Judges Connive with VIP Prisoners
Topic: human rights , media

Indian’s  Diary  –  e  News  Weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.13..Issue.31........05  / 08 / 2017

 

Editorial : Judges Police Connive with  VIP  Prisoners

 

   It is the basic , fundamental  duty of a judge to monitor , ensure that his judicial orders / judgements  are complied with. If not  to  ensure it’s compliance and to legally prosecute those who failed to comply with judicial orders.

    If Rich Influential prisoners are getting illegal facilities in jails , it is only due to connivance of jail officials , police & judges.

  Why NOT start  by sending errant judges to jails ?

The Bengaluru Parapanna Agrahara jail has housed some very prominent VIPs such as former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, former Karnataka CM and present state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa as well as former ministers in the Karnataka government such as Gali Janardhan Reddy, SN Krishnaiah Setty and Katta Subramanya. 

In jail, it's durbar for convict Jagir Kaur

UPDATED: JULY 21, 2016 

 

Hardly a few hours after her conviction and arrest on Friday evening, the former Punjab Cabinet Minister, Jagir Kaur, continued to wield political influence even as a prisoner of law.

Video footage from the Patiala and Kapurthala jails clearly shows that Ms. Kaur — who was convicted of criminal conspiracy and other charges in the case of the mysterious death of her 19-year-old daughter, Harpreet Kaur, in April 2000 and sent to jail — was availing herself of VIP treatment. A CBI special court in Patiala had sentenced her to five years' rigorous imprisonment on counts of forcible abortion, wrongful confinement, abduction and criminal conspiracy. But she was absolved of the charge of murder. Three others were also convicted. Forced to quit as Minister for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation and Defence Services after her arrest, Ms. Kaur was accompanied out of the packed courtroom by police officials.

“It appeared that the police officials were escorting and guarding her from the crowd and media rather than taking her away as a convicted criminal,” a lawyer in Patiala courts told IANS.

She was led into a waiting air-conditioned grey colour Toyota Innova luxury vehicle to be taken to the Patiala Central Jail.

Within hours of her being sent there, her request to be transferred to the Kapurthala central jail, nearly 200 km away, was “promptly” acceded to. Ms. Kaur, who is head of a cash-rich “dera” (sect) at Begowal village, belongs to the district.

Late Friday night, she was driven under police escort, which looked more like a ministerial convoy, in a white colour private air-conditioned Toyota Innova luxury vehicle. In the car, she was accompanied by only one woman police official seated next to her. It was allowed to be driven straight inside the Kapurthala jail complex, where police officials in uniform and jail officials in plainclothes were waiting for her arrival.

To top it all, one official in plainclothes and a uniformed officer touched her feet as she alighted from the car in her trademark white salwar-kameez and a cotton dupatta over the head.

The former Congress legislator, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, whom Ms. Kaur recently defeated in the Assembly election from Bholath in Kapurthala, on Saturday demanded that the police officials who touched her feet be sacked and a probe conducted into the VIP treatment being extended to her. “Video footage shows jail officials, in uniform and civil clothes, shamelessly touching her feet. I understand that she has been extended the facility of a special durbar inside the jail where people can meet her. All this is happening on the directions of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. There should be an inquiry and these officials should be sacked,” Mr. Khaira said here.

Raising questions over shifting Ms. Kaur to the Kapurthala jail, Mr. Khaira said the rules were being openly circumvented, at the behest of the Badal government, to give her VIP treatment. Justice could be done only if she was shifted to a jail outside Punjab and treated like any other convicted criminal.

Ms. Kaur, who is a powerful politician in Punjab and considered close to the Chief Minister, was inducted as Cabinet Minister on March 14. She was the only woman Minister in the Badal government. Being a former SGPC chief twice, the lone woman to head the Sikh body, she has a sizable hold over Sikh religious affairs.

Her daughter died under mysterious circumstances on April 20, 2000 and the body was cremated hastily by the family members. There was no post mortem. The Badal government was in power at that time as well.

Harpreet had angered her mother and other family members by secretly marrying Kamaljit Singh, a youth from Begowal who belonged to a lower caste.

 

5 Star  Jails  Hindalaga & Kalburgi Central Prison

http://newsable.asianetnews.tv/video/after-bengaluru-central-prison-several-secrets-unearthed-from-kalaburgi-central-prison  ,

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5txtvs  ,

 

Why NOT  Sanjay Dutt Prosecuted under  TADA

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/prosecute-sanjay-dutt-under-tada  ,

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/sanjay-dutt-judges---partners-of-mafia ,

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/judges-partners-of-mafia ,

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/revoke-bail-of-salman-khan ,

 

Special treatment offered to VIPs in jail

By   Vaidehi

 

Power comes from money and power brings money so this vicious cycle makes a loop that never ends. When those in power are answerable to VIPs then how can the law be equal? This is how a pseudo democracy works. Let it be any prison across India or any arrested warlords of our country facilities offered to them in prison are not new. We see many Bollywood movies being made on such subjects. The Bengaluru prison senior officials admitted that both Sasikala and multi-crore stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi were given special treatment inside the jail. This happens almost everywhere in the world. I suppose it is coming up for discussion in India now because in the last few years a lot of high profile people have ended up in jail. However a rich person can afford a good expensive lawyer and private investigators, even if we overlook for the moment the aspect of other pressure that the rich can bring to bear) whereas a poor person will have to go with some pro-bono lawyer or the office of public defenders are equivalent in India.

There is no doubt that the rich and powerful ‘manage’ the system  – be it food, parole, ‘illness’ or privileges inside prison. In some cases courts grant special benefits – home food for instance but most of the time it is because socio-economic hierarchies do not change just because someone is in prison. These hierarchies are based on power, of any sort, and that often endures. Whatever privileges the powerful may enjoy in prison, their life is nowhere close to how it is on the outside. Plus the fact that they are in prison serves as a strong reminder to others outside who may be tempted to go astray. VIP prison cells are meant to protect high profile convicts from unnecessary cases of extortion and blackmailing from other miscreant-inmates. Also, for the kind of lifestyle they had been living before conviction, this must feel nothing less than being in jail.

Today media is making noise about Sasikala due to their political masters, but if we see the past Sahara India Parivar chief Subrata Roy, currently in Tihar Jail, paid Rs 31 lakh for special privileges for 57 days. These included an air-conditioned room, western-style toilet, and mobile phone, Wi-Fi and video conferencing facilities. The bill to Roy’s company: Rs 54,400 a day. He was entitled to these facilities as a result of a Supreme Court order. Even otherwise, freedom can be bought in the prison by greasing palms. Inmates can easily have luxuries like alcohol, cigarettes, home-cooked food, mobile phones, air-conditioning and even television sets as long as they bribe the right people.

Stories of special privileges for powerful inmates of Tihar Jail first appeared when Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi was sentenced to 30 days in jail over the Maruti Udyog controversy in 1978. In recent years, the Delhi prison has had many famous residents, including former Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Kanimozhi and A Raja, former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and former Indian cricketer S Sreesanth. Recurring tales of VIPs obtaining concessions from jail authorities have followed.

Amar Singh, cited a chronic kidney problem and urinary tract infection to avoid the usual hardships of undergoing imprisonment. Instead of sharing space with regular inmates in the barracks, he got a separate ward. He was allowed home food, mineral water and a western-style toilet. Two cellmates, cleaned his ward four to five times a day with sanitizer and sprayed insecticide to keep mosquitos at bay.

Suresh Kalmadi, Kanimozi and Raja enjoyed various comforts in Tihar. They were given mineral water; the quality of food was better since most of it was delivered from five-star hotels. They were assigned domestic help and had television in their cells with 28 channels. Special kitchen is functioning in the jail for Sasikala, where she has been lodged since February 15 to serve her sentence. She gets special food daily, cooked by special chefs in a special kitchen near the women’s cell. In the same jail special treatment was extended to Abdul Karim Telgi, convicted in fake stamp paper scam. Three to -four convicted prisoners have been allotted to Abdul Telgi for body massage. The fake stamp paper, that he along with his agents used to produce, were allegedly sold to banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms.

We always read about Bihar and UP jails where politician like Shahabuddin and Lalu Prasad Yadav were imprisoned; they used to run their network from jail. Person with filthy money can manipulate everything to anything, in this country. Everything is for sale even the judiciary, administration and politics. Whether its Congress or BJP’s rule, the dirty policemen are the same kind of breed. Telgi like people are just the stink of the corruption. The real perpetrators of the crime are enjoying their freedom and luxuries. Even after so many years the media did not dare to go into the case and find the truth. Moreover, Karnataka is the last major state ruled by Congress. And this is of patronage, money and psuedo-secularism culture is therefore, not surprising. This is not the first time that Sasikala or Telgi has been offered special facilities. There are many such examples of high profile personalities having managed to get what they want.

Nothing will change for long run, they come, they remain and they go from news and next day someone else grabs headlines, this saga will continue, because money does it all.

 

Republic of jails: It’s a wild, wild world inside

TNN | Jan 23, 2015, 10.08 PM IST

 

A few months before the gang war that erupted inside Mathura jail on Saturday killing two prisoners, a similar shoot-out inside Roorkee jail that claimed three lives, had the entire police machinery abuzz.

During the course of investigations, police officials discovered, much to their amazement, the 'virtual den' of Sunil Rathi, one of the prisoners. Rathi, a notorious criminal of the area, was found not just using a number of mobile phones to keep in touch with his gang, he also enjoyed the latest movies and had had the jail toilet built to his specifications. What's more, he was regularly posting pictures of himself in various poses, including pumping iron at the jail gym, on his Facebook account!

The revelations point to an unimaginable, deeply shocking and sometimes ridiculous world inside jails in most parts of UP and Uttarakhand. Here, underworld goons openly carry arms, shooting each other with impunity. Here, prisoners, packed like sardines, sleep in shifts. Anything can be bought for a price - whether it is a mobile phone, an internet connection, or food from a dhaba or restaurant of choice. Here, only two things seem to matter — muscle, and money power.

READ ALSO: Inmates say murder accused gets VIP treatment in Mathura jail

So what ails jails? The root cause of the problem, say jail authorities, is massive overcrowding, and accompanying staff shortage. That may be true — numbers point to a severe space crunch. Moradabad jail for instance squeezes in 2800 inmates in space meant for 511;Dehradun jail has 1066 against a sanctioned strength of 580, while Agra central jail houses 2175 inmates in a capacity meant for 1050.

All of this usually translates into the rule of the jungle - survival of the fittest. "Because space is limited, inmates in Agra jail often have to sleep in turns," says Vikram Shukla, founder of Human Upliftment Movement (HUM), an NGO working with prisoners. "The poorer ones are the last ones to sleep while the rich and powerful avail the facility for the maximum time," he adds.

Fights often erupt inside usually for small and petty reasons, says a former prisoner. In Moradabad for instance, a jail notorious for various violent incidents, a fight had broken out in March last year, injuring many, when rival gangs fought inside the jail kitchen. "Often, inmates are found using sharpened spoons, which are called 'kattaney' in jail lingo as weapons during such fights," says a prison official.

 

Inadequate staff adds to the indiscipline already rampant inside. Uttarakhand has vacancies for 284 jail warders and is presently making do with a skeletal staff of 180 warders who are supplemented by 172 homeguards and ex-servicemen. In Agra central jail, only 107 jail guards are on duty while the number should be 211.Shockingly, just two deputy jailors man the entire Agra central prison while the requirement is for 12.

 

But there's more to the issue than just filling up numbers. Sources say that the rot runs deeper and much of what is wrong inside happens because of collusion of some jail staff with prisoners. How else does one explain mobiles being smuggled inside? In Bareilly for instance, which has two jails that house over 2000 prisoners, including underworld don Babloo Srivastava, the going rate for a phone call, according to the relative of a prisoner, is Rs 500 for a 10-minute conversation.

Then there is the mental trauma associated with prison life. Last week, a prisoner in Haridwar jail took his own life, the second such instance in Doon's prisons within ten days. Prison watchers say that's not surprising. " The depression of being away from families, the guilt of crime, poor surroundings, bad food and torture by others can make anyone fall sick," says Shukla. "This is the reason why many inmates attempt suicide. Or they turn violent adding to the jail's already existing troubles."

 

Gangsters luxuriate in Bihar jail

By  Imran Khan

 

Gangsters lodged in a jail in Bihar were found to be enjoying a lavish lifestyle, with mobile phones, liquor, air-conditioners in cells that had floor tiles found in rich homes. A gangster was even allowed to build a temple inside Sitamarhi jail.

This was revealed in a joint report by the Sitamarhi district magistrate and superintendent of police after a violent clash between policemen and prisoners, mainly supporters of two gangsters - Santosh Kumar Jha and Madhav Choudhary - inside the jail earlier this month.

Bihar Inspector General (Prisons) Prem Singh Meena said Jha and Choudhary were found to be involved in illegal activities inside the jail.

An official told IANS on condition of anonymity that the report said it was called a prison "but there is nothing to suggest that it is a prison".

According to the report, the prisoners loyal to Jha and Choudhary used mobile phones inside the jail, and liquor and other banned items were also made available.

Choudhary managed to get a generator installed in the jail, provided ceiling fans in every ward and got his ward paved with tiles.

Both Jha and Choudhary installed air-conditioners in their ward during summer.

What surprised prison department officials was that Choudhary was busy constructing a temple inside the jail.

"Masons, labourers, and construction material like cement, tiles, sand and bricks had unchecked entry into the jail," an official said, referring to the report.

"We were shocked to learn about unlawful activities by Jha and Choudhary inside the jail in connivance with Sitamarhi jail officials," Inspector General Meena said.

Meena told IANS the department will take administrative action soon.

Three officials, including the deputy and assistant superintendents of Sitamarhi jail, were suspended on charges of negligence of duty and jail superintendent Avinash Kumar was transferred.

When Meena ordered the shifting of Jha and Choudhary from Sitamarhi jail, their supporters clashed with officials and pelted stones at them Aug 10.

The Sitamarhi jail is not an isolated case.

Prison department officials said the use of mobile phones was common in Beur jail in Patna, and in central jails in Gaya, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur.

"Access to liquor, mineral water, cell phones and pornography is possible if an inmate bribes jail officials and policemen," a prison official said.

In the past, raids in jails have led to the seizure of television sets, mobile phones, imported liquor and cigarettes.

Criminals-turned-politicians like Pappu Yadav, Anand Mohan and Mohammad Shahabuddin hit the headlines for holding durbars (courts) inside jails.

A few years ago, then Bihar director general of police Anand Shankar had directed policemen to stop providing mineral water to inmates and stop befriending them.

 

 Editorial :  Corrupt Judges &  5  Star  Jails

-          Safety of Jail Inmates Responsibility of Judges

The presiding judge of the case  who  issues arrest warrant against a person , who rejects the bail plea  of the accused  and  the judge who remands accused to police custody / judicial custody  is fully responsible for safety , human rights of the prison / jail inmates. Use of 3^rd degree torture is rampant in jails   and in all such cases ,  respective presiding judges  must be made to  pay compensation from their pockets and judges must be charged  for  AIDING & ABETTING  THE MURDER  ATTEMPT  on prisoner  by  jail / police authorities.

In the same way ,  it is the duty of the presiding  judge who  convicted or remanded  a person to jail , to ensure whether the person is getting RIGHT PUNISHMENT  as per law  whether less or more  in jail and to ensure right punishment for him. 

Rich & mighty criminals are getting lesser punishment than the “ Judgement “ , enjoying luxurious lifestyles within jails , whereas poor people are exposed to harsh punishment , 3^rd degree torture within jail which  are not permitted by law / judgement. 

This can only happen with the connivance of  corrupt judges & police.   Why not legal prosecution of corrupt judges & police and putting judges , police behind bars ?  Are the JUDGES  &  POLICE  above  Law  ?

  

Presiding Judge  who convicted Sasikala &  Police  fully responsible  for 5 Star  Jail life of Sasikala & Ilavarasi  Watch :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS3JvO8ys-g  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Nsi_dBUl0 ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0pUTMYwyFA ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vveQcSvzUx8 ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8ryW-ePAUU

 

Are  CJI &  Supreme Court Judges  sleeping or conniving ? Anyway SCI Judges  get lakhs of rupees salary , 5 star bungalow , car , etc  even if does duty  properly  or improperly.

 

"As a reward for bribing the prison authorities from Rao to jail warden, Sasikala gets special menu daily, cooked by special chefs in a special kitchen near the women's cell," Roopa is said to have mentioned in the report.

Co-convicts Sasikala's sister-in-law Elavarasi and nephew VK Sudhakaran were also held guilty by a trial court in September 2014 and upheld by the Supreme Court on February 14 in the two-decade-old disproportionate assets case of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. 

32 Convicts Allegedly Tortured At Bengaluru Jail In Sasikala Controversy

 

The complaint was lodged on Monday by BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje, the family members of these prisoners were not being allowed to meet them.

 

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to two top Karnataka prison officials taking cognisance of a complaint about alleged torture and transfer of 32 convicts serving terms in the Central Prison.

An NHRC release said the complaint alleged the prisoners were beaten black-and-blue and shifted overnight (on July 16) in an injured condition to various other prisons at Mysore, Ballari, Belagavi and Davanagere.

According to the complaint, lodged on Monday by BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje, the family members of these prisoners were not being allowed to meet them.

The complaint was filed a day after the prisoners, in a sudden move, were shifted at around 1 am to jails in Ballari and Belagavi for allegedly trying to voice their grievances.

The commission observed that the allegations of physical torture of the prisoners and their overnight transfer to other jails in an injured condition, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of their right to life and dignity.

It issued notices to Karnataka Director General of Police (DGP) and Inspector General (IG), Prisons, asking them to file within four weeks a detailed report on the allegations, along with a note on the current location and health condition of the "injured and shifted" prisoners.

"It need not be restated that a prisoner is not a slave of the State and is not denude of his fundamental rights while in judicial custody," the release said.

Allegedly, the prisoners were meted out this "inhuman" treatment because of their bid to stage a dharna inside the jail premises as they were not allowed to speak to (then) DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had visited the jail, it added.

DIG Roopa had recently flagged certain "grave irregularities" inside the Central Jail, including providing a sophisticated kitchen to one of the prisoners, (AIADMK Amma chief) V Sasikala, and VIP treatment to another prisoner, Abdul Karim Lala Telgi, the release said.

The issue of alleged preferential treatment to Sasikala, serving a four-year term in a disproportionate assets case, came to the fore after Roopa submitted a report to her superior, DGP (Prisons) H N Sathyanarayana Rao.

Both DIG Roopa and DGP Rao were transferred after they sparred over the report in public.

The government has also ordered a probe by a retired official into the allegations.

The release said that according to the complaint, the 32 prisoners were allegedly shifted in a hasty manner in order to avoid any disclosure to the inquiry officer.

 

Review: In Jails, Illegality Is the Norm

BY MAHTAB ALAM

 

Sunetra Choudhury‘s Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous highlights how different jail experiences can be depending on who you are and what you can pay.

 

When I met Santosh Yadav, a journalist from Bastar, for an early morning breakfast in Delhi a few weeks ago, he looked happy. There was a sense of relief and freedom in his eyes. Yadav had been recently released on bail after 17 months of imprisonment. He was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police in September 2015 from his village Darbha in Bastar. At the time of his arrest, Yadav used to report for two Hindi local dailies, the Navbharat and Chhattisgarh. He was accused of being a Maoist supporter and charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and other laws pertaining to crimes ranging from rioting, criminal conspiracy, murder, criminal intimidation and with being a part of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), among the other alleged offences. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on February 26 this year, after his earlier bail petitions were rejected by the lower courts.

As soon as he started narrating his jail experiences, he assumed a different persona altogether. There was a sense of intense gloom and despair in his eyes. “What I saw and went through in jail was beyond my imagination,” he said, adding that “I used to think aisa angrezon ke samay hi hota hoga (things like this could have only happened during colonial rule).” Yadav said he was severely tortured and even kept in solitary confinement during his incarceration, apart from routine beatings by the other inmates on the instructions of the jail officials. Listening to Yadav was like re-reading journalist Iftikhar Gilani’s jail memoir, My Days in Prison. Gilani had been jailed in June 2002 on the charges of possessing ‘classified documents’ and booked under the draconian Official Secrets Act. The only evidence presented was a report he had downloaded from the internet. Eventually, he was discharged. In his memoir, Gilani writes, “I was beaten up many times while inside the prison. For 41 days, I worked as a labourer…”

Not everyone goes through the trials and tribulations that Yadav and Gilani underwent. Jail can be quite a ‘haven’ for some, depending primarily on one’s socio-economic background and political influence, irrespective of how grave the charges or the crimes committed. In fact, it’s possible that the graver the nature of the alleged crime, the better the facilities you can avail. All, of course, through illegal means. Unfortunately, in jails, illegality is the norm.

