Human Rights Defenders – Alert (HRDA) on January 31, 2022 decried Rajasthan police for its failure to arresting the main accused in the assault and torture case of RTI activist Amraram Godara.

On December 21, 2021, Godara was abducted by an SUV parked near his house and taken to an isolated location. There, the accused Nagaram, Manaram and Bankaram broke his hands, hammered nails into his legs and forced him to drink urine.He was finally thrown near a bus stand, as the assailants presumed he was dead. But Godara survived and narrated that the assailants had first tried to run him over with the vehicle. He was sent to the primary health centre Pareu village then referred to Nahta Hospital, Balotra and then finally to Jodhpur.

Godara filed an FIR with the Gida police station for attempt to murder, assault, abduction and criminal conspiracy. However, the police initially registered the complaint against unknown persons. Even after arresting four persons, the police did not arrest the main accused Nagaram – an ex-sarpanch and husband of the current sarpanch. The other accused are Pareu gram panchayat sarpanch Bankaram and local contractor Manaram. The latter often receives village level contractors from panchayats. These accused were angry with Godara for repeatedly raising corruption cases like sale of illegal liquor through RTIs.

Most recently, he sent an application to the state government under the ‘Prasashan Gaon Ke Sang’ campaign on December 15. Godara said in the document that the panchayat had paid more than the fixed amount for some work. Two days later, his allegation was investigated by a committee, who found the claim to be true. On December 19, the panchayat had to return the excess amount.

In January 2022, Godara went on a hunger strike and wrote to the Superintendent of Police about the delay in arrests. His dissent received the solidarity of the HRDA that wrote to the concerned authorities, saying, “We believe the delay in arresting the main accused who are political heavyweights in the region exposes the negligence of the police towards protection of a HRD who was subjected to torture and kidnapping. Their lax attitude has put the HRD and his family in danger of reprisal. We also fear that the main accused may interfere with the investigation.”

Therefore, they demanded action against Gida SHO Jay Ram as well.

A fact-finding report on this assault also raised several red flags such as Godara’s initial statement by the police on December 22, at 11.20 AM. By then, the RTI activist had only received first aid. His subsequent statements were added under ‘views added later’ and have not been acted upon. The report demanded that his subsequent statements be treated as his original because he was not able to provide a clear statement in the immediate aftermath of his attack.

Further, the HRDA asked the Director General of Police to ensure complete physical and psychological safety for Godara and his family and give it in writing to the NHRC within one week. It argued that the RTI activist must also receive ₹ 10 lakh as compensation.

“We believe that the role of the local police and ongoing negligence in the arrest of the main accused needs to be thoroughly investigated as we believe that the police negligence has been instrumental in this brutal assault of an HRD,” said Working Secretary Henri Tiphagne.

According to the HRDA, RTI users are among the most vulnerable and targeted human rights defenders in India. Protection of such activists is a state-duty as specified in the declaration on human rights defenders, adopted in 1998 by the UN General Assembly.

Related:

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UP: ST boy’s family cry murder following custodial torture!

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DCP Akhilesh Kumar    Image: ANI

According to ANI, three assailants used some sharp weapon to attack the activist. Dubey, an active RTI user, had reportedly filed a RTI application regarding illegal constructions and a public interest litigation (PIL) in the high court against a politician.  

“The incident took place at about 11.30 am when Sanjay Dubey was attacked behind Sarvodaya Hospital at Andheri-Ghatkopar link road by three people,” said Akhilesh Kumar Singh, DCP.

Hindustan Times has reported that the Ghatkopar police have arrested two suspects, Vijay Akhade (37) and Sanjay Patwa (29), under section 302 (murder) and are on a lookout for the third accused, Gopal Nadar (34). Police said that there were frequent skirmishes in the area between Dubey’s group and the rival gang and the murder was the result of the rivalry over real estate dealings.

Reportedly, Akhade has criminal cases registered against him and was at loggerheads with Dubey, who also has several cases against him, including one of attempt to murder and rioting.

