Representation Image

On the morning of September 10, a grim incident came to light. On their way to the fields, locals of the Sultanpur district of UP found the severely maimed, unclothed body of a girl hanging from a Eucalyptus tree with a stick inserted in her private parts.Locals say, it reminded them of the Nirbhaya case. The girl was strung up using a black dupatta.

Locals who discovered the girl’s body at around 6.30 AM, immediately alerted the police. On arriving, the police lowered her body from the tree, removed the stick and draped her with a cloth. On primary investigation, the police found some alcohol bottles and glasses around the area.

But in a possible display of wilful negligence, the police appeared to be causing unnecessary delays in the investigation citing the fact that the victim has not been identified as a stumbling block. Senior Inspector Satish Singh of KotwaliDehat police station said, “We are still in the process of identifying the victim while the alcohol bottles and glasses at the scene had been sent to the forensic lab.” He also mentioned that the police had not made any advancement in identifying suspects. This is what is the most shocking aspect of the investigation. Why should lack of information about the identity of the victim prevent the police from making any headway in determining the identity of the perpetrators?

Police Delayed Post-mortem?

Locals alleged that the police waited for 72 hours to conduct a post-mortem of the victim. In such grave medico-legal cases, it is imperative that the post-mortem be carried out within 24 hours of the incident for the risk of losing evidence. The post-mortem guidelines laid down by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (GOI) state that the likelihood of finding evidence after 72 hours is greatly reduced. The doctors at the civil hospital at Sultanpur who conducted the post-mortem confirmed that the delay in did in fact lead to loss of crucial evidence.

Today, after 15 days of the heinous crime taking place, the police are still tight-lipped about the incident. SP Himanshu Kumar who is the primary investigating officer in the case said, “The death of the victim occurred due to strangulation. There is no other crime.”

However, the post-mortem report by AIIMS clearly states that the victim had multiple lacerations all over her body, with lacerations present on her eyes, nose, cheeks and rectum. The report also stated that the victim suffered from a contusion on her uterine surface indicating possible sexual assault. How then can the investigating officer claim there was no other crime?

Possible Cover-up?

Until the arrival of the police, villagers had recorded the grievous image on their mobile phones. However, according to a reporter present at the scene, the police asked the locals to delete the videos and images, fearing that if they spread it would cause an uproar among the public due to the brutal nature of the crime.

Sources deem the girl to not be a local since no one has come to claim her body.

With or without the Police

While the police are still obstinate about first determining the identity of the victim before determining the identity and modus operandi of the perpetrators, women’s groups and activist organizations have taken up the challenge of bringing the crime to light.

RooprekhaVerma, senior activist and ex-Vice Chancellor, Lucknow University, vehemently condemned the crime. She said, “It appears there is a concerted effort by the police to hush up the crime. This is evident from the manner in which the post-mortem was delayed.” She also gave other examples of police apathy saying, “When we representatives of five women’s organizations went to meet the Director General Police (DGP), we were told that he was busy and would remain unavailable. When we insisted on meeting any other senior member of the Crime Branch, we were directed to the public grievance cell instead! It is shocking even in case of such a heinous crime, no senior official is either willing or able to answer critical questions.”

The U.P. State Commission for Women (UPSCW) has taken cognisance of the matter and will raise it with the District Magistrate (DM) and the Superintendent of Police (SP).

Conclusion

Many rapes, especially of minors, either remain unsolved or are hushed up in rural areas often due to caste and class equations between the victims and perpetrators. What is notable in this case is not just how it is similar to the Nirbhaya case in terms of brutality, but also the Badaun rape case for the manner in which the body was disposed of.

It remains to be seen if pressure from activist groups and women’s organizations will yield any results or if this case too will die a silent death much like a similar case that locals allege took place in the same field just six months ago.

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यूपी के सुल्तान पुर में दोहराया गया निर्भया कांड, पेड़ पर लटका मिला युवती का शव, हैवानियत से यूट्रस फटा
 

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This time, it is an undergraduate student of the Mahila Maha Vidhyalaya, affiliated to the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), who was reportedly asked to leave a girls’ hostel just last week, as she showed “tendencies” of homosexuality and indiscipline, reports The Indian Express. Reports indicate that he she has, however,  not been asked to leave the college. There is a disctepancy in versions: while college authorities have maintained that the student was suspended from the hostel because she had been harassing her fellow boarders, a professor — a member of the institute’s disciplinary committee — claimed on condition of anonymity that the first-year BA Honours student was “showing tendencies of being homosexual” and had to be suspended to maintain peace and discipline.