Sunetra Choudhury’s book Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous tells us how all of this is possible. In so doing, she gives us a glimpse of the underground and parallel economy of jails across the country. Based on extensive secondary research and detailed interviews with people who have spent time in jail as well as those who have worked in or on jails, Choudhury presents a series of stories which are nothing short of eye-opening – dare I say, even eye-popping – in their revelations.

Choudhury profiles the incarceration of 13 people who are either in jail or were at one point of time. While the book mostly concentrates on describing famous people in prison, it does cover others as well. Among the former are politicians Amar Singh, A. Raja and Pappu Yadav, the arms dealer Abhishek Verma’s wife, Anca Verma, CEO Peter Mukherjea and Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy. Businessman Subrata Roy of Sahara also finds a brief mention in the introduction.

Narrating her meeting with Roy, Choudhury writes:

“After walking through a long corridor inside the Chandragupta suite [at the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi] that had been used by heads of state, and after passing a room that only had his shoes, I was ushered into a sitting room with Roy. He was very polite and spoke to me in Bangla, appreciating my work as I’m sure his secretary may have briefed him. Someone brought in some mishit doi and sandesh. As soon as I took out my notebook he said, ‘Listen, don’t include me in this book of yours. I’m not a criminal.’ I told him that not everyone featured in my book would be a criminal. Many would be those wrongly accused of crimes which led them to unfairly spend long years in custody. ‘But I am different. There isn’t even an FIR against me,’ he clarified.”

Roy was given VIP treatment during his jail term. In fact, as the author informs us, he paid a whopping Rs 1.23 crore for the facilities that he received in Tihar. He lived like a king even in jail.

Unbelievable and ridiculous as it may sound, the sad reality is, in the words of Anca Verma, “If you steal 1,000 rupees, the hawaldar will beat the shit out of you and lock you up in in a dungeon with no bulb or ventilation. If you steal 55,000 crore rupees then you get to stay in a 40-foot cell which has four split units, internet, fax, mobile phones and a staff of ten to clean your shoes and cook you food.” This singular quote from the book speaks volumes about the privileges and deprivation faced by people in jails, given their money power and political connections. It also tells us about the rotten nature of our criminal justice system. However, as the author notes, “special treatment in jail is, of course, not a new phenomenon.” She draws our attention towards the case of the infamous Charles Sobhraj. However, what is striking is how, over a period of time, a new normal of ‘super’ special treatment for a certain type of jail inmate has been drawn into our discourse.

Among the most tragic and lesser-known stories is the one of Rehmana. Hers is a clear case of guilt by association. Now out of jail, she is the wife of Pakistani national, Arif who is currently on death row for being an operative of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba convicted in the Red Fort attack case. Though there are several unanswered questions about Arif being an operative of the LeT and his involvement in the attack, Rehmana and her entire family suffer for the crime. “Don’t write their names,” Rehmana requested the author when she met her for an interview.

“Rehmana’s aware that she’s already created considerable problems for everyone associated with her. One of her sisters, a government school teacher in Bhopal, is afraid that Rehmana has spoilt her daughter’s chances of getting a good match. Her brother, a year younger than Rehmana, is still mentally disturbed by all that had happened. Rehmana may have married Arif but they were all hauled to the police station for one night in December. And that night’s nightmare is still too scary for them to emerge from.”

The story of the transgender bar dancer Khushi Sheikh as well as that of the school teacher and a once terror accused Wahid Sheikh are nothing short of horrifying. In both these cases, the perpetrators are those who are entrusted by law to protect the lives and liberties of the people – the police. Referring to Wahid’s case, the author confesses that “Even after two decades of reporting, his account gave me sleepless nights. I realised how in daily journalism we err in relying too much on what authorities say, in not questioning the prosecution agency.”

“Wahid stands acquitted after a decade in jail yet there is no compensation for the time he has lost, for the wounds that he bore from prison. Wahid has given real names of his tormentors, not just to me, but to courts and judges. All of them are decorated police officers—A. N. Roy, K. P. Raghuvanshi, Vijay Salaskar. You can’t dismiss his words because he (Wahid was not convicted) and the others who have been convicted can show you a Mumbai High Court judgement which upholds how they were beaten in jail, their rights violated and then denied medical treatment.”

Though the author regrets not having been able to include the stories of politician M.K. Kanimozhi, IPS officer R. K. Sharma and actress Monica Bedi, one feels that she could have tried including some of the most important stories of those who are either still lodged in jail or have spent years in the prisons of central Indian states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. Stories of people like Soni Sori, Linga Kodopi and Jiten Marandi would have enriched the book. Nevertheless, it is a well-researched book and should be read widely and translated into Indian languages.

 

Jailed for Over a Year, Chhattisgarh Journalist Santosh Yadav Granted Bail

BY THE WIRE STAFF

 

Bastar-based Santosh Yadav had been jailed in September 2015 by the Chhattisgarh police who accused him of having links with Naxals and of involvement in operations against the security forces.

 

Chhattisgarh journalist Santosh Yadav was granted bail by the Supreme Court, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced in a tweet. Yadav was arrested in September 2015 by the state police under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act for “associating with a terrorist organisation” and “supporting and aiding terrorist groups”.

Yadav, a Bastar-based freelance journalist, was arrested on September 29, 2015, after Chhattisgarh Police Special Task Force Commander Mahant Singh had said he saw him standing behind a Maoist fighter during an ambush in Darbha in August of that year. The district police echoed Singh’s claims, accusing Yadav of being a Maoist sympathiser; the superintendent also announced that Yadav was suspected of having links with Shankar, a Maoist leader in the area. However, Singh later “expressed inability to identify the accused with certainty”, according to an identification parade memo dated January 1, 2016.

Described as a fearless writer by fellow journalists, Yadav has contributed stories to various Hindi dailies including Dainik Navbharat, Patrika and Dainik Chhattisgarh, reporting on human rights violations in Bastar. Yadav often introduced the family members of those arrested by state police forces to the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, a lawyers’ collective that offered free legal services to victims of police excesses. Journalists and activists across the country protested following Yadav’s arrest.

Yadav had served as a point of contact and verification for other reporters writing Bastar, which has been described as a media blackhole, with journalists subjected to routine threats, intimidation, and harassment by both Maoists and the police.

In the chargesheet filed by the Chhattisgarh Police on February 17, 2016, Yadav was charged under various sections of the Arms Act 1959 and the Explosive Substances Act 1908. He was also charged under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA) and the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA), both of which are anti-terrorism legislations.

Sudha Bharadwaj, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, told Scroll.in that the UAPA and the CSPSA are “widely held as draconian as the ‘unlawful activity’ laid down in these Acts are vague and so broad as to be highly amenable to gross abuse and arbitrary and unreasonable action by the state police and administration”.

Yadav’s case points to the broader issue of dwindling press freedom in India, coupled with increasing rates of violence against journalists. In its report published in December 2016, the CPJ had said Yadav was the only Indian journalist to be imprisoned because of his work. According to the 2016 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India ranks abysmally low at 133 among 180 countries, The Hindu reported.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems indifferent to these threats and problems, and there is no mechanism for protecting journalists,” the RSF report asserted.

 

Prosecute  Sanjay  Dutt  under  TADA 

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/prosecute-sanjay-dutt-under-tada  ,

Revoke Bail of Salman Khan

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/revoke-bail-of-salman-khan ,

 

Aeroplane Rides for Corrupt Police Corrupt Judges

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/aeroplane-rides-for-corrupt-police-corrupt-judges  ,

 

Traitors  in  Judiciary &  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police  ,

 

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/crimes-by-khaki 

 

FIRST  Answer  Judges  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/336585411/FIRST-Answer-Judges-Police 

 

 

In ‘safe’ custody

 

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, throws light on custodial torture

 

In-custody torture, though illegal under law, is often resorted too, worldwide, making it one of worst forms of human rights violations. Meenakshi Ganguly, former Time journalist and now, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, takes up a few questions here to address the subject. Excerpts:

Do you think India should also come out with an official report documenting in-custody torture as the U.S. Senate recently did on CIA's secret torture program?

Torture and other ill-treatment are absolutely forbidden under universally applicable international laws. Most that defend torture argue, as was done by the CIA, that harsh methods are necessary when there is great danger to public security. They speak of the ‘ticking bomb.’ In fact, any experienced interrogator would agree that using torture is not effective because it can produce inaccurate intelligence or generate false leads. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program shows that not only was the CIA torture far more brutal and harsh than previously admitted, it was not an effective means of producing valuable or useful intelligence. Repeated claims that the program was necessary to protect Americans turned out to be false.

India has prepared a draft bill seeking to prohibit torture. But as long as there is a culture of impunity, where public officials are protected from prosecution, the law will fail.

Some argue that our judiciary already has enough checks and balances to protect prisoners from abuse. Do you agree with it?

Indian law does not allow confessions to the police as evidence because there is concern that such confessions might be coerced. Under POTA, confessions to the police were permitted, and eventually the law was repealed because it was abused.

Although most police will argue that “third degree” is generally discouraged, in our discussions with the police we also found that it is the most used instrument in their non-existent toolkit. Overworked, where good work is seldom rewarded, junior level staff is expected to produce prompt results — and they do so by rounding up suspects and beating them, hoping to solve the case. Inevitably, they end up with false leads, often make wrong arrests and are unable to secure convictions due to lack of evidence. Poor witness protection and harassment to witnesses also means that they do not want to get involved in a long drawn out trial.

The senior officer level police complain of undue pressure from politicians and powerful figures, who can act as patrons to criminals, demanding they be protected from arrest and prosecution. Instead of upholding the law, it is the police that end up breaking it. The Supreme Court has ruled that the government must engage in police reform. This is crucial to ensure that police in India becomes an effective and accountable force. The judiciary rightly acquits people for lack of evidence. But if police does not receive the training to gather proper evidence, it also means that criminals can get away, while innocents suffer wrongful Muslim, calling me a traitor arrests, torture, and lengthy under trial detention. It also leads to an even more frightening outcome — where the police do not have evidence to convict, they decide to be both judge and executioner, doling out punishment that can range from slaps to extrajudicial killings, or fake encounters.

What vital points does HRW’s in-custody torture report of 2011 throw up?

We found that there is urgent need to implement reforms to the criminal justice system. The police in India operates as it did under colonial rule. We found that fear of police is a barrier to seeking justice. Women and children, victims of sexual attacks, said they feared further abuse if they did venture into a police station. Dalits complain that if they muster the courage to complain, they often find that the victims are made to sit on the floor outside while the upper caste perpetrators are served tea by the officer. Muslims complain of being held in suspicion.

The constabulary and the police station is often the only State presence available to the public, and it is not a pleasant experience. Many policemen agreed that they are often rude and harsh, but they also point to their own frustration, having to deal with a range of issues from domestic violence to communal riots, often because the civil administration simply fails to do its part inimplementing policy. We found police stations with desktop computers, but no electricity or even a trained operator, forget access to data and information. At some places, the residential quarters were shocking. Policemen said they are accused of demanding money when they have to travel a distance in rural areas to investigate a complaint, but said there was a shortage of vehicles or funds to pay for fuel. On the other hand, we found that many State governments are yet to establish independent and effective human rights commissions or set up a complaints authority to investigate police abuse.

Don’t we have guidelines to prevent custodial torture?

The Supreme Court and the NHRC have laid down guidelines. Unfortunately, they are routinely ignored. That is why there is such a strong demand to seek the repeal of AFSPA to be replaced by one that has stronger human rights protections. The law provides widespread powers, but protects soldiers when those powers are abused.

In the investigation of terror attacks, police have made mistakes, often due to the use of torture. The Andhra Pradesh Minorities Rights Commission, for instance, found the wrongful use of torture and recommended compensations. In one case in Orissa, we had a man tell us that he was beaten by the police so severely, his leg was fractured. In agony, when the police continued to hit his injured leg, he blurted out the names of his office colleagues, who were then arrested and tortured. All of them were charged under the counter terror laws as members of the banned Maoist groups. Eventually, they were found to be innocent by the courts.

India is yet to sign the UN Convention Against Torture. Will it help?

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had even permitted UN special rapporteurs on torture to visit their countries but reports of in-custody torture continue to pour in from such countries. Police often say that human rights impose restrictions when tough measures are needed for tough challenges. Unfortunately, any compromise is only going to lead to bad outcomes.When the State allows, even rewards, its security forces to violate the fundamental principles of the Constitution, it rarely turns out well. It leads to corruption at the very least. It can also turn policemen into killers for hire, or as a military court discovered recently, lead soldiers to kill innocents for profit.

In Sri Lanka, we have documented torture including sexual abuse of suspected LTTE supporters and sympathisers. In Bangladesh, the Rapid Action Battalion was created as a counter-terror force, but instead has repeatedly been accused of extrajudicial executions. People want to feel safe. However, we often find that denial of rights can cause security challenges, but the continued violation of human rights aggravates the situation, leading to a cycle of violence and placing innocents at risk.

 

PIL –   Compensate  Prisoners  illegally  detained

An Appeal to Honourable Supreme Court of India , Karnataka High Court & National Human Rights Commission

 

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2017

 

 

IN THE MATTER OF

 

NAGARAJA . M.R

editor SOS e Clarion of Dalit & SOS e Voice for Justice

# LIG 2 , No 761 ,, HUDCO First Stage , Laxmikantanagar ,

Hebbal , Mysore – 570017 , Karnataka State

....Petitioner

 

Versus

 

Honourable Chief Secretary , Government of Karnataka & Others

....Respondents

 

PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 12 to ARTICLE 35 & ARTICLE 51A OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF A WRIT IN THE NATURE OF MANDAMUS UNDER ARTICLE 32 & ARTICLE 226 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.

 

To ,

Hon'ble The Chief Justice of India and His Lordship's Companion

Justices of the Supreme Court of India. The Humble petition of the

Petitioner above named.

 

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH :

 

1. Facts of the case:

 

"Power will go to the hands of rascals, , rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight among themselves for

power and will be lost in political squabbles . A day would come when even air & water will be taxed." Sir Winston made this statement in the House of Commons just before the independence of India & Pakistan. Sadly , the forewarning of Late Winston Churchill has been proved right by some of our criminal , corrupt public servants.

  Majority  of  prisoners  in  Indian  jails  belong  to   poor , minority , oppressed  sections of society and  2/3^rd  of  prison  population  comprises of undertrials.  Are  not  there any criminals  among rich , affluent  and forward castes , majority community ?  It  proves the bias , prejudice  of  police , establishment. There are  good  , honest  people  as  well as criminals  in  all castes , religions and all walks of life. There are deadly anti nationals , criminals among the police force , judiciary , parliament  , but due to their  caste , financial clout  escaping from conviction , legal prosecution.

    As  per  law , all citizens of india are equal.  However  under trials  ( who are innocents till proven guilty )  are discriminated in Indian jails.  Ordinary citizens / accused  are crammed in rooms resembling  pig stays . whereas  accused  from  rich / influential back grounds  are given separate rooms with cot , bed , television , news paper , etc.

   As  per  law , all citizens of india are equal.  A criminal is a criminal . However   Indian prison authorities discriminates here also.  Former ministers  who looted  crores of rupees from public  exchequer , corporate  persons  industrialists who have cheated public , public banks of crores of rupees are given royal treatment , get best food , health care where as an ordinary pick pocket , house burglar  are  treated like slaves , pigs don’t get proper food , health care.

   India Jail Manual   procedures differentiate prisoners based on their caste , social  background ,  while  allotting  prison cells , food , visitor facility , parole ,  mandatory work , recreation facilities - which in itself is illegal.

   Apart from this , corruption in Indian jails is rampant.  Prisoners with money , influence  get everything within  jail itself , mobile phone , drugs , fire arms , etc. some  mafia dons  run their empire from prison itself.

  Poor prisoners are tortured by  police , jail personnel and   criminals  within jails. Indian Jails are reform centre , where everyone should treated equally in all respects. By practicing discrimination  jail  authorities  are promoting small time criminals to commit  bigger crimes to get royal treatment in society as well  as in jail.

  Few   prisoners convicted by lower court due to bias of police , prosecutor  &  lower court judges are acquitted by higher courts.  However  due to this wrong conviction of innocents , the innocent person is deprived of his life & liberty for  years , decades. But the culprits  Investigating officer , police , public prosecutor & judge are not prosecuted for their crimes. In this  manner  even innocents are killed in fake encounters or  by death sentence.

  It is the duty of the judge  who awards  jail sentence to a  convict or an accused  , to  ensure his safety , health care  and to  see that prisoner gets right punishment as per law. Here our judges have failed. SHAME SHAME to police & judges.

 If  the Supreme Court of India ,  NHRC  delays  in acting on this PIL  petition  resulting in  prolonged  imprisonment of  undertrials , convicts or Innocents , Supreme Court of India  / NHRC  judges  also jointly become responsible for the  crimes against those  illegally imprisoned and  SCI judges are also equally responsible to pay compensation from their personal pockets.

 

2. Question(s) of Law:

 

Are  not all  prisoners  equal ?  is not  theft  of ten rupees  or theft of thousand crores of rupees , both crimes ?  Are not both criminals thieves ? then why differentiation ? Is it not the constitutional duty  of a judge  who has  awarded jail sentence to  an accused / a convict ,  to  ensure safety , health care of the said prosiner ? is it  not the duty of  the judge  to monitor whether  the convict is getting  right  punishment  as per law  nothing  less  nothing  more ? 

 

3. Grounds:

 

Requests for equitable justice , equal treatment of prisoners. Requests of  stopping torture of poor prisoners. Prosecution of  corrupt  judges , police & jail personnel.

 

4. Averment:

Prosecute  Sanjay  Dutt  under  TADA

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/prosecute-sanjay-dutt-under-tada   ,

Revoke Bail of Salman Khan

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/revoke-bail-of-salman-khan  ,

 

Aeroplane Rides for Corrupt Police Corrupt Judges

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/aeroplane-rides-for-corrupt-police-corrupt-judges   ,

 

Traitors  in  Judiciary &  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police   ,

 

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/crimes-by-khaki

 

FIRST  Answer  Judges  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/336585411/FIRST-Answer-Judges-Police  

 

Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants in the  cases to perform their duties.

 

 

PRAYER:

In the above premises, it is prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased:

 

 

a . Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants , Government of Karnataka authorities in the case to perform their duties.

 

b. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  immediately annul  the Jail Manuals  of all state governments of india , which are discriminatory.

c. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to constitute an expert committee  to frame a “ Model Jail Manual “ applicable to all Indian states , union territories.

d. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  initiate legal prosecution of jail personnel , police &  judges who failed in their duties to  ensure safety of prisoners , resulting in torture of prisoners and  for  prolonged imprisonment or   illegal  imprisonment of innocents.

e. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to order all state governments to ensure food , health care , recreational facilities , parole  on an equal footing  to all prisoners without discrimination.

f. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  order respective state governments pay compensation to prisoners  for  suffering discrimination , torture.

g. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  order respective state governments pay compensation to prisoners  who spent years behind bars , finally acquitted by courts  and in the case of prisoners  who spent more years in jail than the  quantum of punishment  codified in IPC  due to prolonged  case trials. In both such cases afterwards state government must recover money from  respective presiding judges , investigation officer & government  legal prosecutor.

 

h . to pass such other orders and further orders as may be deemed necessary on the facts and in the circumstances of the case.

 

FOR WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER SHALL BE DUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.

 

Dated : 01^st July  2017 …………………. FILED BY: NAGARAJA.M.R.

 

Place : Mysuru , India…………………….PETITIONER-IN-PERSON

 

SC dismisses state govt's plea against acquittal of man who "mistakenly" served seven years in prison for rape

 

In a setback to the Maharashtra government, the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by it seeking permission to file an appeal challenging the acquittal of a Ghatkopar resident booked for rape in a case of "mistaken identity". Gopal Shetye had served seven years in prison for the rape case and has now filed a case in the Bombay high court seeking Rs 200 crore as compensation for the "wrongful prosecution".

 

"There is a delay of 357 days in filing the special leave petition, which has not been satisfactorily explained (by the state)," said a division bench of Justice A K Sikri and Justice N V Ramana. "Also the fact that Shetye, though acquitted, has served the complete sentence awarded by the Trial court, we are not inclined to entertain this special leave petition," the apex court bench added while dismissing the state's plea as barred by limitation.