Police said that the accused reached the spot in an auto-rickshaw and stabbed him multiple times before fleeing. He was rushed to Rajawadi hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

Notably, a police officer said, “Dubey was involved in several property dealings, including a Slum Rehabilitation Project (SRA) in Ghatkopar. He was also affiliated to the youth wing of a right- wing group.”

Dubey’s brother, Manojkumar, who was allegedly attacked by the two arrested accused in 2017, said, “My brother was doing well in his realty business. This was a planned conspiracy to eliminate him.”

Whether this was an attack on a citizen’s right to get information or over property dealings, further investigation will tell.

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On April 9, 2017, human rights defender, Suhas Halkandar, was brutally murdered by a dozen men in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, in the State of Maharashtra. He was returning home when the men verbally assaulted him before attacking him with concrete blocks. Suhas Halkandar sustained many injuries and died. Eleven people have been arrested, including a local municipal official.

Suhas Halkandar is a human rights defender and Right to Information activist. He exposed several deficiencies in the local administration and campaigned against the inefficiency of local officials  in the Kharalwadi area of Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, in the State of Maharashtra. These deficiences gave rise to human rights concerns due to the lack of basic amenities and discriminatory practices, for example, the lack of public toilets for women.

On April 9, 2017, at approximately 10.00pm, Suhas Halkandar was returning home on his motorbike when he was stopped by two men who started to harass him over a billboard that he had erected, highlighting the lack of basic civic amenities in the Kharalwadi area of Pimpri-Chinchwad. The altercation escalated and several men joined the dispute. A group of ten to twelve people started throwing concrete blocks at Suhas Halkandar, who was fatally injured and collapsed on the ground. The activist was then rushed to a local hospital but was declared dead on arrival. One of the eye-witnesses lodged a complaint with the police in Pune and eleven people, including former Congress official, Sadguru Mahadev Kadam, have been arrested in connection with the case. Suhas Halkandar had erected banners ahead of the civic elections in Maharashtra in February 2017, which allegedly angered the aforementioned Congress official arrested in connection with the case.

Human rights defenders in India face a diverse range of attacks and harassment for their work defending the rights of others and exposing human rights abuses, including killings, torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, smear campaigns, and judicial harassment. Crimes against human rights defenders usually go unpunished.

Front Line Defenders condemns the killing of Suhas Halkandar, which it believes was solely motivated by his legitimate and peaceful activities in the defence of human rights in India.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in India to:

1. Condemn the killing of human rights defender Suhas Halkandar;
2. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the killing of human rights defender, Suhas Halkandar, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;
3. Take all necessary measures, in consultation with the defenders, to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of human rights defenders working in India;
4. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in India are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.
 

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Bhupendra Vira, who battled illegal constructions, was shot dead in his home last week.

Imaget: D Stalin/Facebook

In the past six years, Bhupendra Vira filed more than 3,000 applications under the Right to Information Act regarding encroachments and illegal construction in his neighbourhood in Kalina, Mumbai. On the night of October 15, the 61-year-old’s activism was brought to an abrupt halt when he was shot dead by an intruder at home.

Two days later, on Monday, the Mumbai Police arrested Razzaq Khan, a former corporator, and his son Amjad Khan for the activist’s murder. The Khans were the biggest targets of Vira’s RTI inquiries. They had allegedly taken hold of the activist’s godown illegally and had also been arrested in 2010 for assaulting his son.

Vira’s murder has not come as a surprise to activists like him who routinely use the transparency law and public interest litigation to take on the land, mining and sand mafias. Since the RTI Act came into force in 2005, citizens who have used it have been vulnerable to threats and attacks from those they have targeted. In the first 10 years of the law, at least 39 activists have been killed across the country and another 275 assaulted.

In 2011, the Whistleblowers Protection Act was introduced, and amended in 2015, but it has been criticised as an ineffective paper tiger. Activists in Mumbai, where real estate irregularities are rampant, claimed they have learnt to live with the death threats, intimidation, false cases and assault.

“Expecting police protection is pointless for many of us,” said Dayanand Stalin, an environment activist with Mumbai-based non-profit Vanashakti. “I have found that the police often end up protecting the offenders rather than the activists.”
 