Fellow students have a different take on the matter. They point out that she was differently abled, traumatised and needed counselling. Instead the BHU has taken the easy way out and simply suspended her. A fellow student, on conditions of anonymity told the newspaper that: “The student was blind in one eye. She was disabled. The college authorities should have been extra attentive towards her. Instead, they suspended her without an inquiry or counselling. How is she going to face her class now? She has to study with the same women students.” “The girls and her parents, who are from rural Uttar Pradesh, are traumatised,” the student added.

It is assistant professor and chief coordinator of the five hostels in the college, Neelam Atri — who took disciplinary action against the student. She reportedly said: “Around 16 boarders had given me in writing that the student was harassing them and scaring them with her activities and indiscipline. The student was also threatening fellow boarders with suicide if they did not yield to her demands.”
Atri, however, refused to comment on “charges of homosexuality” against the student. “There is nothing like this… students alleging this want to bring the university a bad name. This is an internal matter,” she said. Last week, the student’s parents were called to the college and asked to get her treated for the “disease”.

“The student used to threaten to harm herself if her fellow boarders did not help her out with her homework or other such things… She is not well. She has been depressed and had tried to harm herself. So, we asked her family to show her to a good doctor… We told them that if she recuperates, she can return to the hostel.”

When contacted, a professor, said: “The tendencies she was showing were at a nascent stage. We cannot really pin-point if it is really homosexuality. But we had to suspend her to maintain peace and discipline in the hostel.” “Students submitted written complaints to us saying that her behaviour was making them uncomfortable. We asked the students to adjust but when the complaints kept coming over the last few weeks, we had to take action,” the professor added.
Background
The BHU administration, like so many central universities under the Modi regime have been at the centre of serious controversies and agitations by students.

 In May 2017, agitating students of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) scored a major victory yesterday when the Supreme Court’s three judge bench revoked suspension orders against them and stayed criminal cases lodged against them for agitating simple issues like 24 X & library facilities. A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra directed the university to make special arrangements for eight students to conduct their semester exams till July 30. This issue will now be heard in detail shortly.

This was seen as a big victory over an administration headed by Girish Tripathi an aggressive member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) For over three long and grisly years now, young students of the BHU have been protesting an administration trying to quell dissent, differences in political ideas and gender equality.
 
The court passed the order on a petition filed by the suspended students, through lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, who had claimed that the action was taken by the varsity to supress their demands that the cyber library in the campus be opened 24X7, especially during examination time.
 
The students had staged a hunger-strike for their demand and due to that, the university administration had suspended them leading to a situation in which they missed their examinations and were evicted from their hostels in May 2016. The apex court had earlier issued notice to university registrar.

2016
After the series of controversies around the Banaras Hindu University –reported extensively by Sabrangindia over the past months the Vice Chancellor has unashamedly made this claim. BHU joined over a dozen premier institutions being targeted by the Modi Regime’s Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) even as #SaveBHUfromRSS started trending on social media.

BHU VC Girish Tripathi has the ignominious record of summarily and illegally expelling Sandeep Pandey, winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award and renowned social activist. When objections surfaced as to his use of the university as an RSS unit, he openly said that there was nothing wrong in establishing an RSS shakha in BHU, since the Indian government itself belonged to the RSS.”Girls who study at night are immoral”, is one of the infamous statements of the Banaras Hindu University VC Girish Tripathi

The university that houses about 40,000 students making it one of the largest residential campuses in India, is facing accusations of rampant sexism by its students. reports suggest that with the appointment of Girish Chandra Tripathi as the Vice Chancellor, the democratic representation of students, teachers and another staff has taken a back seat. Tripathi has been accused of openly endorsing the RSS ideology. Happenings at the bHU have received surprisingly lukewarm coverage in the ‘national’ (read commercial media) raising queries and eyebrows related to whether this soft glove treatment is on account of this university being in prime minister Narendra Modi’s constituency.
 