 

 

The state had filed the appeal after Shetye filed his petition seeking compensation.

 

 

Shetye, who used to work in a hotel in Ghatkopar, was arrested on July 29, 2009. He later found out that he was charged with raping a 28-year-old woman from Aurangabad sleeping on a railway bridge at Ghatkopar station 10 days prior to his arrest.In 2010, a sessions court convicted him and sentenced him to seven years jail. By the time, the HC decided his appeal, he had served his jail term. In 2015, HC found no evidence to link Shetye to the murder.

 

 

The victim had said that the man who raped her was "Gopi" and the court said that the police themselves had floated the theory that "Gopi" was Gopal Shetye.

 

 

The HC had also picked holes in the police case—Shetye was shown to the victim in the police station before the test identification parade and the investigation agency had not produced the CCTV footage."This was a case where the identity of Shetye as the culprit had not been satisfactorily established," the HC had said. "The investigation had not been satisfactory. No serious efforts were taken to find out the truth or to collect evidence."

 

False Terror Cases: Can Compensation Assuage a Victim’s Trauma?

By  Alok Prasanna Kumar

 

With a trial court acquitting two out of the three accused in the Delhi blast case of 2005, The Quint revisits the debate on whether the state is liable for compensation for falsely implicating the innocent in terror-related cases. This article was first published on 31 January 2017.

Another so-called “terror case” prosecution has fallen apart in the light of judicial scrutiny. Eleven years after Delhi’s notorious “Special Cell” detained Irshad Ali and Maurif Qamar for allegedly being members of the Al-Badr Brigade, a trial court in Delhi acquitted them of all charges pointing out that they were in fact police informers who had been falsely framed.

This is in addition to the debacle it suffered in court over the “Malda fake currency” case, where the Special Cell claimed to have caught – in filmy-style – men attempting to smuggle fake currency into Delhi. Once again the trial court found out that there was simply no basis for the Special Cell’s case.

Adambhai Ajmeri was found guilty of having been part of the terrorist attack on the Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad, his conviction was upheld by the Gujarat High Court, but was entirely acquitted by the Supreme Court that found that the whole case had been concocted against him and five others. This was after 11 years in prison and eight years on death row.

 

Victimisation of Minorities

I could go on, but the stories are depressingly identical. Innocent men – mostly Muslims – are picked up in the name of “anti-terror operations”, detained for years, while evidence is cooked up and false charges slapped on them. Usually these cases fall apart on the most basic judicial scrutiny. Sometimes, as in Adambhai’s case, it requires the Supreme Court’s intervention before justice is done.

All of these cases are indicative of a deep-rooted prejudice and dysfunction in our police forces.

Delhi Police’s “Special Cell” may be the most notorious, but by no means exceptional in its persecution of innocents. The Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association has documented 16 such cases, including Irshad and Qamar’s cases. Such abuse of the criminal justice process and the victimisation of Muslims have been well-documented and widespread.

It’s not just Muslims in the context of terror cases. People from socially and economically backward classes are also severely discriminated against by police when it comes to even routine cases.

 

Is the State Responsible for False Charges?

•           The root cause behind false charges in terror-related cases is the lack of reforms in the police, often seen as an instrument of state control.

•           The State owes responsibility in false terror cases since the law establishes that onus of malfeasance of public servants lies with the government.

•           What needs to be worked out is a mechanism of providing compensation to the victims, by the State and its intricate bureaucracy.

•           Compensation should be provided only in cases where the accused has been in custody for more than 60-90 days and the case is a fabricated one.

•           There should be a punitive element as well, making the errant police officers liable to bear a certain amount of the compensation.

Discrimination Against Tribals, Dalits

The caste-wise break-up of under-trials across the country, and also those who have been sentenced to death, shows a distinct bias towards the Dalits and adivasis. The recent “Swathi murder case” is another example of this discrimination. After detaining a Dalit man, who was accused of being the murderer on the most flimsy evidence, police were unable to file a chargesheet even six months after having allegedly “cracked” the case.

His death in police custody – in poorly explained circumstances – only makes the initial arrest and investigation more suspicious. Many adivasis still languish in jail as the Chhattisgarh government detains them under the notorious Special Public Security Act, 2005, slapping multiple false cases on them, denying even basic legal protection to the most vulnerable sections of the society.

The basic, underlying cause for this is the fact that the colonial police force inherited by the modern Indian state has not been reformed at all. It is still seen as an instrument of state control of the subject population, both by the rulers and the ruled. The police forces are ill-equipped and ill-trained to be modern police forces fit for a constitutional democracy, and are in no way representative enough to inspire confidence in the weaker sections of the society.

Need for Police and Judicial Reforms

Reforming the police forces will take a generation at least – that is, if the state governments cease resistance to reform and seriously start implementing even the most basic recommendations made by the Supreme Court. There is a need for a much-wider reform, including reconceptualisation of what a police force in India is supposed to do, who it is supposed to protect and from whom.

That said, there are some things that can be done instantly to remedy the injustices suffered by those who have been at the receiving end of the police malfeasance in criminal cases.

One argument that is made is the granting of compensation to those who have been victimised by false terror or other criminal cases. However, this didn’t find favour with the Supreme Court recently when the victims of such false accusations approached it seeking compensation.

Responsibility of the State

There is no denying though that the need is pressing and the State cannot escape responsibility. It is well-established in law that the state is responsible for the malfeasance of its servants in the course of their official duties. This principle is applicable even if the government servant exceeds her brief, but so long as the act was done while she was “in uniform” (so to speak), the Government can be held liable. This is a claim that can be made not only in the context of the law of torts, but also in the realm of constitutional law.

For instance, the Union Government on the orders of the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court, had to pay compensation to a Bangladeshi woman who was raped by the Indian Railways employees on railway premises. Custodial deaths have been held to entitle the deceased’s family to compensation from the government responsible. Most recently, we have seen the National Human Rights Commission direct the Chhattisgarh government to pay compensation to the adivasi women who were raped by the security forces.

But, false terror and other criminal cases are not one-off failures that require one-off remedies from the court. The victims of the criminal justice system, who have suffered economically, emotionally, physically and psychologically for years on end can’t be expected to gird their loins for a long and bruising battle in courts. The problem is systemic and so should be the solution.

Compensation for the Victims

Equally, it would also be utopian to expect the State to set up a sufficiently-responsive and active mechanism to provide compensation for such victims of the criminal justice system. Given that most of the victims are dis-empowered, to expect them to negotiate the intricacies of bureaucracy and other state agencies on a matter where the State would already be disinclined to believe them would be an unfair burden.

In such a situation, what reasonable solution can we offer?

One possible answer is to empower the court that acquits or discharges unfairly charged persons to award compensation to those whose lives have been destroyed by the false case. Since this court or more specifically, this judge, is the one who has just examined all the evidence in a case and has taken a call on the guilt or otherwise of the accused, where the judge finds that the case has been falsely foisted on a person by the police, she should be empowered to award compensation to the person she has acquitted or discharged.

To make this mechanism more effective, and targeted, compensation should be awarded not in all acquittals, but only when two criteria should be met: the accused should have been in custody for more than 90 days or 60 days statutory limit placed in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1974 and that the case should have been patently false. The latter would be fulfilled if the police did not follow the statutory procedures in collecting evidence, or made false statements in the court or elsewhere, or are shown to have subjected the accused to torture or other degrading treatment to obtain a confession. This does not preclude separate criminal proceedings against the concerned police officers for perjury, assault and other crimes; it will ensure that at least the unfairly accused gets some relief.

Quantum of Compensation

The concerned court should be empowered to take any further material that the victim can place before deciding the quantum of compensation. The compensation should not only address the economic aspect, loss of income, and expenditure on litigation, but also address the emotional and psychological trauma that such false cases cause. There should, in addition, be a punitive element to this compensation that should, ideally, be recoverable from the concerned police officers.

The concept of a criminal court awarding compensation is not unknown in the Indian law. Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, allows the court to direct the payment of compensation to the victim of a crime from the fine payable by a convicted person.

State Governments Should Take the Lead

Likewise, if an accused has been arrested on the basis of a complaint given by a person, and the court finds that no case was made out against accused, it can award compensation to such accused in accordance with Section 250 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is also not entirely unfamiliar to the system – in most places the same judge exercises both civil and criminal jurisdictions in a given district. To that extent, it is a reform that is rather easily implementable.

When compared with large-scale police reform, this is relatively low hanging fruit for the state governments in India to undertake. That our criminal justice is broken and dysfunctional cannot be disputed. Rectifying it should not only focus on addressing the larger issues, but also address the needs of the victims of this system.

 

 

Prisoners of the system

By  Sonam Saigal

 

Terror suspects find themselves jailed for long periods without trial, and when proven innocent, find that the country does not make any kind of reparation

On January 15, 1994, Mohammad Nisarudin was at home in Gulbarga, Karnataka, preparing for his Diploma in Pharmacy final exams, 15 days away. After he qualified, the 19-year-old planned to get a job in one of the Gulf countries, a dream he and his best friend Sajid (name changed) had talked about since they were seven. But that day, the police knocked at the door of his parents’ home and took him away in handcuffs. Initially, the police booked him for a bomb blast that had taken place in October 1993 in a Muslim educational institute in Hyderabad, then he was booked in a few unsolved bomb blasts that had taken place in August and September in 1993, then he was booked under the anti-terror law Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) — which was repealed two years later, in 1996 — for planting the bombs that took two lives and injured 22 in five trains on December 5 and 6 1993 in Mumbai, and after a ‘confession,’ put into Ajmer Central Jail. On February 28, 2005 a TADA court at Ajmer convicted him and gave him a life sentence.

Mr. Nisarudin stayed there for 23 years labelled a terror-accused. “Main yaad bhi nahin karna chahta unn dino ko; mujhe darkinar kar diya tha 73 days ke liye, chaar din tak khade rakha bediyon se baandh kar. (I don’t even want to recount those days, I was isolated for 73 days in the lock up, was made to stand and chained for four days]. On May 11 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that his confession, which was taken in police custody, was totally inadmissible, acquitted him of all charges and set aside his life sentence.

Left behind

When The Hindu spoke to Mr. Nisarudin at the home of his older brother Zahirudin, in Gulbarga, Karnataka, his voice quavered with emotion. “23 years of my life are gone to prove my innocence. Sab mujhse aage badh gaye, aur main sabse peeche reh gaya [Everyone has gone ahead in life and I am left far behind]. Most of my friends have gone abroad and those here don’t relate to me anymore. They could not even recognise me, how would they? There is a difference in the 19-year-old Nisarudin they last saw and today’s 42-year-old. An entire generation has gone by.” When this reporter asked him whether he had sought compensation of any kind from the State, his sorrow turned to anger: “How can I be compensated for all the years lost? Can I ever be compensated in any manner?”

Unable to carry on, he put his brother on the line. Mr. Zahirudin says that the family has used up all their savings in the long legal fight to bring Mr. Nisarudin home and were living day to day at the moment. “We do not have any resources to fight another legal battle.” Mr. Zahirudin says. “It takes a lot of money to do so and we lost all that we had to bring my brother home. Even if I seek action against those who falsely implicated him, half of them are dead. What is the way forward then?”

The focus now, Mr. Zahirudin says, is to help his brother put his life together again. “He is also entitled to be happy, just like you and me. I want to see him settle down. But people still don’t want to get their daughter or sister married in our family. Not only my brother, my entire family is a victim of the judiciary.” He says that though he tries to explain that his brother was falsely implicated and has been proved innocent, people fear that because he was accused of a terror crime, he will probably be picked up by the police for any blast that takes place in the country.

What rankles most is that though his brother has spent more than half his life in jail, the system has not expressed regret: “The least the judges could have done was expressed some sympathy or remorse.” In his opinion, the system has much to answer for; he says that when TADA was repealed his brother should have been released, but because presiding judges got transferred, public prosecutors were absent or repeatedly sought adjournments, it cost Nisaruddin 23 years in jail.

Victims of the system

While the length of Mr. Nisarudin’s incarceration is an extreme, his isn’t an isolated case.

Take Abdul Wahid Din Mohammad Shaikh, 39 now. He was charged of complicity in the Mumbai train blasts of November 7, 2006 and spent nine years in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai before being acquitted of all charges — the only one of those accused to be acquitted — and released. Mr. Shaikh told The Hindu that all the accused were made to sign many documents, some of which were blank. “Had I known the consequences I would have never done so.” While in jail, he enrolled in a law course, and finished a course in journalism. If he knew something of the law at the time he was arrested, he said, “I would have known what a confession is, what the consequences of signing on any written or blank pages are, what is the rights of an accused are, what the rights of those arrested are, what the duties of an investigating officer and agency are.”

While he was in prison, his wife, who had never stepped out of the house, had to go out to work to make ends meet. Now that he is free and exonerated, his goal is to secure the release of the others who were, in his opinion, wrongful implicated and convicted in the same case. “Once those trapped in this case are out, I will strive to release those languishing in jail for being falsely implicated.”

And there is Adnan Mulla, 40, who was sentenced to 10 years for the Mulund blasts of March 1, 2003. Initially he was illegally detained in 2003 and not released because the police wanted to make him a witness. Then he was made an accused after he refused to give a statement against his brother-in-law of Saquib Nachan (former general secretary of the now-banned Students Islamic Movement of India, SIMI). “I spent six years and one month in jail,” he says. Throughout his incarceration, he was kept in the anda cell, an egg-shaped high security block. “I was going to get married the same month I was picked up,” he says. “My fiancée waited for seven years for me to be released. Only I know how much she and both our families suffered. How can the loss of time be compensated by any officer or government?”

A system in need of reform

In 1765, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, jurist Sir William Blackstone wrote, “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” While India borrowed much of the UK’s legal system, the spirit of the ‘Blackstone Formulation’ (as it has come to be known) does not seem to be followed. (See box.)

There are no figures for the number of people released for lack of evidence after long spells in prison. Even more disquieting is that India does not have any compensation for people who have lost years of their lives to the justice system.

“Under normal circumstances we want to book the real culprit and have no motive to trap someone in a case,” says Prakash Singh, a retired Director General of Police. “We want to do a fair investigation, but the instruments of investigation are blunted and rusted as the police apparatus is in bad shape. It is possible that police officers are susceptible to bias and pressures from all areas and if politicians decide, don’t catch people from my community but from the other one, then there is selective prosecution.”

“When there is a terror case, you should have an open mind and take into consideration all aspects,” Mr. Singh says. “It is unfortunate that 90% of the time members of a certain community are involved. When one is investigating, I am not denying there may be some prejudice as there are pressures. Sometimes there are mistakes, and sometimes just because someone has a bad character and is in the bad books, an officer succumbs to the temptation [of implicating him]. These things do happen in real practice; I am not denying it.”

Although the Supreme Court has granted compensation in some cases in the past, it has not laid down any guidelines on how compensation can be calculated. One possible difficulty: terror cases are very different from, say, a motor vehicles case, which can have a formula.

Advocate Indira Jaisingh, former Additional Solicitor-General of India says, “The first step for the State would be to just acknowledge the wrong-doing. Then reparation. This will also act as a deterrent, as the officers need to be more careful in future. The demand for compensation certainly raises an issue that the Indian legal system has to learn to deal with, whether by legislation or in courts.”

Right to compensation

“The right to compensation is a human right,” says advocate and human rights activist Vrinda Grover, “and it is the responsibility of the State in falsely implicated cases because people are picked up for their religious affiliation or denomination and the police, who is an agent of the State, know that the person has nothing to do with the case but wrongly implicated the person.”

Courts have the power to compensate, says P.D. Kode, a retired judge of the Bombay High Court, “It depends upon the judge; once the trial is over and he has ascertained the evidence and if a person is prosecuted maliciously, the victim can file a suit for damages.” He says that high courts have awarded exemplary compensation in many cases, for example in ‘encounter’ cases. “They have to show that witnesses were liars. If such things come on record, the court has the power to order compensation. If courts come to a conclusion that the accused was framed, courts have wide powers to do justice to the accused.”

The Innocence Network (IN) is an affiliation of organisations that provides free legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to prove their innocence of crimes, and supporting them after they are freed. It is also working to eliminate the causes of wrongful convictions. IN suggests that the government should grant compensation to the those exonerated, for the loss and harm caused to them and for violating their rights under Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution of India. It says compensation should be calculated on case-to-case basis, factoring in the length of incarceration, loss of income, loss of opportunities (of education, possibilities of livelihood, skills), and the amount spent on legal fees, as well as more intangible harm like the loss of family life, stigmatisation, psychological and emotional harm caused to the accused and their families. They also recommend that the amount may be recovered from the officers responsible for the wrongful arrests and prosecution.

Ms. Grover agrees that compensation must be directly taken from officers responsible — so a clear signal is sent that these acts won’t be condoned — but says that an arithmetic calculation could not be done. “But there needs to be a very high compensation, something to the tune of ₹10 lakh is a small minimum.”

Justice A P Shah, former Chairman of the Law Commission and a member of the jury of the Innocence Network, says, “Terror cases are very different. With the stigma of being associated with terror cases, families are huge sufferers. Ideally we should have legislation but even in the absence of that courts have awarded compensation in several cases. The courts have even booked erring officers if evidence is fabricated, officers are booked for perjury, contempt of court and other offences under the Indian Penal Code.” He says that since the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010, has not been introduced in Parliament — it was sent back by the Select Committee four years ago — the only way to fight is in the court of law.

Abandoned by all

“Ours is a befitting case for compensation,” says Mr. Zahirudin. “But there need to be categories for those acquitted: benefit of doubt, insufficient evidence, falsely implicated. The third category needs to be chalked out differently. The courts need to look into reasons of why this happens and how and why someone is implicated. Why is only a certain section of the society targeted? Pick up any blasts case whether it is Ajmer or Malegaon…”

Mr. Nisarudin interrupts, not quite calm, but less emotional now: “I want to start a business of my own. I always wanted to open a hardware shop with my brother, but we have no money to do so. Will people come forward and help me financially in any manner? If they do it will go a long way in rehabilitating me. I have very little hope from the government.”

The story has a small silver lining. The Hindu first spoke to the brothers in December 2016. A few weeks later, the family found a bride for Mr. Nisarudin, “after great difficulty,” his brother says. He was married on February 10.

How the world makes reparation

Article 14 (6) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him.

• United Kingdom: The Home Secretary, under specified conditions and upon receipt of applications, is obligated to pay compensation for wrongful conviction or incarceration.

• France: Code de Procedure Penale follows International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

• Germany: An Act of Parliament (the Law on Compensation for Criminal Prosecution Proceedings 1971) specifies that whoever has suffered damage as a result of a criminal conviction which is later quashed or lessened the applicant shall be compensated by the State.

• Australia: In 2004, the Australian Capital Territory incorporated a slightly reworded version of Article 14 (6) within ACT legislation. As per the Human Rights Act 2004, an individual who is wrongfully convicted of a criminal offence may seek compensation.

• New Zealand: A guided discretionary system of compensation under the Compensation and Ex Gratia Payments for Persons Wrongly Convicted and Imprisoned in Criminal Cases.

Born to the wrong community

According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s 2015 statistics, out of 185,182 prisoners in Central Jails, 94,675 (51.1%) are ‘undertrials’ (the term for people who are suspected of a crime, arrested, incarcerated but not yet tried in court) and in district jails, out of 180,893 prisoners, 143,495 (79.3%) are undertrials.

NCRB numbers say that over 55% of undertrials across the country are either Muslims, Dalits or tribals. Scheduled Castes are 16.6% of India’s population, and Scheduled Tribes are 8.6%. Muslims are roughly 18% of India’s population, but make up 15.8% of the country’s convicts and 20.9% of its undertrials.

The creaking legal system means that long periods can pass before a case comes to trial: in 2013, 62% of total inmates were undertrials who had been in jail for more than three months; on 2014, that figure was 65%.

A study by the Quill Foundation’s Centre for Research and Advocacy on terror prosecution in Maharashtra since 1993 found that an overwhelming number of the more than 460 accused of terrorism in Maharashtra have been declared innocent after spending an average of three to six years in prison. More than half of the accused in the state were doctors, engineers, and educated professionals at the beginning of their careers. Almost all of who had been released after being found innocent had, after their release, been forced to pick up traditional occupations or small scale businesses, or remain unemployed. The study found that both the judicial process and the conviction rate in terror-related cases has been very low: only 42 of 93 cases filed since 2001 against SIMI (with more than 200 accused), have been heard and concluded. Of these 42, only three saw convictions (with sentences of two years each) and 39 have resulted in acquittals.