Saving a mangrove

Harish Pandey did not know Bhupendra Vira, but when he read about the latter’s murder, he could not help but think that it could easily have been him instead.

Pandey’s apartment in Dahisar, Mumbai’s northernmost suburb, is close to a notified mangrove forest. In 2009, when he noticed that nearly 425 acres of the dense forest had been destroyed by bunds, he decided to file an RTI application. Several queries later, he uncovered some dubious dealings. The forest land, originally owned by an old salt manufacturing company, had been handed over to a real estate group, which had obtained questionable approval from city authorities to start building bunds on the land.

“The approval had ostensibly been given for the purpose of cultivating salt, but it came with a rider that the mangroves could not be cut,” said Pandey, a businessman and secretary of the New Link Road Residents’ Forum. “How is that even possible?”

Over the next three years, Pandey and his team at the residents’ group filed numerous complaints with the state’s revenue department to bring the violations on record. The state, in turn, filed police cases against the builder, which Pandey diligently followed in court. As a citizen activist, he had fought illegal construction before, but this time the backlash was intense.

“From 2009 to 2012, I was threatened with dire consequences several times,” he said. “I once got a call from someone who said I would be killed and buried in the mangroves if I did not stop. At one point, the builder’s goons attacked my car. Once, a group of them surrounded my building, came up to my doorstep and threatened my wife and son. My watchman was thrashed. They openly offered me crores to give up the case.”

Pandey went to the police to ask for protection. He said he was called to the police station several times to give his statement, but was never given protection. He feared for his life and that of his family. But he was determined to follow up on his complaints as a matter of integrity, he said. Even when a few members of his team opted out of the fight.

“I had to take some hard decisions," he said. "I sold my car so we could travel untraced, and our movements had to be restricted.”

The real estate group filed a counter case against Pandey and two of his fellow activists, accusing them of attempt to murder and demanding Rs 10 crores in extortion money. “This is the standard modus operandi, implicating activists in false cases,” Pandey said. “In this case, the builder’s allegations were quashed when we moved the High Court.”

Finally, in 2012, Pandey won the fight with a court order to the builder to pay a fine for destroying 425 acres of notified forest land. Since then, Pandey has worked on several other cases of land grab and continues to face threats and bribe offers from affected companies and politicians.

“I am not going to give up, but one precaution I have taken is to make myself debt-free,” said Pandey. “That way, no one can blackmail my family if something happens to me.”
 

Police involvement 

Like Harish Pandey, Dayanand Stalin – a full-time environment activist fighting to protect mangroves, wetlands and forests in Maharashtra – is no stranger to threats, intimidation and false cases.

“When I enter mining sites, my exit routes are often blocked by the mafia, and I have to use my influence with the residents to help me get out,” said Stalin. “At least on three occasions, I have been charged with trespassing on government or private property. But they have never been able to prove these allegations in a court of law.”

Three years ago, Stalin was leading a campaign to block illegal mining in the Western Ghats in Sindhudurg district. “I had already been threatened by the mining mafia multiple times and on one occasion, when I was supposed to address a village meeting, there was an attempt to kill me,” he said.

Stalin was on his way from Goa to Sindhudurg to attend the meeting when he got a call from well-wishers telling him to stay away because an attack on him had been planned. As his car approached the meeting venue, Stalin said he saw what appeared to be a group of protestors standing outside. “When my friend approached the mob, the goons engulfed him but when they realised it was not me, they began to ask specifically for me,” he said. “It was clear that they were not there just to protest.”

Stalin also claimed there was a clear nexus between various land and mining mafia and the police. He said that on several visits to the Kanjurmarg landfill in Mumbai last year to document garbage dumping violations, police vans had met him within 10 minutes of his arrival. “They would tell me I could not enter the site without permission, but they did not target any other civilian going in,” he said. “And how would they even find out I was there? Clearly the contractor at the dumping ground had a lot of influence with the police.”

Despite Vira’s murder and his lack of faith in the police, Stalin said he was committed to his work. “These dangers are an occupational hazard,” he added.

This article was first published on Scroll.in
 

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