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आठवीं में पढ़ने वाली आराधना हैदराबाद के स्कूल में पढ़ती थी।  परिवार का दावा था कि 68 दिन के उपवास खोलने के दो दिन बाद उसे अस्पताल में भर्ती कर दिया गया जहां दिल का दौरा पड़ने से उसकी मौत हुई। 
 
आराधना के अंतिम संस्कार में कम से कम 600 लोग उपस्थित थे जो उसे 'बाल तपस्वी' के नाम से संबोधित कर रहे थे।  यही नहीं आराधना की शव यात्रा को 'शोभा यात्रा' का नाम दिया गया था। इस परिवार को जानने वालों का कहना था कि लड़की ने इससे पहले 41 दिन के उपवास भी सफलतापूर्वक रखे थे।
 
हम लगातार नए दौर की तरफ बढ़ रहे हैं, जहाँ शिक्षा , रोजगार और इंटरनेट के माध्यम, से पूरी दुनिया से जुड़ रहे हैं। लेकिन क्या इन सभी जुड़ावों के बाद भी हम अंधविश्वास को छोड़ पाए हैं? शायद नहीं!!  ताज़ा मामला टीकमगढ़ के दिगौड़ा जिले का है जहाँ एक नेत्रहीन लड़की शालिनी ने कृष्ण की मूर्ति के साथ विवाह किया।
 
ताज्जुब की बात यह है कि सोशल मीडिया से लेकर उसके परिवार तक इसे भक्ति से सराबोर कदम बता रहे हैं और शालिनी की तारीफ कर रहे हैं। यही नहीं उसके विवाह उत्सव में भारी संख्या में लोग पहुंचे।  
 
मेरे तो गिरधर गोपाल दूसरा न कोई की तर्ज पर शालिनी ने पूरे धूमधाम से हिंदू रीति से कृष्ण की मूर्ति के साथ विवाह किया। शालिनी कहती हैं कि मेरे तो सब कुछ कृष्ण है और मैनें उन्ही से प्यार किया है । ऐसे वर को क्या वरू, जो जन्मे और मर जाय ! – वर वरिये गोपाल को जो नाम अमर कर जाये। 

सोशल मीडिया कि यह पोस्ट किसी भी तार्कि इंसान को असहज कर सकती है। तब जब हम देश में डिजीटल विकास और मंगलयान की बात कर रहे हो ! अगर मीरा की बात की जाए तो मीरा ने कृष्ण का वरण अपने आपको आपने सामंती परिवार से बचने के लिए किया था। मीरा जन्म से देखने में समर्थ थी, मीरा ने कृष्ण से ब्याह भी नहीं किया था! 
 
क्या यह तर्कसंगत नहीं कि अगर शालिनी का विवाह किसी सक्षम व्यक्ति से किया गया होता या इस तरफ सोचा गया होता तब भी क्या वह एक पत्थर की मूर्ति से विवाह को राजी हो जाती। इस विवाह के बाद सबसे बड़ा सवाल अभी भी अनुत्तरित है कि क्या शालिनी को सामाजिक सुरक्षा मिलेगी? शालिनी दिव्यांग है इसलिए यह प्रश्न समसामयिक है।
 
देवदासी प्रथा के बारे में हम सभी जानते हैं कि किस तरह से उनका विवाह देव से करवाने के बहाने उन्हें मंदिरों में पंडितों की ताड़ना का शिकार होना पड़ता है। यही नहीं भगवान् को भेंट की गई ये देवदासियां वेश्यावृति के नरक में असमय ही ढकेल दी जाती हैं। 
 
इस तरह की परमपराएं न सिर्फ नारी की अस्मिता पर कुठाराघात है वर्ण सामजिक परिदृश्य की गन्दगी को भी सामने लाती है। इस तरह के प्रावधानों पर सरकार को चेतना चाहिए और कड़े कदम उठाने चाहिए।

Courtesy: National Dastak

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Suneeta Pottam, 19 years (below)

In a bold and courageous act, two young girls, Suneeta Pottam, 19 and Munni Pottam, 18 years old, have knocked the doors of the Chhatisgarh High Court to seek justice and redressal for the injustices being committed, with impunity, on the Adivasi villagers around them. Hearing the petition that was filed in the third week of September, the Court has granted protection to these human rights defenders (HRDs) and posted the hearing for October 24,after the petitioners provide some clarifications on the status of some cases in the Supreme Court.
 