 

 

COMPENSATE   ACQUITTED  INNOCENTS  -   JUSTICE  A P SHAH

 

One of the biggest pitfalls of arresting a person on malicious and wrongful intent in terror cases is that while innocents get behind the bars, the real culprits go scot-free which can be very dangerous for the society, observed Justice AP Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, while releasing the first Peoples’ Tribunal report on acquitted innocents.

“We need to improve the efficiency of our investigating agencies to ensure that such pitfalls that have ruined and are still ruining hundreds of lives are removed. The trial in such cases takes seven to eight years or more to complete, and by the time the accused is released, his or her life is in a shambles,” said Justice Shah, citing the case of Nisaruddin, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2016 after spending 23 years in prison.

The tribunal, first of its kind, heard depositions from nine acquitted innocents over a period of two months who were picked up by the police in terror cases but later exonerated by the courts for want of evidence but in the process had to suffer the humiliation and social stigma of being a terror accused.

One of the acquitted victims who spent 14 years in jail, Mohammed Aamir Khan, termed the report as a milestone but found it lacking in spelling out what could be done to save the terror accused within the four walls of prison.

“I was acquitted after 14 years. Our jails are no better than Abu Ghraib where accused like me go through the worst kind of torture and are always at the mercy of police and other convicts. Many get killed like what happened in Bhopal jailbreak case,” said Aamir.

Giving its recommendations to save, compensate and rehabilitate exonerated accused of terror cases, the tribunal observed that the government should grant compensation to the exonerees for violating their right to life and liberty and the torture they underwent under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“It is shameful that India does not have any such provision,” said Justice Shah, adding that the cost may be recovered from the officers responsible for the wrongful arrests and prosecution.

The tribunal recommends greater accountability and transparency of investigating agency for which they should be subjected to initiation of departmental enquiry against the officers concerned and the erring officers must be suspended with immediate effect pending enquiry. “If found that the criminal prosecution against the acquitted persons was malafide and amounts to offences under IPC Sections 194, 196 and 211, the officers named by the exonerees should be prosecuted,” the report said.

The report recommended enactment of law to compensate for miscarriage of justice, pass the prevention of torture bill that is pending in the parliament for four years, shifting the burden of proof in offenses related to custodial violence and torture by bringing amendment in section 114B (1) of the Indian Evidence Act as proposed by the Tenth Law Commission.

On MCOCA

The tribunal explicitly recommended repealing Section 18 of MCOCA thus calling for an end to the admissibility of confessions as evidence and bringing all undergoing trials in repealed and lapsed TADA and POTA under ordinary law.

 

Acquitted Innocents

Shoeb Jagirdar — Mecca Masjid Blast case

Shoeb Jagirdar is a resident from Jalna, Maharashtra. He was first accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case. After his bail was furnished in this case he was charged in the Gokul Chat blast case. The charges against him in the Mecca Masjid blast case was of smuggling RDX and of fake passport acquisition. In the Gokul Chat case he was charged against Sec 107 of the IPC. He was acquitted after spending 7 years as an undertrial.

Mohammad Aamir Khan

Mohammad Aamir Khan is a residence of Delhi. All the blast between the years of 1996-97 that took place in Delhi was charged against him. They were a total of 19 cases against him under charges of sec 121, 122 302 and 307 IPC and sec 3 and 4 of Explosive Act. He spent 14 years in the prison.

Dr. Yunus — Jaipur SIMI case

Dr Yunus and 10 others were arrested for the Jaipur SIMI case. They were accused of taking forward the activities of the banned organization SIMI. Dr Yunus was brutally tortured in prison where he spent a total of 3years. The ba􀄴ery of charges against Dr Yunus had to do with speech and association- talking against national unity , integrity and secularism , of involving Muslim youth in anti- national activities, taking forward the activities of the banned organization SIMI and sympathizing with those carrying on similar activities, and not violence. He was found innocent on all counts.

Abdul Azeem — Aurangabad Arm Haul Case

Abdul Azeem is a resident of Beed, Maharashtra. He was alleged to be the driver of the terrorists of the Aurangabad Arms Haul case. He was acqui􀄴ed after spending 10 years and 3 months in prison. The charges against him included Sections 10(a), 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 38, 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and Sections 3(2), 3(1)(ii) & 3(4) of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, 1999.

Maulana Salees — SIMI case

He spent about 2.5 years in jail and still some of the charges continue to be against him. He was alleged to be a SIMI member at the age of fifty. Later 4 more charges were put against him. He was also held responsible for the Kanpur blast case. However, he was found innocent on all counts.

Wasif Haider

He was accused of waging war against the nation (sedition), rioting, of a􀄴empt to murder under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and some other sections of national security act (NSA). He was also accused of being a Hizbul Mujahideen operative. Nothing though could be proved in the court, and he was honorably acqui􀄴ed. The prosecution appealed against Wasif’s acquittal in the High Court, but its appeal was dismissed by the court at the primary stage itself.

Nisar and Zaheer Ahmed — 1996 Railway Blast case

Nisar Ahmed was acqui􀄴ed after 23 long years of jail. He along with his brother Mohammad Zaheer- who spent 14 years in prison- was convicted for the railway blast cases in 1996. The charges against them were of under various sections of TADA, IPC, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and Railways Act for planting bombs in five trains.

Wahid sheikh — 7/11 Train Blast case

Wahid Sheikh was charged for 7/11 train blast case. The charged included 3 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) of MCOC Act 1999 r/w Sacs 10, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 40 of UAPA 1967 r/w Sacs. 302, 307, 326, 325, 324, 427, 436, 121-A, 122, 123, 124-A, 201, 212, 120-B. Wahid Sheikh was acquitted of all charges after spending more than 10 years in prison. A government school teacher before his arrest, he has fought an uphill battle to get his job back. However, he is yet to receive his salary as well as his arrears for the last 10 years which he spent incarcerated as an undertrial.

Iftikhar Gilani — Official Secrets Act

He was charged for violating the Official Secrets Act. He was accused of possessing classified documents that violated the provisions of the statute. The evidences against him included the possession of a public document released in 1995 by Pakistan's Foreign Ministry that includes information about alleged human rights abuses committed by Indian troops in Kashmir. The charge was found fake and the evidence planted. He spent about 7 months in the jail without any bail.

 

Wrongful   Execution   DEATH  PENALTY

 

Wrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment. Cases of wrongful execution are cited as an argument by opponents of capital punishment, while proponents suggest that the argument of innocence concerns the credibility of the justice system as a whole and does not solely undermine the use of death penalty.[1][2]

A number of people are claimed to have been innocent victims of the death penalty.[3][4] Newly available DNA evidence has allowed the exoneration and release of more than 20 death rowinmates since 1992 in the United States,[5] but DNA evidence is available in only a fraction of capital cases. Others have been released on the basis of weak cases against them, sometimes involving prosecutorial misconduct; resulting in acquittal at retrial, charges dropped, or innocence-based pardons. The Death Penalty Information Center (U.S.) has published a list of 10 inmates "executed but possibly innocent".[6] At least 39 executions are claimed to have been carried out in the U.S. in the face of evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt.[7]

In the UK, reviews prompted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission have resulted in one pardon and three exonerations for people executed between 1950 and 1953 (when the execution rate in England and Wales averaged 17 per year), with compensation being paid.

 

Specific examples[edit]

Australia[edit]

Colin Campbell Ross was hanged in Melbourne in 1922 for the murder of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke the previous year in what became known as the Gun Alley Murder. The case was re-examined in the 1990s using modern techniques and Ross was eventually pardoned in 2008. Capital punishment in Australia was abolished in all jurisdictions, with the last execution taking place in 1967.

People's Republic of China[edit]

Wei Qing'an (Chinese: 魏清安, 1961–1984, 23 years old) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for the rape of Kun Liu, a woman who had disappeared. The execution was carried out on 3 May 1984 by the Intermediate People's Court. In the next month, Tian Yuxiu (田玉修) was arrested and admitted that he had committed the rape. Three years later, Wei was officially declared innocent.[8]

Teng Xingshan (Chinese: 滕兴善, ?–1989) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for supposedly having raped, robbed and murdered Shi Xiaorong (石小荣), a woman who had disappeared. An old man found a dismembered body, and incompetent police forensics claimed to have matched the body to the photo of the missing Shi Xiaorong. The execution was carried out on 28 January 1989 by the Huaihua Intermediate People's Court. In 1993, the previously missing woman returned to the village, saying she had been kidnapped and taken to Shandong. The absolute innocence of the wrongfully executed Teng was not admitted until 2005.[9]

Nie Shubin (Chinese: 聂树斌, 1974–1995) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for the rape and murder of Kang Juhua (康菊花), a woman in her thirties. The execution was carried out on April 27, 1995 by the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court. In 2005, ten years after the execution, Wang Shujin (Chinese: 王书金) admitted to the police that he had committed the murder.[10][11]

Qoγsiletu or Huugjilt (Mongolian:qoγsiletu, Chinese:呼格吉勒图, 1977-1996) was an Inner Mongolian who was executed for the rape and murder of a young girl on June 10, 1996. On December 5, 2006, ten years after the execution, Zhao Zhihong (Chinese: 赵志红) wrote the Petition of my Death Penalty admitting he had committed the crime. Huugjilt was posthumously exonerated and Zhao Zhihong was sentenced to death in 2015.[12]

Ireland[edit]

Harry Gleeson was executed in Ireland in April 1941 for the Murder of Moll McCarthy in County Tipperary in November 1940. The Gardai withheld crucial evidence and fabricated other evidence against Gleeson. In 2015 he was posthumously pardoned.[13][14]

Republic of China (Taiwan)[edit]

Jiang Guoqing (Jiang is the family name, Chinese: 江國慶, 1975–1997) was a Republic of China(Taiwan) Air Force private who was executed by a military tribunal on August 13, 1997 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl. On January 28, 2011, over 13 years after the execution, Xu Rongzhou (Chinese: 許榮洲), who had a history of sexual abuse, admitted to the prosecutor that he had been responsible for the crime. In September 2011 Jiang was posthumously acquitted by a military court who found Jiang's original confession had been obtained by torture. Ma Ying-jeou, Republic of China's(Taiwan) president, apologised to Jiang's family.[15]

United Kingdom[edit]

•           In 1660, in a series of events known as the Campden Wonder, an Englishman named William Harrison disappeared after going on a walk, near the village of Charingworth, in Gloucestershire. Some of his clothing was found slashed and bloody on the side of a local road. Investigators interrogated Harrison’s servant, John Perry, who eventually confessed that his mother and his brother had killed Harrison for money. Perry, his mother, and his brother were hanged. Two years later, Harrison reappeared, telling the incredibly unlikely tale that he had been abducted by three horsemen and sold into slavery in the Ottoman Empire. Though his tale was implausible, he indubitably had not been murdered by the Perry family.

•           Timothy Evans was tried and executed in March 1950 for the murder of his wife and infant daughter. An official inquiry conducted 16 years later determined that it was Evans's fellow tenant, serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie, who was responsible for the murder. Christie also admitted to the murder of Evans's wife, as well as five other women and his own wife. Christie may have murdered other women, judging by evidence found in his possession at the time of his arrest, but it was never pursued by the police. Evans was posthumously pardoned in 1966. The case had prompted the abolition of capital punishment in the UK in 1965.

•           George Kelly was executed in March 1950 for the 1949 murder of the manager of the Cameo Cinema in Liverpool, UK and his assistant during a robbery that went wrong. This case became known as the Cameo Murder. Kelly's conviction was overturned in 2003. Another man, Donald Johnson, had confessed to the crime but the police bungled Johnson's case and had not divulged his confession at Kelly's trial.[16]

•           Mahmood Hussein Mattan was executed in 1952 for the murder of Lily Volpert. In 1998 the Court of Appeal decided that the original case was, in the words of Lord Justice Rose, "demonstrably flawed". The family were awarded £725,000 compensation, to be shared equally among Mattan's wife and three children. The compensation was the first award to a family for a person wrongfully hanged.

•           Derek Bentley was a mentally handicapped young man who was executed in 1953. He was convicted of the murder of a police officer during an attempted robbery, despite the facts that it was his accomplice who fired the gun and that Bentley was already under arrest at the time of the shooting. The accomplice who actually fired the fatal shot could not be executed due to his young age, and served only ten years in prison before he was released.[17]

United States[edit]

See also: List of wrongful convictions in the United States

University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross led a team of experts in the law and in statistics that estimated the likely number of unjust convictions. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences determined that at least 4% of people on death row were and are likely innocent. Gross has no doubt that some innocent people have been executed.[18][19]

Statistics likely understate the actual problem of wrongful convictions because once an execution has occurred there is often insufficient motivation and finance to keep a case open, and it becomes unlikely at that point that the miscarriage of justice will ever be exposed. For example, in the case of Joseph Roger O'Dell III, executed in Virginia in 1997 for a rape and murder, a prosecuting attorney argued in court in 1998 that if posthumous DNA results exonerated O'Dell, "it would be shouted from the rooftops that ... Virginia executed an innocent man." The state prevailed, and the evidence was destroyed.[20]

Chipita Rodriguez was hanged in San Patricio County, Texas in 1863 for murdering a horse trader, and 122 years later, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution exonerating her.

Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed in 1915 for the murder of a man involved in an interracial affair two years previously but were pardoned 94 years after execution. It is thought that they were arrested and charged because they were viewed as wealthy enough to hire competent legal counsel and get an acquittal.[21]

Joe Arridy (April 15, 1915 – January 6, 1939) was a mentally disabled American man executed for rape and murder and posthumously granted a pardon. Arridy was sentenced to death for the murder and rape of a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Pueblo, Colorado. He confessed to murdering the girl and assaulting her sister. Due to the sensational nature of the crime precautions were taken to keep him from being hanged by vigilante justice. His sentence was executed after multiple stays on January 6, 1939, in the Colorado gas chamber in the state penitentiary in Canon City, Colorado. Arridy was the first Colorado prisoner posthumously pardoned in January 2011 by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former district attorney, after research had shown that Arridy was very likely not in Pueblo when the crime happened and had been coerced into confessing. Among other things, Arridy had an IQ of 46, which was equal to the mental age of a 6-year-old. He did not even understand that he was going to be executed, and played with a toy train that the warden, Roy Best, had given to him as a present. A man named Frank Aguilar had been executed in 1937 in the Colorado gas chamber for the same crime for which Arridy ended up also being executed. Arridy's posthumous pardon in 2011 was the first such pardon in Colorado history. A press release from the governor's office stated, "[A]n overwhelming body of evidence indicates the 23-year-old Arridy was innocent, including false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else." The governor also pointed to Arridy's intellectual disabilities. The governor said, “Granting a posthumous pardon is an extraordinary remedy. But the tragic conviction of Mr. Arridy and his subsequent execution on Jan. 6, 1939, merit such relief based on the great likelihood that Mr. Arridy was, in fact, innocent of the crime for which he was executed, and his severe mental disability at the time of his trial and execution."

George Stinney, a 14-year old black boy, was electrocuted in South Carolina in 1944 for the murder of two white girls, aged 7 and 11. He was the youngest person executed in the United States. More than 70 years later, a judge threw out the conviction, calling it a "great injustice."[22]

Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in December 1989. Subsequent investigations cast strong doubt upon DeLuna's guilt for the murder of which he had been convicted.[23][24]

Jesse Tafero was convicted of murder and executed via electric chair in May 1990 in the state of Florida for the murders of two Florida Highway Patrol officers. The conviction of a co-defendant was overturned in 1992 after a recreation of the crime scene indicated a third person had committed the murders.[25]

Johnny Garrett of Texas was executed in February 1992 for allegedly raping and murdering a nun. In March 2004 cold-case DNA testing identified Leoncio Rueda as the rapist and murderer of another elderly victim killed four months earlier.[26] Immediately following the nun's murder, prosecutors and police were certain the two cases were committed by the same assailant.[27] The flawed case is explored in a 2008 documentary entitled The Last Word.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in February 2004 for murdering his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas. Nationally known fire investigator Gerald Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene, and said in December 2004 that "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire."[28] In 2010, the Innocence Project filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, seeking a judgment of "official oppression".[29]

In 2015, the Justice Department and the FBI formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an FBI forensic squad overstated forensic hair matches for two decades before the year 2000.[30][31] Of the 28 forensic examiners testifying to hair matches in a total of 268 trials reviewed, 26 overstated the evidence of forensic hair matches and 95% of the overstatements favored the prosecution. Defendants were sentenced to death in 32 of those 268 cases.

Exonerations and pardons[edit]

Main article: List of exonerated death row inmates

Kirk Bloodsworth was the first American to be freed from death row as a result of exoneration by DNA fingerprinting. Ray Krone is the 100th American to have been sentenced to death and then later exonerated.

In the UK, reviews prompted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission have resulted in one pardon and three exonerations for people that were executed between 1950 and 1953 (when the execution rate in England and Wales averaged 17 per year), with compensation being paid. Timothy Evans was granted a posthumous free pardon in 1966. Mahmood Hussein Mattan was convicted in 1952 and was the last person to be hanged in Cardiff, Wales, but had his conviction quashed in 1998. George Kelly was hanged at Liverpool in 1950, but had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in June 2003.[32] Derek Bentley had his conviction quashed in 1998 with the appeal trial judge, Lord Bingham, noting that the original trial judge, Lord Goddard, had denied the defendant "the fair trial which is the birthright of every British citizen."

Colin Campbell Ross (1892–1922) was an Australian wine-bar owner executed for the murder of a child which became known as The Gun Alley Murder, despite there being evidence that he was innocent. Following his execution, efforts were made to clear his name, and in the 1990s old evidence was re-examined with modern forensic techniques which supported the view that Ross was innocent. In 2006 an appeal for mercy was made to Victoria's Chief Justice and on 27 May 2008 the Victorian government pardoned Ross in what is believed to be an Australian legal first.[33]

U.S. mental health controversy[edit]

There has been much debate about the justification of imposing capital punishment on individuals who have been diagnosed with mental retardation. Some have argued that the execution of people with mental retardation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment as it pertains to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[34] While the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted cruel and unusual punishment to include those that fail to take into account the defendant's degree of criminal culpability,[clarification needed] it did not determine that executing the mentally retarded constitutes cruel and unusual punishment until 2002.

This issue was first addressed in the case of Penry v. Lynaugh, in which Johnny Paul Penry had filed a habeas corpus petition in federal district court that claimed his death sentence should be vacated because it violated his Eighth Amendment rights. His reasoning was that he suffered from mental retardation, and numerous psychologists had confirmed this to be factual, indicating that his IQ ranged from 50 to 63 and that he possessed the mental abilities of a six-and-a-half-year-old.[34] Penry's petition was denied by the district court, whose decision was subsequently affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Penry would later appeal to the Supreme Court, who ultimately ruled in a five-to-four decision that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution did not categorically prohibit the execution of persons with mental retardation. Following the 1989 Penry ruling, sixteen states as well as the federal government passed legislation that banned the execution of offenders with mental retardation.[34]

Penry was overruled in 2002 by Atkins v. Virginia, which held that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment precluded the execution of the mentally handicapped, but the Supreme Court left the definition of mentally handicapped as something to be determined by the states.[35]

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Hall v. Florida that states cannot rely solely on an IQ test in determining whether a borderline mentally handicapped person can be executed.[36]

 

Editorial : Safety of Jail Inmates Responsibility of Judges

The presiding judge of the case  who  issues arrest warrant against a person , who rejects the bail plea  of the accused  and  the judge who remands accused to police custody / judicial custody  is fully responsible for safety , human rights of the prison / jail inmates. Use of 3rd degree torture is rampant in jails   and in all such cases ,  respective presiding judges  must be made to  pay compensation from their pockets and judges must be charged  for  AIDING & ABETTING  THE MURDER  ATTEMPT  on prisoner  by  jail / police authorities.  Are the JUDGES & POLICE above Law ?

 

 

Review: In Jails, Illegality Is the Norm

BY MAHTAB ALAM

 

Sunetra Choudhury‘s Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous highlights how different jail experiences can be depending on who you are and what you can pay.

 

When I met Santosh Yadav, a journalist from Bastar, for an early morning breakfast in Delhi a few weeks ago, he looked happy. There was a sense of relief and freedom in his eyes. Yadav had been recently released on bail after 17 months of imprisonment. He was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police in September 2015 from his village Darbha in Bastar. At the time of his arrest, Yadav used to report for two Hindi local dailies, the Navbharat and Chhattisgarh. He was accused of being a Maoist supporter and charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and other laws pertaining to crimes ranging from rioting, criminal conspiracy, murder, criminal intimidation and with being a part of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), among the other alleged offences. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on February 26 this year, after his earlier bail petitions were rejected by the lower courts.

