17, 2012 for the release of
Partho Sarathi Ray from Alipore Central Jail, Kolkata, we Strongly protest
the continued detention of the other activists,  especially the prolonged
CID custody of Debolina. We join the other organisations in expressing our
solidarity and support to Debolina and the other five prisoners ‐ Debjani
Ghosh, Samik Chakraborti, Manas Chatterjee, Siddhartha Gupta, and Abhijnan
Sarkar; and demand that the fabricated charges against all of them be
dropped, that they be released immediately, and Debolina be given immediate
medical treatment.



WOMEN AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE & STATE REPRESSION (WSS)

WOMEN 19.04.12