The two HRDS are backed WSS, a national women’s organisation, and the petition challenges the police version of encounter killings that have taken place in the area of Gangalur Police station of Bijapur.
 
These extra-judicial killing have allegedly taken place in the villages of Kadenar, Palnar, Korcholi and Andri. Seetu Hemla was dragged from the fields where he was working with his mother and family members in July 2016; Tati Pande and Manoj Hapka were taken from their home while they were sitting for dinner in May 2016; in February 2016, Kudhami Ganga was shot dead while collecting leaves for a village wedding while a 9 year old boy, Sodi was also presumably killed in the same village as his mother heard gunshots and the security forces hiding something and was never found since then; Sukku Kunjam (of Itavar) was shot point-blank while he was in his relative’s village in November 2015. The long list of atrocities have been covered consistently by Sabrangindia.

Even as the Bastar police celebrate their "success" in having killed over a hundred alleged Naxalites this year, a Public Interest Litigation challenging the spate of encounters in Bijapur has been filed before the Chhattisgarh High Court in Bilaspur. The petitioners are two young women from Korcholi with extra-ordinary grit and determination –Suneeta Pottam (19 years old).and Munni Pottam (18 years old), who have been supported in this effort by a national women's organization, the WSS (wssnet.org) as the third petitioner.

The police version is that the people have died when Naxalites laid ambush to police parties and security forces who were out on anti-Naxal operations. However, several independent fact-finding teams have found that the villagers and family members who had been voicing, independently, their version of the reality: that their people were living out their daily lives when trigger-happy forces have fired on them or deliberately picked them up from their houses, on the false pretext that they were simply being taken to the police station but,then killed them.

This petition highlights the extra-judicial executions of 6 people, which took place in the villages of Kadenar, Palnar, Korcholi and Andri in Bijapur district over the course of the last year. The police acknowledge only three of these incidents as encounters, and in each one of these, they providean almost identical story to the media –that these "encounters" occurred when combined teams of local police and paramilitary forces had gone out on combing operations after receiving "verified information" about the presence of Maoists in the area. In each one of these cases –  Kadernar, Palnar and Korcholi – the police claim that they first came under fire, forcing them to return fire – and it was only on searching the area in the aftermath that they stumbled onto the bodies of dead Maoists who had been killed in the exchange of fire. All of these dead Maoists, as per the police accounts, were found conveniently clad in uniforms and lying next to arms, spent ammunition and Maoist literature.
 
However, the villagers have something completely different to say.  Accompanying this petition are sworn affidavits of ten villagers who are family members of the deceased or eye witnesses of the incident, who challenge the police versions.  In Kadenar, the villagers talk about how a married couple, Tati Pande and Manoj Hapka, were forced out of their home in the evening at gunpoint, on the pretext of getting them "surrendered" in the Gangaloor police station. In Palnar, SeetuHemla was dragged from the fields which he was ploughing, with his hands tied behind him, in full view of his young wife, mother and other villagers. In Korcholi, the womenfolk witnessed Sukku Kunjam of Itavar being shot point-blank, while he was visiting his relatives house in November 2015.

Surrendered Naxalites were at the forefront of these operations, and have also been used mercilessly by the authorities to threaten and bully family members. It is in this backdrop that this petition that seeks the constitution of a high powered investigative team to look into these so-called encounters, and challenges the use of surrendered militants and committee members in these counter insurgency measures is significant.
 
The two petitioners, Suneeta Pottam, 19 and Munni Pottam, 18 years old, who are the petitioners have been eye-witness to the repression. As children, they had to leave their girls’ ashram school when the school closed down and teachers abandoned it due to the violence of Salwa Judum in 2005. Their village was also attacked by the Salwa Judum mobs, and their houses burnt down.  The girls’ education was stopped mid-way and they began to work in stone quarries to support their families. After all these years and now as young adults, they continue to see the suffering and turmoil in their own village and in areas around them. In the hope of justice, the girls have taken on the onus to bring these injustices of atrocities before local authorities and the courts.