As soon as he started narrating his jail experiences, he assumed a different persona altogether. There was a sense of intense gloom and despair in his eyes. “What I saw and went through in jail was beyond my imagination,” he said, adding that “I used to think aisa angrezon ke samay hi hota hoga (things like this could have only happened during colonial rule).” Yadav said he was severely tortured and even kept in solitary confinement during his incarceration, apart from routine beatings by the other inmates on the instructions of the jail officials. Listening to Yadav was like re-reading journalist Iftikhar Gilani’s jail memoir, My Days in Prison. Gilani had been jailed in June 2002 on the charges of possessing ‘classified documents’ and booked under the draconian Official Secrets Act. The only evidence presented was a report he had downloaded from the internet. Eventually, he was discharged. In his memoir, Gilani writes, “I was beaten up many times while inside the prison. For 41 days, I worked as a labourer…”

Not everyone goes through the trials and tribulations that Yadav and Gilani underwent. Jail can be quite a ‘haven’ for some, depending primarily on one’s socio-economic background and political influence, irrespective of how grave the charges or the crimes committed. In fact, it’s possible that the graver the nature of the alleged crime, the better the facilities you can avail. All, of course, through illegal means. Unfortunately, in jails, illegality is the norm.

Sunetra Choudhury’s book Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous tells us how all of this is possible. In so doing, she gives us a glimpse of the underground and parallel economy of jails across the country. Based on extensive secondary research and detailed interviews with people who have spent time in jail as well as those who have worked in or on jails, Choudhury presents a series of stories which are nothing short of eye-opening – dare I say, even eye-popping – in their revelations.

Choudhury profiles the incarceration of 13 people who are either in jail or were at one point of time. While the book mostly concentrates on describing famous people in prison, it does cover others as well. Among the former are politicians Amar Singh, A. Raja and Pappu Yadav, the arms dealer Abhishek Verma’s wife, Anca Verma, CEO Peter Mukherjea and Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy. Businessman Subrata Roy of Sahara also finds a brief mention in the introduction.

Narrating her meeting with Roy, Choudhury writes:

“After walking through a long corridor inside the Chandragupta suite [at the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi] that had been used by heads of state, and after passing a room that only had his shoes, I was ushered into a sitting room with Roy. He was very polite and spoke to me in Bangla, appreciating my work as I’m sure his secretary may have briefed him. Someone brought in some mishit doi and sandesh. As soon as I took out my notebook he said, ‘Listen, don’t include me in this book of yours. I’m not a criminal.’ I told him that not everyone featured in my book would be a criminal. Many would be those wrongly accused of crimes which led them to unfairly spend long years in custody. ‘But I am different. There isn’t even an FIR against me,’ he clarified.”

Roy was given VIP treatment during his jail term. In fact, as the author informs us, he paid a whopping Rs 1.23 crore for the facilities that he received in Tihar. He lived like a king even in jail.

Unbelievable and ridiculous as it may sound, the sad reality is, in the words of Anca Verma, “If you steal 1,000 rupees, the hawaldar will beat the shit out of you and lock you up in in a dungeon with no bulb or ventilation. If you steal 55,000 crore rupees then you get to stay in a 40-foot cell which has four split units, internet, fax, mobile phones and a staff of ten to clean your shoes and cook you food.” This singular quote from the book speaks volumes about the privileges and deprivation faced by people in jails, given their money power and political connections. It also tells us about the rotten nature of our criminal justice system. However, as the author notes, “special treatment in jail is, of course, not a new phenomenon.” She draws our attention towards the case of the infamous Charles Sobhraj. However, what is striking is how, over a period of time, a new normal of ‘super’ special treatment for a certain type of jail inmate has been drawn into our discourse.

Among the most tragic and lesser-known stories is the one of Rehmana. Hers is a clear case of guilt by association. Now out of jail, she is the wife of Pakistani national, Arif who is currently on death row for being an operative of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba convicted in the Red Fort attack case. Though there are several unanswered questions about Arif being an operative of the LeT and his involvement in the attack, Rehmana and her entire family suffer for the crime. “Don’t write their names,” Rehmana requested the author when she met her for an interview.

“Rehmana’s aware that she’s already created considerable problems for everyone associated with her. One of her sisters, a government school teacher in Bhopal, is afraid that Rehmana has spoilt her daughter’s chances of getting a good match. Her brother, a year younger than Rehmana, is still mentally disturbed by all that had happened. Rehmana may have married Arif but they were all hauled to the police station for one night in December. And that night’s nightmare is still too scary for them to emerge from.”

The story of the transgender bar dancer Khushi Sheikh as well as that of the school teacher and a once terror accused Wahid Sheikh are nothing short of horrifying. In both these cases, the perpetrators are those who are entrusted by law to protect the lives and liberties of the people – the police. Referring to Wahid’s case, the author confesses that “Even after two decades of reporting, his account gave me sleepless nights. I realised how in daily journalism we err in relying too much on what authorities say, in not questioning the prosecution agency.”

“Wahid stands acquitted after a decade in jail yet there is no compensation for the time he has lost, for the wounds that he bore from prison. Wahid has given real names of his tormentors, not just to me, but to courts and judges. All of them are decorated police officers—A. N. Roy, K. P. Raghuvanshi, Vijay Salaskar. You can’t dismiss his words because he (Wahid was not convicted) and the others who have been convicted can show you a Mumbai High Court judgement which upholds how they were beaten in jail, their rights violated and then denied medical treatment.”

Though the author regrets not having been able to include the stories of politician M.K. Kanimozhi, IPS officer R. K. Sharma and actress Monica Bedi, one feels that she could have tried including some of the most important stories of those who are either still lodged in jail or have spent years in the prisons of central Indian states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. Stories of people like Soni Sori, Linga Kodopi and Jiten Marandi would have enriched the book. Nevertheless, it is a well-researched book and should be read widely and translated into Indian languages.

 

Jailed for Over a Year, Chhattisgarh Journalist Santosh Yadav Granted Bail

BY THE WIRE STAFF

 

Bastar-based Santosh Yadav had been jailed in September 2015 by the Chhattisgarh police who accused him of having links with Naxals and of involvement in operations against the security forces.

 

Chhattisgarh journalist Santosh Yadav was granted bail by the Supreme Court, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced in a tweet. Yadav was arrested in September 2015 by the state police under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act for “associating with a terrorist organisation” and “supporting and aiding terrorist groups”.

Yadav, a Bastar-based freelance journalist, was arrested on September 29, 2015, after Chhattisgarh Police Special Task Force Commander Mahant Singh had said he saw him standing behind a Maoist fighter during an ambush in Darbha in August of that year. The district police echoed Singh’s claims, accusing Yadav of being a Maoist sympathiser; the superintendent also announced that Yadav was suspected of having links with Shankar, a Maoist leader in the area. However, Singh later “expressed inability to identify the accused with certainty”, according to an identification parade memo dated January 1, 2016.

Described as a fearless writer by fellow journalists, Yadav has contributed stories to various Hindi dailies including Dainik Navbharat, Patrika and Dainik Chhattisgarh, reporting on human rights violations in Bastar. Yadav often introduced the family members of those arrested by state police forces to the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, a lawyers’ collective that offered free legal services to victims of police excesses. Journalists and activists across the country protested following Yadav’s arrest.

Yadav had served as a point of contact and verification for other reporters writing Bastar, which has been described as a media blackhole, with journalists subjected to routine threats, intimidation, and harassment by both Maoists and the police.

In the chargesheet filed by the Chhattisgarh Police on February 17, 2016, Yadav was charged under various sections of the Arms Act 1959 and the Explosive Substances Act 1908. He was also charged under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA) and the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA), both of which are anti-terrorism legislations.

Sudha Bharadwaj, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, told Scroll.in that the UAPA and the CSPSA are “widely held as draconian as the ‘unlawful activity’ laid down in these Acts are vague and so broad as to be highly amenable to gross abuse and arbitrary and unreasonable action by the state police and administration”.

Yadav’s case points to the broader issue of dwindling press freedom in India, coupled with increasing rates of violence against journalists. In its report published in December 2016, the CPJ had said Yadav was the only Indian journalist to be imprisoned because of his work. According to the 2016 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India ranks abysmally low at 133 among 180 countries, The Hindu reported.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems indifferent to these threats and problems, and there is no mechanism for protecting journalists,” the RSF report asserted.

 

 

Covert op on Dawood compromised by some Mumbai cops: RK Singh

 

Noting that Dawood and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed were protected by Pakistani forces, Singh said a secret operation must be carried out in the manner the United States did to kill terrorists Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

 

India had planned a covert operation to take down underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, but the operation was compromised by some Mumbai Police officials. These are the explosive revelations made by former Home Secretary and now BJP leader RK Singh in an interview to Seedhi Baat on Aaj Tak.

RK Singh revealed details of how corrupt elements of the Mumbai Police foiled a secret operation to take down Dawood. The operation was launched when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and current NSA Ajit Doval was at the IB. Indian government had roped in some elements from the Chota Rajan gang and they were being trained at a secret location outside Maharashtra. But Mumbai Police officials who were in touch with D-company landed up at the training camp with arrest warrants for the covert operatives who had been engaged by India. The entire operation to take down Dawood failed due to these rogue elements in Mumbai police. This is the first time that there is confirmation of a botched covert operation to take down Dawood by someone who has held a position of authority.

Noting that Dawood and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed were protected by Pakistani forces, Singh said a secret operation must be carried out in the manner the United States did to kill terrorists Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. He added that Pakistan will never admit that Dawood is in Pakistan. Similarly, it will shamelessly deny the presence of other terrorists despite funding and training these terror groups on its soil. "India must repeat the Myanmar operation in Pakistan," he maintained. He added if one operation fails, the government shouldn't be disheartened but launch another operation right away.

Singh said Modi's advisors are not giving him the right advice on this issue. "Nothing will be achieved by handing over dossiers to Pakistan. It is globally recognised as a snake pit. We can't depend on the US to fight India's battles. India has to fight its own enemies," Singh added.

Singh also said the neighbouring country needs to be wise and avert a possible war by not shielding a terrorist. "Pakistan has to calculate the cost of a war. I don't think Pakistan is such a big fool that it would engage in a war with India," he said. "If America sees any threat from Pakistan, it will act. Similarly, Israel can kill its enemies. We need to develop this mentality," he added. The retired bureaucrat revealed that specially-trained private security men comprising mostly ex-army men protect Dawood in Pakistan under the supervision of the ISI. Singh exuded confidence that Modi's visit to the UAE would yield desirable results. He did acknowledge though that Dawood still has significant influence in Dubai.

Coming down heavily on Pakistan, Singh said India must stop dialogue with its neighbor and instead deal with the situation in a strategic manner. "India must hit back in a way that hurts Pakistan the most," he said while suggesting that the dialogue process only helps Pakistan restore credibility which it has lost all over the world. "Pakistan believes in a constant war with India. We have the capability to hit back hard. Any dialogue with Pakistan is futile. For a discredited country like Pakistan, dialogue process is an opportunity to regain its credibility and strike parity with India," Singh said. He said the elected government in the neighbouring country had no control over its military force and the ISI.

Singh lauded the central government's firm stand on separatists in Kashmir. He said the Pakistani government was using separatists to claim in international platform that it has the support of a section of people in Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government has done the right thing by not talking to separatists, he said.

 

Criminal justice system victimises poor and vulnerable: CJI

 

New Delhi: The criminal justice system largely victimises the poor and vulnerable sections of society and there is an urgent need for reform on multiple fronts, Chief Justice of India HL Dattu said today as he called for the scrapping of laws which criminalise begging and sex work.

 

"Not only does the criminal justice system largely victimise the poor and vulnerable sections of society, very often, laws themselves criminalise poverty and destitution," Dattu said on the occasion of Law Day function on the Supreme Court lawns.

"In India, laws criminalising beggary, sex work and certain occupations of the tribal community are often largely seen by the scholars and human rights activists as widening the net of criminality by punishing destitution.

"Along with legal aid, there must be an intense process to redo the acts that are criminalised towards decriminalisation of acts that has a disproportionate impact on the poor," he said at the function where Union Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, too, was present.

On the issue of protection of women against sexual violence, Dattu said, "We seem to be having a growing affinity for ensuring physical safety of women by curbing their freedom.

"As far as I am concerned, I would like to emphatically state in no uncertain terms that the security of women is not achieved by curbing their freedom and liberty and it is no security at all. We have to evolve some systematic reforms," he said.

The Law Minister, who spoke before the Chief Justice, dwelt upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Make in India' project, saying that the country is being converted into a major global player through the creation of a business- friendly environment.

Efforts should be undertaken to make India an international arbitration hub, he added.

He said, "The government is pushing the concept of 'Make in India' and converting the country into a major global player, for which we need to have a business-friendly environment.

 

 

In ‘safe’ custody

 

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, throws light on custodial torture

In-custody torture, though illegal under law, is often resorted too, worldwide, making it one of worst forms of human rights violations. Meenakshi Ganguly, former Time journalist and now, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, takes up a few questions here to address the subject. Excerpts:

Do you think India should also come out with an official report documenting in-custody torture as the U.S. Senate recently did on CIA's secret torture program?

Torture and other ill-treatment are absolutely forbidden under universally applicable international laws. Most that defend torture argue, as was done by the CIA, that harsh methods are necessary when there is great danger to public security. They speak of the ‘ticking bomb.’ In fact, any experienced interrogator would agree that using torture is not effective because it can produce inaccurate intelligence or generate false leads. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program shows that not only was the CIA torture far more brutal and harsh than previously admitted, it was not an effective means of producing valuable or useful intelligence. Repeated claims that the program was necessary to protect Americans turned out to be false.

India has prepared a draft bill seeking to prohibit torture. But as long as there is a culture of impunity, where public officials are protected from prosecution, the law will fail.

Some argue that our judiciary already has enough checks and balances to protect prisoners from abuse. Do you agree with it?

Indian law does not allow confessions to the police as evidence because there is concern that such confessions might be coerced. Under POTA, confessions to the police were permitted, and eventually the law was repealed because it was abused.

Although most police will argue that “third degree” is generally discouraged, in our discussions with the police we also found that it is the most used instrument in their non-existent toolkit. Overworked, where good work is seldom rewarded, junior level staff is expected to produce prompt results — and they do so by rounding up suspects and beating them, hoping to solve the case. Inevitably, they end up with false leads, often make wrong arrests and are unable to secure convictions due to lack of evidence. Poor witness protection and harassment to witnesses also means that they do not want to get involved in a long drawn out trial.

The senior officer level police complain of undue pressure from politicians and powerful figures, who can act as patrons to criminals, demanding they be protected from arrest and prosecution. Instead of upholding the law, it is the police that end up breaking it. The Supreme Court has ruled that the government must engage in police reform. This is crucial to ensure that police in India becomes an effective and accountable force. The judiciary rightly acquits people for lack of evidence. But if police does not receive the training to gather proper evidence, it also means that criminals can get away, while innocents suffer wrongful Muslim, calling me a traitor arrests, torture, and lengthy under trial detention. It also leads to an even more frightening outcome — where the police do not have evidence to convict, they decide to be both judge and executioner, doling out punishment that can range from slaps to extrajudicial killings, or fake encounters.

What vital points does HRW’s in-custody torture report of 2011 throw up?

We found that there is urgent need to implement reforms to the criminal justice system. The police in India operates as it did under colonial rule. We found that fear of police is a barrier to seeking justice. Women and children, victims of sexual attacks, said they feared further abuse if they did venture into a police station. Dalits complain that if they muster the courage to complain, they often find that the victims are made to sit on the floor outside while the upper caste perpetrators are served tea by the officer. Muslims complain of being held in suspicion.

The constabulary and the police station is often the only State presence available to the public, and it is not a pleasant experience. Many policemen agreed that they are often rude and harsh, but they also point to their own frustration, having to deal with a range of issues from domestic violence to communal riots, often because the civil administration simply fails to do its part inimplementing policy. We found police stations with desktop computers, but no electricity or even a trained operator, forget access to data and information. At some places, the residential quarters were shocking. Policemen said they are accused of demanding money when they have to travel a distance in rural areas to investigate a complaint, but said there was a shortage of vehicles or funds to pay for fuel. On the other hand, we found that many State governments are yet to establish independent and effective human rights commissions or set up a complaints authority to investigate police abuse.

Don’t we have guidelines to prevent custodial torture?

The Supreme Court and the NHRC have laid down guidelines. Unfortunately, they are routinely ignored. That is why there is such a strong demand to seek the repeal of AFSPA to be replaced by one that has stronger human rights protections. The law provides widespread powers, but protects soldiers when those powers are abused.

In the investigation of terror attacks, police have made mistakes, often due to the use of torture. The Andhra Pradesh Minorities Rights Commission, for instance, found the wrongful use of torture and recommended compensations. In one case in Orissa, we had a man tell us that he was beaten by the police so severely, his leg was fractured. In agony, when the police continued to hit his injured leg, he blurted out the names of his office colleagues, who were then arrested and tortured. All of them were charged under the counter terror laws as members of the banned Maoist groups. Eventually, they were found to be innocent by the courts.

India is yet to sign the UN Convention Against Torture. Will it help?

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had even permitted UN special rapporteurs on torture to visit their countries but reports of in-custody torture continue to pour in from such countries. Police often say that human rights impose restrictions when tough measures are needed for tough challenges. Unfortunately, any compromise is only going to lead to bad outcomes.When the State allows, even rewards, its security forces to violate the fundamental principles of the Constitution, it rarely turns out well. It leads to corruption at the very least. It can also turn policemen into killers for hire, or as a military court discovered recently, lead soldiers to kill innocents for profit.

In Sri Lanka, we have documented torture including sexual abuse of suspected LTTE supporters and sympathisers. In Bangladesh, the Rapid Action Battalion was created as a counter-terror force, but instead has repeatedly been accused of extrajudicial executions. People want to feel safe. However, we often find that denial of rights can cause security challenges, but the continued violation of human rights aggravates the situation, leading to a cycle of violence and placing innocents at risk.

 

Muslims, dalits and tribals make up 53% of all prisoners in India

 

     Muslims, dalits and adivasis — three of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society — make up more than half of India's prison population, according to an official report on prisons released this month. Although the proportion of these three communities in India adds up to about 39%, their share amongst prisoners is considerably higher at 53%.

    

India had 4.2 lakh people in prison in 2013. Nearly 20% of them were Muslims although the share of Muslims in India's population is about 13% according to Census 2001. Religion-wise data from Census 2011 is yet to be released but it is unlikely to be much different. Dalits make up 22% of prisoners, almost one in four. Their proportion in population is about 17% according to Census 2011. While adivasis make up 11% of prisoners, their share in the general population is 9%.

 

Most experts say that this disturbing trend is not because these communities commit more crimes. Rather, it arises because they are economically and socially under-privileged, unable to fight costly cases or often even pay for bail. Some say that these communities are targeted with false cases.

       Former chief justice of Delhi high court Rajinder Sachar, who headed the committee that brought out a report on the condition of Muslim community in India in 2006, pointed out that there had been several cases of Muslim youths being acquitted after years in prison.

 

"Poverty is more prevalent among these three communities and that becomes an obstacle in dealing with the legal system," said Colin Gonsalves, human rights activist and lawyer.

 

"Our system has an ingrained communal and casteist bias. Also, the proportion of these communities in the police officers and even judiciary is less. These are key factors behind this shocking imbalance," he added.

 

Pointing out that nearly 68% of the prisoners are undertrials, Abusaleh Sharif, who was member-secretary of the Sachar Committee and later brought out an updated report on the conditions of Muslims, said that they had to remain behind bars  because of inability to negotiate the hostile system.

    

"Among those in prison under preventive detention laws, nearly half are Muslims. This is the kind of thing that the government needs to speedily investigate and resolve," Sharif said.

 

Ramesh Nathan of the National Dalit Movement for Justice alleged that false cases are filed against dalits in order to intimidate them, causing this disturbingly high number of prisoners among vulnerable sections.

 

 

"In my experience as a lawyer, whenever a dalit person files a case under the Atrocities Act, a false countercase under some penal code provision is filed by the culprits," he said.

 

 

Prison statistics are published annually by the National Crime Records Bureau since 1995, although caste breakup is available since 1999. The proportions of Muslims, dalits and adivasis have remained virtually unchanged over the past 15 years indicating that this is a systemic problem.

