Undertrials forced to shave beard and chant 'anti-Islamic' slogans, NHRC told
Undertrial activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India(SIMI) have had their beards forcibly shaved in Bhopal's New Central Jail and are being compelled to chant "anti-Islamic slogans", their families have told the National Human Rights Commission. The Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association (JTSA) and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) facilitated their complaints before the NHRC, reports The Telegraph.
The 21 undertrial prisoners are being brutally beaten and threatened with death by jail authorities in the capital of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, wives and relatives of four of the men told rights panel member Justice (retd) D. Murugesan here yesterday.
"My husband is being routinely tortured, humiliated and forced to shout anti-Islamic slogans," said Shama Parveen, wife of Mohammed Javed, a farm labourer arrested a year after their marriage in December 2012.
"He fears for his life: the jail authorities have told him he would be killed and his death shown as suicide," she told the newspaper after handing the families' petition to the rights panel.
Shama and the relatives of Mohammed Irfan, Mohammed Adil and Mohammed Zubair – all Ujjain natives -said all 21 men had been put in solitary confinement and were being denied medical treatment, morning and evening walks, the chance to meet co-prisoners – even enough food.
Farzana, wife of Adil and mother of a 10-year-old son, said the prisoners were being allowed only five-minute meetings with their families, that too in the presence of anti-terrorist squad personnel who deny them any privacy.She said that several of the prisoners, held for years without conviction, had gone into depression.
The families said the ill-treatment had intensified after the alleged "encounter" killing of eight Simi operatives hours after they had broken out of the same jail on October 31 last year.
Relatives of the dead have alleged "cold-blooded murder", prompting chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to order a judicial probe, which raised several questions about the police's version of events. "I'm not allowed to meet my husband for more than five minutes a week, but before last year's encounter we were allowed 20-minute visits. He is being tortured and forced to chant anti-Islamic slogans," Farzana told this newspaper.
"We have written to the chief minister, Prime Minister and senior government officials but nothing has happened." Madhya Pradesh director-general of police Rishiraj Shukla told this newspaper: "We have no knowledge of these allegations. If the National Human Rights Commission asks us, we'll get the necessary probe done."
According to the petition, Mohammed Iqrar, one of the 21 accused, had recently told the trial court through video-conferencing that he was being physically tortured, carried injuries on his head, thighs and hips, had his beard forcibly shaved and had been compelled to chant anti-Islamic slogans.
The petition says the court has not acted on the allegations, and that Iqrar has been threatened with death if he speaks to the magistrate ever again about the jail conditions."There is a common feeling among several of these undertrials that they may be killed by jail authorities. They fear for their lives," the petition says.
Rights commission registrar A.K. Kaul said the panel had "received the complaints of torture and abuses meted out to Simi activists in Bhopal jail", and would soon pass an order.The commission had issued notices to the Madhya Pradesh government after the "encounter" killings that followed the October jailbreak. Nothing much has happened after the state sent its report on the events.
The delegation has demanded a probe and immediately send a team to the jail to meet the suspected Simi activists.