In the remote village of Andri, which is a day's walk from the closest motorable road, the police have not claimed any encounter, nor registered any death.  However, the villagers recall that in February of this year, the police party mortally wounded Kudhami Ganga, a young man, by shooting him while he was collecting siyadi leaves for a village wedding.  The police team probably never realized that Kuhdami Ganga had succumbed to his injuries some minutes after they shot at him, and never collected his body – hence, this killing probably does not figure in the celebrated "century" of encounters.   A few days later, the same patrol team killed or mortally wounded a 9-10 year old boy, Sodi Sannu, who was tending his family's tomato fields.   His death too does not figure in the dubious “century” for the obvious reason that it is difficult to pass off an obviously young child as a Naxalite.  What has been done with Sodi Sannu's body is a question that still haunts his parents.

Role of Surrendered Militants
 
While seeking the constitution of a high-powered investigation team to look into not just these documented encounters, but all encounters in Bijapur district over the last year, this petition also challenges the legitimacy of the role of surrendered militants in these search and combing missions. In each one of the incidents detailed in the petition, surrendered militants have been instrumental in identifying and seeking out targets, and in carrying out the executions.  Referring to the landmark Salwa Judum judgment in the case of Nandini Sundar and Ors v. State of Chattisgarh, where the apex court laid down that a responsible state cannot use the intense feelings of hatred or revenge in the SPOs personally affected by Naxalite violence as a strategy for counter-insurgency measures, the current petition argues that it is equally dehumanizing and irresponsible to urge and incentivize surrendered militants to seek out and kill their putative former colleagues. 
 
The Alien State
 
The affidavits included in this petition underline the complete alienation of the residents of these villages from the institutions of the State.  The villagers are so deeply distrustful of the police and the paramilitaries that their very presence near the villages sends most villagers fleeing into the jungles and neighbouring villagers, irrespective of the time of night or day.  The continuing saga of mass arrests, detentions, beatings, sexual violence and extra judicial executions has taught villagers that spending days and nights in jungles, without food or adequate cover, at risk from wild animals and other dangers, forgoing weddings, funerals and festivals, is a price worth paying for avoiding the police or paramilitary troops, who are likely to cause serious harm to their life, limb or liberty.
 
The affidavits also reveal that in the few instances where the villagers sought help from the police, they were roundly rebuffed and turned back. Sodhi Hurra, father of the missing 9 year old Sodhi Sunna recalls how the Bijapur police did not even allow him inside the police station when he went to report his missing child. Sukli Hemla, the elderly mother of Seetu Hemla, went to the Gangaloor Police immediately after Seetu had been captured and dragged into the jungles, but they did not lift a finger to help her.
 
The Petitioners
 
Suneeta Pottam and Munni Pottam are young women from Korcholi village, the site of one of the “encounters” described above, who came in contact with the women’s organization WSS when a fact-finding team from WSS visited their village in May of this year.  Their courage, along with their knowledge of Hindi has propelled them into a role wherein other villagers depend upon them for help in seeking redressals for their grievances and complaints. 
 
As children, Suneeta and Munnihad to give up their studies when their school closed down due to the violence of Salwa Judum in 2005. Their village was also attacked by the Salwa Judum mobs, and their houses were burnt down.  With their families reduced to penury, the girls began to work in stone quarries as coolies to support them. After all these years and now as adults, they continue to be sensitive to the suffering and turmoil in their own village and in areas around them, which has given them to courage to seek justice before the High Court.
 
However, this activism comes at a heavy cost.  Even as they were helping villagers record their affidavits in the Bijapur courts for the present case, local police mounted a door-to-door search for them, forcing them to flee to Bilaspur, and approach the High Court for interim relief ensuring their own safety. With the High Court order in hand, these young women have now returned to their village, only to find that in the two weeks that they had been gone, the police parties had returned twice to the village, broken 4 homes and beaten up 3 people.
.
WSS – Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression – the third petitioner, is a nationwide platform of women’s organizations and individual women, working on issues of sexual violence against women, especially in the context of structures of systemic repression since the past seven years.

For the people of Bastar, living a daily life routine is fraught with risk. Unarmed men and women, wearing their lungi or nightgown, killed and shown as hardcore Maoists killed in encounters. The stories of fake encounters in Maoist cases of unrestrained firing from the Maoists side and the pressure on the police to fire in self-defense is so common that these fictitious scripts require little imagination and are articulated with a straight face by the police to the media. Thus it is easy for the police to dismiss the petition as a lie, but it is for the judiciary and the government to protect the voice and lives of Adivasis.

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