 

NCRB data: Almost 68 percent inmates undertrials, 70 per cent of convicts illiterate

 

Almost 68 per cent of all inmates in the 1,387 jails in the country are undertrials, according to the latest figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2014. Over 40 per cent of all undertrials remain in jail for more than six months before being released on bail.

The percentage of undertrial prisoners who remain in jail for more than three months has also gone up from 62 per cent in 2013 to 65 per cent in 2014. The data looks worse when compared to previous years which showed a declining trend. In 2012, the figure stood at 62.3 per cent.

 

According to the NCRB data, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Punjab are the worst performing states, with over 75 per cent of undertrials remaining in jail for over three months. On the other hand, Kerala and Tripura recorded the lowest such cases — 35 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

A large number of undertrials remain in jails due to their inability to secure bail. The highest percentage (27.3 per cent or 63,225 of the total 2,31,962) of undertrials under IPC crimes were charged with murder. Uttar Pradesh reported 17.9 per cent of such undertrials, followed by Bihar at 8.8 per cent. A total of 6,274 convicts were habitual offenders.

The NCRB data shows that there were 4,18,536 inmates in various jails against a capacity of 3,56,561. Chhattisgarh (259 per cent) and Delhi (222 per cent) were among those which reported high overcrowding. Muslims continue to form a large share of the undertrial population, with their numbers being disproportionate to their overall population.

According to the 2011 census, Muslims constitute 14.2 per cent of India’s population. But the community accounts for 21.1 per cent of all undertrials. Among the convicted inmates, however, the Muslim share is just over 16 per cent.

 

An analysis of the caste-based classification of undertrials reveals that 37.4 per cent are from general category, 31.3 per cent OBCs, 20 per cent Scheduled Castes and 11 per cent Scheduled Tribes.

A total of 318 convicts, including eight women, lodged in different jails were facing capital punishment at the end of 2014. Of these, 95 were awarded death sentences in 2014 alone. As many as 112 inmates had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment last year.

The data also show that 1,702 imates died in jails due to various reasons, of which 1,507 were recorded as natural deaths.

 

Health  Care  for  Prisoners

 

People believe that prisoners are sent to prison as punishment, and not for punishment. This implies that the loss of an individuals right to liberty is enforced by containment in a closed environment. Thus keeping the individual in the custody of the state, should not, however, have a deleterious effect on him. But this is, unfortunately, the case to some degree or another in many of the worlds prisons. Is it possible then to define what is healthy environment in a prison? Let alone, talking about a prisoners right to health services that are to be provided to him by the prison authorities?

 

The answer to this question is that prisoners have unalienable rights conferred upon them by international treaties and covenants, they have a right to health care, and most certainly have a right not to contract diseases in prison. Prison jurisprudence recognizes that prisoners should not lose all their rights because of imprisonment. Yet, there is a loss of rights within custodial institutions, which continue to occur. Public health policies are meant to ensure the best possible living conditions for all members of society, so that everyone can be healthy. Prisoners are often forgotten in this equation. They are in constant contact with all kinds of people who come in and out of prison every day. This constant movement in and out of prison makes it all the more important to control any contagious disease within the prison so that it does not spread into the outside community.

 

In India, overcrowding has aggravated the problem of hygiene. In many jails, conditions are appalling. At the tehsil level jails, even rudimentary conveniences are not provided. Prisoners in India are not even tested for specific infectious diseases, although all prisoners undergo a medical examination when they begin serving their sentence. No studies of the prevalence of viral infections among prison inmates have been done at a national level. India's prison manuals provide for

segregation of prisoners suspected of having contagious diseases. A few jails have established informal contacts with medical and social organizations for counseling of inmates to prevent the spread of infections.

 

Violence in prison settings has many causes. Clashes may have ethnic causes, or rivalries between clans or gangs. The closed, often vastly overcrowded, living conditions also lead to hostilities between inmates. The tedious prison environment, lack of occupation of mind and body and just plain boredom, lead to accumulated frustration and tension. This environment leads the way to high-risk activities, such as use of drugs and sex between men. Some indulge in these activities to combat boredom. Others, however, are forced to engage in them, in a coercive play for power or monetary gain. Risky lifestyles can lead to the transmission of diseases from one prisoner to other prisoners, and pose a serious public health risk if unchecked. Contracting any disease in prison is not part of a prisoners sentence. This fact becomes even more significant when the disease is potentially fatal, as is the case with HIV/AIDS.

 

The Supreme Court of India in its landmark judgment in Parmanand Katara vs Union of India (1989)and others ruled that the state has an obligation to preserve life whether he is an innocent person or a criminal liable to punishment under the law. With specific reference to health, the right to conditions, adequate for the health and well-being of all was already recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ( ICESR) furthermore states that prisoners have a right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

 

The minimum standard rules for prisoners regulate the provision of health care for them. Apart from the civil and political rights, the so-called second generation economic and social human rights, as set down in the ICESCR, also apply to prisoners. The right to the highest attainable standard of health should also apply to prison health conditions and health care. This right to health care and a healthy environment is clearly linked, particularly in the case of HIV, to other first generation rights, such as non-discrimination, privacy and confidentiality. Prisoners cannot fend for themselves in their situation of detention, and it is the responsibility of the state to provide for health services and a healthy environment.

 

Human rights instruments call for prisoners to receive health care at least equivalent to that available for the outside population. On one hand, equivalence rather than equity has been called for because a prison is a closed institution with a custodial role that does not always allow for the same provision of care available outside. Prisoners are more likely to already be in a bad state of health when they enter prison, and the unfavorable conditions therein worsen the health situation. Hence the need for health care and treatments will often be greater in a prison than in an outside community. However, providing even basic health care to prisoners has proved extremely difficult in India, as the health system is chronically insufficient.

 

In prisons, the human environment is often one of violence and high-risk lifestyles, either engaged in voluntarily by those prisoners with positions of power, or forced upon the weaker prisoners. Prisoners have a right to live in conditions where their individual safety is guaranteed. It is paramount for the prison administration to have a thorough knowledge of how HIV is likely to be transmitted in a given prison. If sexual coercion and/or violence are the main issue, better surveillance and timely intervention to protect targeted prisoners must be enforced. HIV-positive inmates should not be denied access to recreation, education or access to the outside world.

 

From a strictly medical point of view, there is no justification for segregation as long as the prisoner is healthy. Solitary confinement of HIV-positive inmates should be forbidden. Any restrictions should be exceptional, such as mandatory testing for particularly risky situations, such as prisoners working as medical orderlies in hospitals or dental clinics. There may also be considerations of personal security where, for example, prisoners known to be HIV-positive request to be kept in a secure unit as they fear for their own safety.

 

Both prison reform and penal reform are crucial elements if the many problems affecting the Indian prisons are to be resolved. Diminishing the overall prison population will allow improvements of the physical and working conditions of the prisons, and help to ensure the security of all individuals in custody. Obviously, financial resources will have to be allotted to the prison systems as well. One effective way to curb the rise in prison populations would be to offer alternatives to imprisonment for non-violent and civil offenders.

 

 

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Jail Tyrant Judges

Dalit’s  Diary -  Weekly  Newspaper  On  Web  

Working  For  The  Rights  &  Survival  Of  The Oppressed

Editor: NAGARAJA.M.R… VOL.11 issue.30…… . 02  / 08 / 2017

 

 

The Accountability Of The Judiciary

By  Law  Teacher

 

“Ironically the Higher Judiciary in India has powers of control over every organ under the Constitution but there exists no effective method of disciplining its own members." [1] 

The Preamble to our Constitution declares India is a ‘Democratic’ State. This broadly means that we have a government by the people, of the people and for the people’. It follows from this principle that, the Government should be accountable for all its acts or omissions to those for whom it exists.

The third branch of the government- the judiciary. The power that Judiciary enjoys, the role that it plays in our lives and the onerous task that it performs is beyond comprehension. Infact, it would be no exaggeration to say that of the three branches of the Government, Judiciary is perhaps of the greatest significance to the people, it being closest to them in the sense that anybody (even an ordinary citizen) can approach the Judiciary when he has any grievance.

Judicial Accountability can be defined as the costs that a judge expects to incur in case his/her behavior and/or his/her decisions deviate too much from a generally recognized standard, in this case referring to the letter of the law.

Judicial independence was not intended to be a shield from public scrutiny. Judicial independence is not only a necessary condition for the impartiality of judges, it can also endanger it. Higher judiciary in our country is the only institution that is virtually not accountable and at the same time enjoys exceptional constitutional protection and formidable weaponry such as contempt of court to silence the critics. [2] Accountability of the judiciary in respect of its judicial functions and orders is safeguarded by provisions for appeal, reversion and review of orders. But there is no mechanism for accountability for serious judicial misconduct, for disciplining errant judges. [3] 

JUDICIAL ACCOUNTABILITY: JUDGING THE JUDGES

Realizing the important role that judiciary plays, and the possibility of misuse of the power conferred, the Constitution-makers primarily made two provisions (those relating to the appointment and removal of judges) which ensured that Legislature and the Executive, the other two branches of the government (which are directly or indirectly responsible to the people) had some kind of control over the Judiciary. Here it would be interesting to mention the following cases

1st Phase- The Judges Case One:

In 1982, the matter of appointment of High Court judges came before the Supreme Court in S.P. Gupta v Union of India [4] The main question considered by the court was: of the various functionaries participating in the process of appointment of a High Court judge whose opinion amongst the various participants should have primacy in the process of selection?

The majority took the view that the opinion of the Chief Justice of India (and that of the Chief Justice of a High Court) were merely consultative, and that the power of appointment resides solely and exclusively in the Central Government" and that the Central Government could override the opinions given by the Constitutional functionaries. The majority in Gupta gave a literal meaning to the word ‘consultation’ in Art 124(2) and 217(1). In reality this view made consultation with the Chief Justice inconsequential in the matter of appointment of the High Court Judges.

The observation of Bhagwati J. on the question of accountability-“The reason why the power of appointment of judges has been left to the Executive appears to be that the Executive is responsible to the Legislature, and through the Legislature it is answerable to the people, who are the consumers of justice. The power of appointment is not entrusted to the CJI because they do not have any accountability to the people and even if any wrong appointment has been made, they are not liable to account to anyone for such appointment."

But going by developments that have taken place and the experiences that have been encountered, both the provisions have either been substantially modified or reduced to mere theory.

2nd Phase- The Judges Case Two:

Consequently, the matter once again came up for consideration before a 9 Judge bench in the case of Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association v Union of India [5] The Court emphasized that the question has to be considered in the context of achieving “the constitutional purpose of selecting the best…to ensure the independence of judiciary…"

Deliberating on the issue, the Court pointed out that this provision of ‘consultation’ with the Chief Justice was introduced because of the realization that the Chief Justice is best equipped to know and assess the worth of the candidate and his suitability for appointment.

Accordingly, the Court has ruled that “in the choice of a candidate suitable for appointment, the opinion of the Chief Justice of India should have the greatest weight…..the selection should be based on a participatory consultative process in which the Executive has the power to act as a mere check on the power of the Chief Justice

The Judiciary has for all practical purposes had become its own appointing authority. The Supreme Court replaced the Executive primacy with that of the CJI, which in effect has done away with the role of the Executive. The Collegium that decides the matter lacks transparency and is likely to be considered a cabal. Here the obvious question that arises is, in the absence of substantially any role of any other body, who are the CJI and other members of the Judiciary answerable to? Consumers of justice being people, whether the Judiciary is in any way answerable to the people? The Majority in the Second Judges case tried to answer it-“The CJI and the Chief Justice of the High Court, being responsible to the functioning of the Courts, have to face the consequence of any unsuitable appointment which gives rise to the criticism. Similarly, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, whose participation are involved in the functioning of the Courts and in the selection process bear the consequences and become accountable."

The researcher submits that this reasoning is not only insufficient and incomplete but also unsatisfactory. Besides, the little that it says in support of its stand, the argument itself seems to be paradoxical if we look at the reality. The Judiciary has taken a rather too strict a stand against the writers who have criticized the judges or their judgments (the Contempt of Court Act 1971 punishes the scandalizing of the Court. The Supreme Court has held that Fundamental Right of the citizens to of free speech and expression has not abolished the offense of scandalizing the Court). [6] The symbolic punishment given to Arundhati Roy [7] and the more recent controversy surrounding Sabarwal J. and the subsequent action taken by the Delhi High Court against the “erring" editors of a leading local newspaper are points in case. [8] 

Now the 2nd major area of focus is what action can be taken if a judge misuses or abuses his power, acts with negligence or contrary to the interest of the people.

In this regard the Constitution has laid down only one provision- Article 124 whereby it lays down that a judge can be removed from his office by following an elaborate procedure, on the ground of ‘proved misbehavior or incapacity.’ The points to be pondered over here are:

This is the only provision on what action can be taken against an errant Judge.

The action that I envisaged here is a drastic one, that of removal from office.

The procedure mentioned here being so elaborate (being analogous to the impeachment) signifies that ‘proved misbehavior or incapacity’ should be of a very high degree.

Not only does this provision lay down too complex a procedure, but it also fails to take care of the deviant acts not amounting to ‘misbehavior or incapacity’. Added to this Ramaswami J. controversy [9] is a case in point as it reflects the deep anomalies and loopholes with which this provision is ridden.

Hence while the existing provision is insufficient in so far as erroneous acts not amounting to ‘misbehavior or incapacity’ have not been taken care of, the remedy that does exist is rendered useless by the loopholes that have been exploited.

Thus (practically) answerable to no one and for all intent and purposes having no efficient mechanism to discipline the judges, the Judiciary has become its own master. At least theoretically it can be said that this will lead to abuse of power.

But having said this do we really urgently need to reform the legal provisions relating to Judiciary? Do the apprehensions have any real basis? Several instances will show that these are not mere apprehensions.

In 1958 the Law Commission of India in its 14th Report on the Reform of Judicial Administration submitted that-“It is widely felt that communal and regional considerations have prevailed in making the selection of judges…..best talent among the judges of the High Courts has not always found its way to the Supreme Court…We are concerned that the views expressed to us have show a well founded and acute public satisfaction at these appointments". While this report was complied at a time when the Executive had a significant role to play in the judicial appointments, it is submitted that the position has not changed much (as will be clear from the illustrations that follow) after the Second Judges Case.

In 1964, Committee on Prevention of Corruption remarked that it had been informed by Vigilance and Special Police Establishment, that the corruption is rampant at the lower levels and in some place, it has spread to the higher ranks.

Then we have the 1993 case of Ramaswami J. who was sought to be removed from office and who after having been found guilty of misbehavior in misappropriating and misusing public property, by a Committee constituted under the Judges’ Inquiry Act 1968, still managed to go scot free because the motion in Parliament of his removal failed as the ruling majority abstained from voting for his removal.

Again the charges of misconduct against two sitting judges of the Supreme Court were made in 1997 and 2000. In the first case, the judge in question was due by seniority to be appointed as the Chief Justice and an in house committee of the Supreme Court Judges is reported to have considered the charges. But the judge was recommended for appointment as the CJI by the outgoing CJI. In the second case which related to a CJI though considerable publicity was given to the charges, no action was taken either within or outside the Court.

In the absence of an effective remedy for removal of a judge, the Bar of the Bombay High Court resorted to the unconventional method of disciplining by passing the resolutions against them to resign and requesting the Chief Justice of the High Court not to assign work to them.

On another occasion, the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court was charged with misconduct by the Bar. Going by the earlier experiences the Bar had no other option but to resort to extra-constitutional way out. They made an application to the CJI to requesting the CJI to seek his resignation. The Chief Justice of that High Court under the advice of the CJI tendered the resignation.

Judicial accountability has today become the catch word all over the world. The judges can no longer oppose calls for greater accountability on the ground that it will impinge upon their independence. Independence and accountability must be sufficiently balanced so as to strengthen judicial integrity for effective judicial impartiality.

 

 

By Apurv Mishra

After the Pandavas win the war at Kurukshetra, Bhishma teaches the art of governance to Yudhishthira, the victorious king. One of the first lessons that he learns is the importance of swift and proportional punishment in ensuring civilised behaviour of citizens and maintaining the moral equilibrium in society:

“Listen scion of Kuru, to what the rod of punishment is and how it is judicially prescribed: for the rod of punishment is the one thing in this world upon which everything depends... if the rod of punishment did not exist in this world, beings would be nasty and brutish to each other... it puts this world into a stable order quickly, king”

Rahul Gandhi promised us a bouquet of anti-corruption legislations this Valentine’s season to reaffirm his commitment towards good governance and probity in public life. Instead, as the curtains draw close on the budget session that resembled a Rohit Shetty movie, only one of the six anti-graft Bills has been passed by our honourable parliamentarians (a poorly drafted Whistle-blowers Bill was passed without any discussion in the final minutes of the last day). It may be argued that the biggest loss to the nation has been the failure to pass the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, which was the first serious attempt to cleanse our judicial system.

There has always been a struggle for supremacy between the executive and judiciary in India. When the executive was powerful (think Indira Gandhi), judiciary’s role was severely curtailed. However, in the present era of coalition governments and PILs, the judiciary has taken a more active role in shaping public policy. But this increasing power of judiciary has not been matched by a corresponding increase in institutional mechanisms to check its misuse.

From the Ghaziabad Provident Fund scam to serious charges of misappropriation against the close relatives of former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and allegations of sexual misconduct against a former Supreme Court judge, instances of financial and moral corruption in our judiciary have become embarrassingly frequent over the years. Exasperated over the systemic rot in Allahabad High Court, the largest High Court in India with 160 judges, the Supreme Court was moved to paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet and remark that “something is wrong in the Allahabad High Court”.

When questioned about this delicate issue, the present CJI prosaically remarked, “The judiciary is not untouched by corruption”. As guardians of the constitution, our judges have admirably protected democratic traditions in our country; but the question remains, who will guard the guards?

Functioning democracies have their internal self-correcting mechanisms through which the executive and legislature are kept in check by the opposition in the parliament, legislations like RTI and periodic elections. The judiciary has been kept outside the purview of the court of public opinion to ensure its credibility as an impartial arbiter of disputes. But this insulation has created a culture of complacence and inefficiency because the ‘rod of punishment’ is absent.

For example, even an FIR against a judge can only be registered after the permission of the CJI. This had tragic consequences in the provident fund scam where then-CJI Balakrishnan did not give permission to file an FIR against accused judges for almost two years, by which time the prime accused, Ashotosh Asthana, died in mysterious circumstances. Justice Sen was held guilty of misappropriating funds before he became a judge, when he was an ordinary citizen.

However, once he was appointed a judge, there was no other way to penalise him except through impeachment- a process so inefficient that not a single judge has been impeached in the last 67 years. In the case of Nirmal Yadav (who has the ignonimity of being the first judge to be chargesheeted while still in office), even though a three-judge panel recommended her prosecution, then-CJI Balakrishnan simply transferred her to a different High Court.

The Bill is a paradigm shift from the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 because it allows ordinary citizens to file complaints against judges, mandates the disclosure of assets by judges and their close relatives and allows for punishments other than the arduous process of impeachment.

The most important development in the Bill is the definition of what constitutes “misbehaviour” by a judge because the constitution provides for the removal of a judge only in cases of “proven misbehaviour”. It has done so by giving statutory recognition to judicial standards that were adopted by the Supreme Court in 1997.

The Oversight Committee can issue advisory or warning or recommend minor punishment if the case does not warrant a removal. For serious charges, the Oversight Committee would request the judge to resign. Only a judge as obtuse and insolent as A Raja would continue beyond this point; in which case the Oversight Committee would recommend his removal to the President.

The Oversight Committee, which is the nodal institution to investigate complaints, includes three senior judges, the Attorney General and an eminent person appointed by the President. It is a welcome change from the current in-house system of grievance redressal in which judges are very reluctant to take strict action against their fellow “brother judges”, a tendency that Fali Nariman has equated with trade unionism. The Bill also gives the Scrutiny Panel and the Investigation Committee powers of a civil court which means that they have the right to summon witnesses and place documents on record.

The Bill should have been passed in the Rajya Sabha because it was not a contentious political issue and all major parties agreed with its provisions after the government had the good sense to remove a controversial clause that gagged judges. Now that the session is over, let’s hope that (for once) the ordinance-making power is put to good use and the country is “put into a stable order quickly”. Corruption is judiciary has a perverse multiplier effect on the national well-being because it shields all other forms of corruption by removing the “rod of punishment”. A huge backlog of cases and scarcity of judges at all levels further incentivises corruption. The heavy workload of High Court judges leaves them little time to supervise the functioning of lower courts.

Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2013 reported that 45 percent of surveyed households in India considered judiciary to be ‘corrupt’ or ‘extremely corrupt’ and 36 percent of households who had contact with the judiciary in 2012 reported to have paid a bribe. Something as simple as enforcing a commercial contract is a nightmare for companies. It requires them to undergo an average of 46 administrative procedures, takes an average of 1420 days and costs more than 39 percent of the actual claim. If the public starts losing faith in the judicial process, they resort to extra-judicial means of grievance redressal. This explains the rise of khap panchayats in Haryana and kangaroo courts like the one West Bengal which ordered the gruesome gang rape of a woman recently. In the words of Justice Brandeis, if we want the public to respect law, we must first make law respectable.

Opponents of the Bill raise important issues about the bill compromising judicial independence. For example, the Attorney General, who is part of the Oversight Committee, is the senior most law officer of the Union government and may regularly appear in the court of judges against whom complaints may be filed. The argument is that this may compromise judicial independence. They have also raised concerns about the possibility that frivolous complaints may be filed by the losing side in a dispute.

These opponents are free to suggest alternate measures to keep a check on judiciary. We could have a system of periodic referendum on continuance of judges, as is the case in USA and Japan. But the judiciary needs to understand that there is a limit to what we will do to protect judicial independence and the limit is well on this side of judicial accountability.

The costly tyranny of secrecy

As long as the process of judicial appointments remains opaque, selection of judges on considerations other than merit will continue

As of June 2013, there were 276 vacancies out of a total sanctioned strength of 904 permanent and additional judges in all the High Courts of India. With almost a third of the vacancies to be filled, most States are witnessing major canvassing on caste, community, political and other considerations for appointment as judges. As allegations and counter-allegations over the appointment of favourites fly thick and fast, the debate over the process of judicial appointments is once again heating up.

Collegium experiment

The Emergency and the post-Emergency era witnessed attempts by the executive to muzzle the judiciary. It was to check this erosion of independence of the judiciary that the ‘Collegium’ system was evolved, by which the senior-most judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court selected judges with the executive merely being consulted. But 20 years after the Collegium experiment, the appointment of judges “by the judges” is being perceived as appointments “for the judges.” There is growing evidence that the current system of judicial appointments has resulted in incompetent, inefficient, ethically compromised individuals being appointed as judges.

In May 2013, over 1,000 lawyers of the Punjab and Haryana High Court protesting the recommendation of seven names by the High Court Collegium for appointment as judges wrote: “The independence and integrity of the judiciary has been put at stake by the Collegium while recommending the names of advocates for elevation as judges ... the decisions of the Collegium seem to have been based on considerations other than merit and integrity of the candidate”. They added, “it has now become a matter of practice and convenience to recommend advocates who are the sons, daughters, relatives and juniors of former judges and Chief Justices. Nepotism and favouritism is writ large. We all need to rise to the occasion and oppose such recommendation.”

In June 2013, the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) gave a representation to the Chief Justice of the High Court regarding a list of 15 names forwarded by the Collegium, pointing out, “the proposed list of persons recommended for elevation to the high constitutional office falls far short of the standards set out in the various judgments of the Supreme Court. It appears that the names have been proposed on extraneous criteria such as caste, religion, office affiliations, political considerations and even personal interests and quid pro quo. We at the Bar are deeply distressed, concerned and even alarmed at the partisan manner in which the selection is made. It exhibits a total indifference to the future of the Judiciary as an institution where institutional interests have been sacrificed at the altar of personal pursuits.”

‘Erosion of respect’

The MHAA representation highlighted the consequences of the appointment of poor quality judges: “Long delay in delivering judgements (there have been a disturbingly large number of instances where many judges have delayed judgements for several years and even retired without delivering judgements), inability to organize time effectively and manage their board efficiently, lack of clarity and clear reasoning in judgements, lack of knowledge of even basic principles of law and lack of ability and willingness to learn, ghost writing of judgements … This has resulted in eroding respect and confidence in the judicial process. This is compounded by the increasingly common experience and perception that judgements are delivered on the basis of … partisan considerations such as caste, regional and personal affinities with particular members of the Bar/litigants. It pains us to state all this. But at the same time we would be failing in our duty to the institution of judiciary if we do not raise these issues of grave concern now.” The MHAA demanded transparency in appointments and said the names of the advocates shortlisted for consideration should be disclosed in advance.

For many years, Bar Associations throughout India have been continuously demanding transparency and openness in the appointment process. Today the greatest concern is the secrecy shrouding the appointments.

The real issue is not who appoints judges but how they are appointed. Irrespective of whether it is the executive, the judiciary or a Judicial Commission that appoints judges, as long as the process is opaque and appointments are made on personal considerations, we will have variations of the same problem of favouritism, nepotism and appointments on criteria other than merit and capability. The crucial need , therefore, is to evolve objective criteria to assess a candidate and make appointments on the basis of assessments against such stated criteria. We may usefully refer to the system adopted by the Judicial Appointments Commission in the United Kingdom to assess candidates.

Merit, sole basis

The U.K. Constitutional Reform Act, 2005 made merit the sole basis of selection to the judiciary; a person must not be selected unless the selecting body is satisfied that he or she is of good character. While the Judicial Appointments Commission must have regard for the need to encourage diversity in the range of persons available for selection for appointments, it is subject to merit criteria.

The JAC assesses candidates against five merit criteria:

1. Intellectual capacity: Nominated candidates ought to demonstrate (a) a high level of expertise in chosen areas or profession with the (b) ability to quickly absorb and analyse information. They should have (c) appropriate knowledge of the law and its underlying principles or the ability to acquire this knowledge where necessary.

2. Personal qualities: ranging from (a) integrity and independence of mind, (b) sound judgment, (c) decisiveness, (d) objectivity, (e) ability and willingness to learn and develop professionally and (f) ability to work constructively with others.

3. An ability to understand and deal fairly: This includes (a) the ability to treat everyone with respect and sensitivity whatever their background and (b) willingness to listen with patience and courtesy.

4. Authority and communication skills: The nominated person is expected to have (a) the ability to explain the procedure and any decisions reached clearly and succinctly to all those involved with the further (b) ability to inspire respect and confidence and (c) maintain authority when challenged.

5. Efficiency: The ability to work at speed and under pressure and the ability to organise time effectively and produce clear reasoned judgments expeditiously.

The U.K. system made assessment in respect of all criteria evidence-based. Selection will be rejected if there is not enough evidence that the person is suitable for the office concerned, or there is evidence that the person is not the best candidate on merit.

The ‘public’ senate hearings for appointments of judges to superior courts in the U.S. are another example of transparency. We may not find the U.S. system implementable as it is; but nothing prevents us from incorporating the key principles of transparency, accountability and citizen participation underlying the U.S. system for selection of judges.

Transparency will inspire confidence in people. Appointment of judges being in the public domain should be open and visible. Considering the views of the Bar is a healthy process of consultation as it is privy to a lot more information than the general public.

Criticism of biased, partisan and compromised judicial appointments is not new. Yet for the last 20 years, successive Supreme Court Collegiums steadfastly refused to “clean the stables” and evolve a transparent, open and accountable procedure to ensure that the best persons were appointed as judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. Judges to these constitutional courts bear the great responsibility of ensuring respect for the “rule of law” and ensuring that governance is based on constitutional principles and vision.

The country deserves nothing short of the most competent, learned persons as judges whose ethical conduct is beyond doubt. Irrespective of whether appointments are Collegium based or through a new Judicial Commission, members of the Bar as also citizens need to participate in the selection process. Our nation’s future cannot be totally compromised because the powerful want to ensure their power in perpetuity.

The winds of change sweeping the world demanding greater participation, inclusion, equity, accountability and transparency will eventually engulf the judiciary too. We hope the wise persons in the judicial system will read the signs.

Discussion Of The Conduct Of The Judges In The Legislature:

 

“In accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, members of the judiciary are entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly; provided, however, that in exercising such rights, judges shall always conduct themselves in such a manner as to preserve the dignity of their office and the impartiality and independence of the judiciary." [10] Neither in Parliament nor in a State Legislature a discussion can take place with respect to the conduct of the Supreme Court in discharge of his duties.

Articles 121 and 211 provide immunity to the members of Higher Judiciary, with respect to the conduct of the Judges in the discharge of their duties. Article 211 amounts to an absolute constitutional prohibition against any decision in the Legislature of a State in respect of the judicial conduct of the Supreme Court or of the High Court. Article 121 on the other hand provides for a general rule that no discussion shall take place in the Parliament with respect to the conduct of any judge of the Supreme Court or of the High Court in the discharge of his duties except upon a motion for presenting an address to the President praying for the removal of the judge under the circumstances stated in the Constitution. Thus, reading Article 121 and 211 together, it is clear that the judicial conduct of a judge can not be discussed in the State Legislature. It can be in Parliament only, upon a motion for presenting an address to the President praying for the removal of the Judge. The Constitutional makers attached so much importance to the independence of judiciary that they thought necessary to place them beyond any controversy except in the manner provided in Article 121.

The fact that Article 211 appears under a topic dealing with “Procedure Generally" cannot mean that the prohibition prescribed by it is not mandatory. In trying to appreciate the full significance of this provision, Article 121 and 211 should be read together. It is true that Article 194(2) in terms provide for immunity of action in any court in respect of a speech made by a member or a vote given by him in the Legislative Assembly. Undoubtedly, the Speaker would not permit a member to contravene Article 211, but, if inadvertently or otherwise, a speech is made within the legislature which contravenes Article 211, the Constitution-makers have given protection to such speech from any action in any court. The House itself may and would, no doubt, take action against the member. [11] 

Removal Of A Judge:

“A charge or complaint made against a judge in his/her judicial and professional capacity shall be processed expeditiously and fairly under an appropriate procedure. The judge shall have the right to a fair hearing. The examination of the matter at its initial stage shall be kept confidential, unless otherwise requested by the judge." [12] 

“Judges shall be subject to suspension or removal only for reasons of incapacity or behavior that renders them unfit to discharge their duties." [13] 

“All disciplinary, suspension or removal proceedings shall be determined in accordance with established standards of judicial conduct." [14] 

“Decisions in disciplinary, suspension or removal proceedings should be subject to an independent review. This principle may not apply to the decisions of the highest court and those of the legislature in impeachment or similar proceedings." [15] 

The manner of removal of a Judge, as brought out and made clear by Constitutional provisions, SC interpretations and the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, and Judges Inquiry Rules, 1969, stands summed up in Krishna Swami v. UOI [16] as follows, “Every judge of the Supreme Court & High Court on his appointment is irremovable from office during his tenure except in the manner provided in Cls. (4) & (5) of Art. 124. The law made by the Parliament under Art. 124(5), namely the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, (and Judges Inquiry Rules, 1969 framed there under) are to be read along with Article 124(4), to find out the constitutional scheme….for the removal of a judge. The law so made under Art. 124(5), provides that any accusation against a sitting Judge to initiate the process of his removal has to be by not less than minimum number of members of the Parliament specified in the Act, all other method being excluded. On initiation of the process, the Speaker/Chairman has to decide whether the accusation requires investigation. If he chooses not to act, the matter ends there…..otherwise on a consideration of the material available and after consulting such persons as he thinks fit, forms opinion that a prima facie case is made out, he constitutes a Committee in accordance with s.3(2) of the Act. If this …..Committee….. records a finding that a Judge is not guilty, the process ends there…..If the finding of the Inquiry Committee is that the Judge is guilty, then the Parliament considers the motion for removal of the Judge along with the Committee’s Report and other available materials including the cause, if any, shown by the Judge concerned against his removal for which he has to be given an opportunity after the submission of the report to the Speaker/Chairman under s. 4(2) of the Act…..If the Parliament does not adopt a motion for removal of the Judge, the process ends there…If the motion is adopted by the requisite majority of the Parliament, culminating in the order for removal of the Judge by the President of India under Art.124(4), then only the Judge shall have remedy of Judicial Review available on the permissible grounds against the order of removal…."

CONCLUSION

In mater of appointment, a lot has been said about the dangers of substituting absolute Executive authority with absolute ‘Chief Justice Authority’. It is important to have a more important broad based appointing body in the legal system, incorporating undoubtedly the higher judicial functionaries but also giving representation to some outside elements form the categories of eminent jurists, academics and both the ruling executive and the opposition. Moreover this process would certainly be more transparent and open. In such broad based appointing body at least two leading members of the bar must find representation. The manner of selection/ nomination of those persons should be carefully thought out to ensure objectivity and absence of conflict of interest.

The second crucial aspect which cannot be separated from the first is the vital necessity of a workable mechanism for regulating judicial conduct, taking corrective action and if necessary disciplining the errant judges shot of and up to removal.

Unless one puts in place a reasonable, internal, fair, expeditious and effective in house regulatory regime short of impeachment, allegations against judges will always be on the rise.

The general dissatisfaction with the Courts self appointed role in appointment and transfer of Judges has led to suggestions that it is high time that a National Judicial Commission should be appointed which would not only consist of high judicial members but also other non-judicial members and which would make recommendations for such appointments. The suggestion for a National Judicial Commission has been made by the 80th and 121st reports of the law commission of India. [17] A constitutional amendment (67th Amendment) bill 1990 was formulated by the ministry of Justice in 1990 for setting up such a body but the bill lapsed on the dissolution of the parliament. [18] 

The independence of judiciary is an important concept being the basic principle of the constitution but what has to be realized is that it is not an end in itself but only a means to achieve an end. The end is to secure efficient, expeditious and impartial delivery of justice. The main intention behind this principle is that the people should get justice, irrespective of their status. This principle is required to instill confidence of the people in its Justice Delivery System. Confidence is very important. Our society is usually peaceful, not because there is a police force and lawyers to take you to the court. It is because people respect the courts and the laws they apply. If, however, people loose confidence in the courts and think that they would not receive a fair hearing, they might disrespect the law generally.

So any new step towards revamping the Judicial System should aim at balancing in the best possible manner judicial independence and judicial accountability.

 

 

‘TYRANNY OF THE UNELECTED’, A STEP TOWARDS ‘COMMITTED JUDICIARY’?

BY N SATHIYA MOORTHY

 

Independent of the validity of the across-the-board arguments favouring transparency and accountability in judicial appoints all-round, India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley might have over-stated his position and that of the government by publicly questioning the ‘tyranny of the unelected’ as ‘flawed’ and against the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution. Criticisms of the Supreme Court’s recent judgment, striking down the constitutional amendment and relevant laws on the creation of a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission’ (NJAC), with political representation for the first time, by Jaitley and his ministerial colleagues like Ravishankar Prasad and Law Minister, Sadananda Gowda, smacks of a first step towards a ‘committed judiciary’, of the Indira Gandhi kind, which her Steel Minister Mohan Kumaramangalam had advocated in their time.

Facts may be recalled — Emergency followed, in an environment facilitated by political observations of the Kumaramangalam kind, and supersession in the appointment of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), with A N Ray being named over the head of three of his seniors. It was before the Bench headed by CJI Ray that then Attorney-General, Niren De argued that the citizen did not have right to life when Emergency was in vogue and the Government had suspended his Fundamental Rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The Supreme Court’s verdict, string down the citizen’s right to moving a ‘habeas corpus’ petition in the nation’s High Courts (ADM Jabalpur vs Shukla, 1975-76) is not remembered, even by the legal fraternity that much. The nation still remembers the post-emergency electoral verdict of 1977. The Congress Party, which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi headed, never really and not certainly wholly, recovered from the shock, in moral, political, electoral – hence, physical – terms.

Stoning glass-house

It’s sad that the BJP ministers, otherwise credited with long memories and sharp retorts, have ended up in hyperboles that do not bring relief. They have referred to the US and other western democracies, wherever members of the Judiciary are elected, or face incisive interrogation by legislative panels, and at times, full-house vote, too. They have forgotten to mention that the questioning over there is as much over the political ideology of the candidate, as about his/her personal integrity. Despite the ‘independence’ of the Judiciary and of the legislative processes, both in terms of institutions and individual parliamentarians, the voting is invariably on political lines.

Issues are delayed hearing, wantonly, by either the State or the Bench, owing to the composition of the higher Judiciary (invariably the US Federal Supreme Court). Reams are written in the Press about the socio-political and socio-economic ideologies of individual Judges on the SC Bench at any given point in time – to argue why a particular case would not come up for hearing, or why a particular judgment could go in a particular way.

If nothing else, Indian Judiciary and polity has not reached a stage wherein a healthy discourse could happen on the conduct of either institutions and/or individuals manning them. For that to happen with respect to the nation’s most hallowed of all institutions, the polity and the society have to prove their innocence, not ignorance, before attempting any change of the kind – arrogance is not a virtue for anyone concerned in handling what has already become a hyper-issue.

Independent of whoever is in power, Governments in India would have to look itself up on the mirror before commenting other institutions and individuals. They cannot afford to sit in glass houses and afford to throw stones. The stones, in this case, does not travel long distances, to hit at the target. It brings down the edifice that they are seated in. Definitely, it is not what the likes of Minister Jaitely at least have in mind, just now.

It’s anybody’s guess why the Government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took up the NJAC law as among the nation’s topmost priorities after coming to power. True, the predecessor Congress Government had talked openly about it for long. Then Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily even publicly promised to bring up a draft Bill for Parliament’s consideration in the winter session of 2011, only weeks ahead. Maybe because the ‘2-G cases’ sprang to life or otherwise, none from UPA-II found the moral bearing to pilot a Bill of the kind at the time or even later – or, so it seems.

For their part, the Jaitley-Prasad combo and others in the Modi Government should ask themselves why they did not have a candidate for Kerala’s Governor’s post other than the recently retired CJI, in P Sathasivam. It is not to cast any aspersions on the personality or integrity of CJI Sathasivam, but only to question the ‘politically flawed’ nature of his choice, or that of anyone else in his place. It also goes with the choice of Gen V K Singh, the recently-retired Army chief, as a Minister in the Modi Government, or the UPA-II’s Home Secretary, R P Singh, for a BJP nomination for a Lok Sabha seat, which he won.

The less said about the Congress-BJP mutual whip-lash over the political misuse of the CBI, or other Central agencies when in power, the better. After all, T N Chaturvedi, who as the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG), who exposed the ‘HBW submarine scam’ involving a predecessor Congress Government, became a BJP member of the Rajya Sabha not long after retirement – and the Governor of Karnataka, when the Vajpayee-led BJP-NDA was in power at the Centre.

It was no way different when the Congress rival was in power. Apart from all the accusations levelled against the party in terms of appointments to other ‘independent institutions’ such as the CAG and CBI (even after the SC verdict and directions in the ‘Vineet Narain case’, including the UPA-II’s last appointment of the CAG, the Congress Government of the day also ensured that Parliament decided the first-ever ‘impeachment’ proceedings against a sitting judge (Justice V Ramaswami), in political, and not legal, judicial or moral terms.

How could then the likes of Minister Jaitley indicate that ‘elected’ representatives of the people are not involved – they are involved in sacking, not appointing a judge? In a way, the ‘appointing authority’ in the President not having the power to sack a Judge, and the ‘sacking authority’ in Parliament doing so without being the appointing authority in the first place, should be against the tenets of constitutional behaviour – and in a way against the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution.

Corrections within

It is not unlikely that the SC judgment in the ‘NJAC case’ derived not from the speeches made in Parliament or outside, but by the Government’s lawyers and the rest within the court halls. The sketchy newspaper reports at the time and substantial portions of the 4-1 majority verdict are indicative of such thinking. Hence, the solution to the current problem of ensuring transparency in judicial appointments, promotions and transfers could and should also flow from the SC verdict itself.

The fact is that any other harsh observations of the Jaitely-Prasad kind are not going to change the reality. Nor should the BJP continue to be in the ‘Opposition’ political mode even one and half years after coming to power at the Centre, and try to embarrass and ‘fix’ the present-day Opposition, on what essentially remains an ‘academic issue’ – and in the process challenge the authority of the only constitutional institution in the country on which the nation has maximum faith in. It can cut in more ways than one – the BJP and the nation could well be the worse sufferers, and not necessarily in that order.

At least this time round, the BJP /Government leadership should consult the political Opposition in Parliament with sincerity, and not bent on pushing them into a corner or score a debating point, all over again. Reading between the lines, the majority verdict provides enough material for the Government to push through additional reforms to the just struck-down processes. There being clear unanimity among parliamentarians and political parties on holding the Judiciary accountable, and judicial appointments transparent, a solution could still be found within the pages of the majority verdict on the one hand, and the four walls of the Constitution, otherwise.

Filling the vacuum

In its Jan Sangh avtar, the BJP was not known to have questioned the ‘basic structure’ theory enunciated by the Supreme Court in the ‘Keshavananda Bharati case’ (1973), without definition but only through application. On the occasion, the SC held that ‘Judicial Review’ was a ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution. Maybe because it hurt the political ego of the Congress rulers of the day than the non-existent Opposition of the day, the Jan Sangh and the rest of the Opposition did not complain.

There is a larger lesson from political philosophy for the BJP rulers and the nation from the ‘NJAC case’ verdict. Independent of what the SC has ruled and what Government and Parliament intend doing – starting possibly with a ‘review petition’, which again will go to the same Bench — it is but natural in government systems, particularly vibrant democracies like India’s, that one institution fills the vacuum, created in reality or otherwise, by the momentary absence/weakness of one or the other of the rest.

It was thus that when the Executive became weak, or perceived as being weak, and the Legislature was considered a rubber-stamp of the former, the Election Commission (EC) filled the vacuum in the Nineties, and kept the all-round democratic hopes of the people alive. Today, when the Government at the Centre commands an absolute majority in Parliament (and for the first time in 25 years, and thus for a new generation of voters from that era), the SC could be deemed to have stepped in, to fill the vacuum (whatever the occasion and circumstances).

When all institutions failed, as was during the Emergency era, the people filled the vacuum themselves, when it came to their turn, in the 1977 elections. There is a lesson in it, not just for PM Modi, his Government and the BJP, or for the polity alone. There is a lesson in it for everyone else, and every institution, starting with the present-day voter, too!

 

Legal  Notice  to  Honourable Chief Justice of India

 

To,

Honourable Chief Justice of India,

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA,

New Delhi.

 

Honourable Sir ,

Subject : Legal Notice to Chief Justice of India

Are  Judges , Police  PERFECT ? Satya Harishchandra ?

Hereby , I challenge Chief Justice of India  in the exercise of my FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES  as a citizen of india , that subject to conditions  I will  legally prove the crimes of  few  judges , police , public servants within  the government service and other  criminals.  Is the CJI ready  to book those criminals , traitors , anti nationals ?

Since 25 years I am appealing to apex court for justice concerning various public issues , no justice in sight but injustices meted out  one after another. But the same  judges are  SHAMELESSLY  taking huge pay perks for years  now are also  poised to  get  almost  triple fold  salary increase.  Parasites  feeding  on  Indian  Public. Whenever questions of accountability are asked  judges level contempt charges  against  the  questioner  or police  fix  him in  fake cases or he is silenced by threats , murders , denial of jobs , etc.  Since 25 years  in many  ways they  are trying to silence me. Just take the recent example of Justice Karnan  who leveled corruption  charges  against specific judges  with CJI. Instead of  conducting a fair investigation into the matter , CJI  tried to silence him by  serving  him contempt notice.

Our Judges , Police are  NOT  Perfect  Not Satya Harischandras . There are  criminals  as well as honest people  side by side  in  judiciary & police.  We  whole heartedly respect honest few in judiciary , police & public service. But  we  detest  corrupt  judges , corrupt police. Honest  Judges & Police are not coming into open to  prosecute their corrupt colleagues,  why ? silenced ?

Criminalization of  all wings of government has taken place , unfit people  are in the positions of power. Corruption in judiciary , police , CBI , CVC , Public service is rampant. Now MAFIA is at work.  Only few scandals , scams become public , many  are buried. If one criminal public servant is caught  other public servant who is also a criminal conducts name sake investigation , gives  report , clean chit. Law courts rely on the government reports as evidences , courts are not bothered about credibility of reports or investigations. It is quid pro quo. Therefore technically criminal public servants are never proved for their crimes & convicted , as investigation itself is not fair.

A Crime may happen without the knowledge of police  but  cann’t  continue for years without the connivance of police.  A  Crime reported to court  cann’t  continue  for years without  connivance of judges.

At the bottom  of  the paper , I have given web sites about  few  ACB raids on government officials  and unearthing of crores worth property.  How they have earned it , by misusing their official positions. Therefore  government reports , records  prepared by these officials , investigations conducted by  corrupt police  are suspect.  But  Law courts in various cases , considers government reports , records  , statements of government officials as sacrosanct . Therefore  in many cases  injustice is meted out by court  , as they depend on  reports of corrupt government officials , corrupt police.

The public servants & the government must be role models in law abiding acts , for others to emulate & follow. if a student makes a mistake it is excusable & can be corrected by the teacher. if the teacher himself makes a mistake , all  his students will do the same mistake. if a thief steals , he can be caught  , legally punished & reformed . if a police himself commits crime , many thieves go scot-free under his patronage.  even if a police , public servant commits a crime , he can be legally prosecuted & justice can be sought by the aggrieved.  just think , if a judge himself that too  of apex court of the land  himself  commits crime - violations of RTI Act , constitutional rights & human rights of public  and obstructs the public from performing their constitutional fundamental duties , what happens ?       

"Power will go to the hands of rascals, , rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts.  They will fight among themselves for power and will be lost in political squabbles . A day would come when even air & water will be taxed." Sir Winston made this statement in the House of Commons just before the independence of India & Pakistan. Sadly , the  forewarning of  Late Winston Churchill  has been proved right by  some of our  criminal , corrupt people’s representatives , police , public servants &  Judges. 

I don’t know whether secretariat staff of CJI office & DARPG / DPG officials are forwarding my appeals for justice , e-mails to you or not. They will be held accountable for their lapses if any. This notice is against the repeated failure of constitutional duties & indirect collusion with criminals by previous CHIEF JUSTICEs OF INDIA. Notice is served against them , to the office of CJI , NOT personally against you.

Please refer my appeal for justice through DARPG ;

DLGLA/E/2013/00292

DEPOJ/E/2013/00679


In india democracy is a farce , freedom a mirage. the most basic freedom RIGHT TO INFORMATION & EXPRESSION , is not honoured by the government,as the information opens up the crimes of V.V.I.Ps & leads to their ill-gotten wealth. The public servants are least bothered about the lives of people or justice to them. these type of fat cats , parasites are a drain on the public exchequer . these people want ,wish me to see dead , wish to see HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH closed . so that, a voice against injustices is silenced forever , the crimes of V.V.I.Ps closed , buried forever.

To my numerous appeals , HRW’s appeals to you ,you have not yet replied. It clearly shows that you are least bothered about the lives of people or justice to them .it proves that you are hell bent to protect the criminals at any cost. you are just pressurising the police to enquire me ,to take my statement, to repeatedly call me to police station all with a view to silence me.all of you enjoy “legal immunity privileges” ,why don’t you have given powers to the police / investigating officer to summon all of you for enquiry ?or else why don’t all of you are not appearing before the police voluntarily for enquiry ?at the least why don’t all of you are not sending your statement about the case to the police either through legal counsel or through post? you are aiding criminals ,by denying me job oppurtunities in R.B.I CURRENCY NOTE PRESS mysore , city civil court ,bangalore , distict court , mysore ,etc & by illegally closing my newspaper. Even  Press  accreditation  to me as a web journalist is denied till date.  there is a gross, total mismatch between your actions and your oath of office. this amounts to public cheating & moral turpitude on your part.


1.you are making contempt of the very august office you hold.
2.you are making contempt of the constitution of india.
3.you are making contempt of citizens of india.
4.you are sponsoring & aiding terorrism & organized crime.
5.you are violating the fundamental & human rights of the citizens of india and of neighbouring countries.
6.you are violating & making contempt of the U.N HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER to which india is a signatory.
7.you are obstructing me from performing my fundamental duties as a citizen of india.
8. As a result of your gross negligence of constitutional duties you have caused me damages / losses to the tune of RUPEES TWO CRORE ONLY.

9. You are responsible for  crime cover ups mentioned in my RTI Appeals , PILs and continuation of those crimes unabated.

10. You are  responsible  for denial of information,  which  vindicates the crimes of powers that be.

11. You are responsible for physical assaults , murder attempts on me.

12. You are responsible for  job denials to me at NIE , PES Engineering college , RBI Press , Mysore , Bangalore Courts.

13. You are responsible for my  illegal retrenchment from RPG Cables ,  denial of  medical care to  me towards occupational  health  problems.

14. You are responsible for denying me legal aid.

15. You are responsible for illegal closure of my news paper.

16. You are responsible for  denial of press accreditation  to me as a web journalist till date.

17. You are responsible for repeatedly  passing on my appeals to police. So that  they can  take  statements , close the file under the threat of police power.

18. You  have violated my Human Rights & Fundamental Rights.

19. In terms  of  Integrity , Honesty  You & other public servants are  nowhere near  Baba Saheb B R Ambedkar , Mahatma Gandhi  &  Satya Harishchandra . Many Public servants are  UNFIT to be in their posts.

You are hereby called upon to Pay damages to me and SHOW-CAUSE within 30 days , why you cann’t be legally prosecuted for the above mentioned crimes . If you don’t answer  it  will be admission of the  charges  by you.   It will amount to confession of crimes on your own.



If i am repeatedly called to police station or else where for the sake of investigations , the losses i do incurr as a result like loss of wages , transportation , job , etc must be borne by the government. prevoiusly the police / IB personnel repeatedly called me the complainant (sufferer of injustices) to police station for questioning , but never called the guilty culprits even once to police station for questioning , as the culprits are high & mighty . this type of one sided questioning must not be done by police or investigating agencies . if anything untoward happens to me or to my family members like loss of job , meeting with hit & run accidents , loss of lives , etc , the jurisdictional police together with above mentioned accussed public servants , Chief Justice of India & Jurisdictional District Magistrate will be responsible for it. Even if criminal nexus levels fake charges , police file fake cases against me or my dependents to silence me , this complaint is & will be effective.


if anything untoward happens to me or my dependents , the government of india is liable to pay Rs. TWO crore as compensation to survivors of my family. if my whole family is eliminated by the criminal nexus ,then that compensation money must be donated to Indian Army Welfare Fund. afterwards , the money must be recovered by GOI as land arrears from the salary , pension , property , etc of guilty judges , police officials , public servants & Constitutional fuctionaries.

Thanking you. Jai Hind , Vande Mataram.

 

Send  reply to :

Nagaraja Mysuru Raghupathi

Editor , SOS e Voice for Justice & SOS e Clarion of Dalit,

LIG 2 , NO 761 , HUDCO First Stage,

Laxmikantanagar , Hebbal ,

Mysuru – 570017.



Date : 05.03.2017……………………………………………..your’s sincerely,
Place : Mysore , India………………………………………….Nagaraja  Mysuru Raghupathi

 

PIL –  Fundamental  Duties of Citizens  Vs Corrupt Government  Officials

 

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

 CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2017

 

 IN THE MATTER OF

 

 NAGARAJA . M.R

 editor SOS e Clarion of Dalit & SOS e Voice for Justice

# LIG 2 , No 761 ,, HUDCO First Stage , Laxmikantanagar ,

Hebbal , Mysore – 570017 , Karnataka State

....Petitioner

 

Versus

 

Honourable  Chief Justice of India    & Others

 ....Respondents

 

 PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 12 to ARTICLE 35 & ARTICLE 51A OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF A WRIT IN THE NATURE OF MANDAMUS UNDER ARTICLE 32 & ARTICLE 226 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.

 

 To ,

Hon'ble The Chief Justice of India and His Lordship's Companion

Justices of the Supreme Court of India.

 

The Humble petition of the   Petitioner above named.

 

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH :

1. Facts of the case:

 

 Fundamental  Duties of  Citizens  and  Constitutional Duties  of  Public Servants are complementary to each other.   Nowadays  criminalization of politics , judiciary  , police , etc has  taken place and many unfit candidates are in public service. These corrupt , unfit public servants  are misusing their offices and  putting  legal seal    on illegal  acts , making those illegal acts technically legal. Here  raises the conflict between  FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES OF AN INDIAN CITIZEN  and   ILLEGAL  ACTS  OF  GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.

           For example real estate mafia grabs  BEML Quarters lake ,  Kaynes Hootagalli Lake , Ningaih lake , Hebbal lakes in mysuru  creates  fake title deeds  and  even gets it registered  by sub registrar  all with the help corrupt officials in  government.  Even police protect the  rich  land grabber. When a case is made out in the court of law  for eviction of lake encroachers , judge simply goes through the technicalities of government documents. Based  on official documents he  gives a green signal to encroacher and orders for  protection of his encroached properties.  Lakes  are  nobody’s property , it is  a public property and to be preserved for public usage.  The good Samaritan Indian Citizen who did his  “Fundamental Duties  of Protecting Lakes “  lost money , time,  faced  abuses / remarks from the judge , faced life threat from land mafia & police. All for nothing.

One more example  , a  citizen while passing through a  public  road  witnesses  an accident , takes the injured to the hospital for emergency treatment to save life and informs  police regarding accident making vehicle. Instead of appreciating  his  good   work , police fits  him in the case , case drags on for years making the good citizen loose his money , time & job. Also , he is threatened by vehicle owner  who made the accident , no protection to  the citizen for doing his :Fundamental Duties”.

          One more example , a citizen complained to authorities  regarding  business of a liquor bar  in a residential location  much close to religious  building & schools. The bar owner had secured license from state excise  department much against the norms.  Police called the good citizen for questioning repeatedly , court  judge called him to court repeatedly  and finally based on the license given by corrupt government official  allowed the bar to operate  , fined the complainant.  Goons of bar owner  roughed up the good citizen making him to move away from the locality itself.   

 

           An Indian citizen  requests  for information from authorities  regarding  llegalities , irregularities , misuse of office  in working  by judges , police , etc  from  supreme court of india and other related authorities under RTI Act. So that  based on RTI  reply from concerned authorities  he can legally prosecute  the guilty judges , police , public servants , can get the  injustices rectified by court of law and  put an end to further crimes by those guilty , corrupt public servants all in public interest. This  is an effort by that Indian citizen as his “FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES”  to uphold law , constitution of india. But  PIOs , RTI Appellate authorities  of  supreme court of  india  & other  bodies didn’t  give full truthful information at all . Thereby ,  they  committed one more crime of  of covering up another crime  and aiding criminals to continue with their crimes unabated.  Thereby , guilty judges , police , other public servants obstructed the  citizen from performing his FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES , Violated his FUNNDAMENTAL  RIGHTS  &  HUMAN  RIGHTS  TO  EQUITABLE  JUSTICE.  No justice in sight till date to good Samaritan Indian citizen  , more injustices were meted out to him by judges , police , public servants -  he suffered  physical assaults , murder attempts , jobs denied , news paper closed , press accreditation  denied ,  PILS  he  sent  to apex court were not admitted , all to silence him.

 

 

       In this way , there are numerous cases  of  Indian Citizens , whistle blowers , RTI Activists , Journalists  who themselves suffered  gross injustices for raising public causes , for doing their  Fundamental Duties. No  Justice to them even from apex court till date.

Every citizen  of  india must  perform   his / her “Fundamental  Duties” without fail, before demanding  his fundamental rights. Every public servant  must  do their  constitutional duties without fail. 

         A citizen performs  fundamental duties without any rewards or pay or perks  where as a government official /  public servant does his / her duties  for  huge pay & perks.

         A citizen  while performing his fundamental duties  often has to spend his own money , time  to fight legal cases , etc. Whereas a public servant spends nothing during the course of his public duties, everything is borne by state exchequer.

      A citizen  while performing  his fundamental duties faces rowdy elements , physical assaults  in few instances even resulting in his own murder.  His family doesn’t get even a penny compensation from exchequer. Whereas a public servant enjoys the full police protection in the course of his duties and even if  anything untoward  happens his family will get  compensation.

     Obstructing  a Citizen  from performing his fundamental duties  doesn’t  attract any legal prosecution whereas obstruction of  public servant’s  constitutional duties is a crime under IPC.

2. Question(s) of Law:

Are  Fundamental  Duties  of  Indian  Citizens  Supreme  or  the  Illegal  acts , orders by corrupt Government officials (Legalizing  illegal acts)  Supreme ?

3. Grounds:

Requests for equitable justice , Prosecution of   corrupt  judges , police , public servants   responsible for  injustices , obstructions to Fundamental Duties of citizens.

 4. Averment:

 Please read details at :

 Traitors  in  Judiciary &  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police   ,

 

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/crimes-by-khaki   

 

FIRST  Answer  Judges  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/336585411/FIRST-Answer-Judges-Police  

 

SHAME  SHAME  JUDGEs  -  Atrocities against  DALITs  by  Judges

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/shame-shame-judges  ,

https://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/shame-shame-judges

 

“There is a higher court than the court of justice and that is the court of conscience It supercedes all other courts. ”

- Mahatma Gandhi

 

Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants in the  cases  mentioned  at above web sites , to perform their duties & to answer the questions.

 The Petitioner has sent many letters / appeals / petitions to supreme court of india & other courts through e-mail , DARPG website & through regular mail requesting them to consider those as PILs. But none of them were admitted , even acknowledgement for receipts were not given. See How duty conscious ,our judges are & see how our judges are sensitive towards life , liberty of citizens , common men & see how careless our judges are towards anti national crimes , crimes worth  crores  of rupees. That the present petitioner has not filed any other petition (which are admitted by courts) in any High Court or the Supreme Court of India on the subject matter of the present petition.

 

PRAYER:

In the above premises, it is prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased:

 

1.         To  make  obstruction of  “Fundamental Duties  of an Indian Citizen” a legally punishable offence on par with the  obstruction of a public servant’s duties.

2.         To pay compensation of Rupees Two Crores and above  to   RTI Activists , Whistle Blowers , Journalists , ordinary citizens who paid with their lives or suffered  injuries in the course of their  fundamental duties.

3.         To order for  inspection , investigation of each & every issue raised by  a citizen in the course of his fundamental duties  instead of simply relying on government records alone prepared by corrupt officials.

4.         To order all public servants including judges , Members of Parliament , Members of Legislative Assemblies , IAS officers  , other public servants  to do their  constitutional duties  as well as their   FUNDAMENTAL  DUTIES  properly.

5. To admit  all the PILs   sent by me to supreme court of india  and to order the concerned public servants to give proper reply to all RTI Appeals made by me.

 

FOR WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER SHALL BE DUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.

 

Dated : 26.02.2017……… ………………….FILED BY: NAGARAJA.M.R.

 Place :   Mysuru , India…………………….   PETITIONER-IN-PERSON

 

 

 

Notice  To  Chief  Justice  of  India

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/notice-to-chief-justice ,

Judicial  Tyranny

 

https://sites.google.com/site/dalitsdiary/judicial-tyranny , 

 

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Judicial Tyranny
Topic: human rights , media

Indian’s  Diary  –  e  News  Weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.13..Issue.30........29  / 07 / 2017

 

Notice  To  Chief  Justice  of  India

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/notice-to-chief-justice

 

 

Supeme Court Judge in Illegal Land  Scam ?

 

3 -judge in-house inquiry panel stops proceedings, writes to CJI for guidance

A three-member committee of judges, constituted by the Supreme Court to conduct an in-house inquiry against two sitting judges of the Odisha High Court, has halted its proceedings after the name of a senior Supreme Court Justice cropped up during the course of the probe.

The panel, headed by Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice SJ Vazifdar, has now written to the Chief Justice of India for guidance and directions.

DNA is aware of the identity of the SC judge but is withholding it in view of the sensitivity of the subject.

Sources told DNA that a series of representations were also made by the complainants in the case to the President and the Prime Minister, mentioning the involvement of the Supreme Court judge. These representations were also sent to the probe panel.

The panel, which comprises Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph and Justice S Abdul Nazeer, who was earlier with the Karnataka High Court, is conducting an in-house inquiry against Justices Indrajit Mohanty and Sangam Kumar Sahoo for alleged misuse of power and position.

Once the name of the senior Supreme Court judge came up — for his closeness to the two judges who are under probe — the panel decided to write to the CJI.

The letter brings to the CJI's notice this particular development and also underlines the fact that the panel was constituted only to probe High Court judges and has no authority to probe an SC Justice.

When contacted by DNA, Chief Justice Vazifdar refused to comment on the issue. However, sources told DNA that ever since the senior Supreme Court judge's name came up, the proceedings of the in-house committee have come to a standstill.

Sometime back, the panel had asked the two judges to appear before it, if they wanted to do so, in person to defend themselves.

The allegations against Justice Indrajit Mohanty, the senior-most judge of the High Court after the Chief Justice, include furthering his business interests while being a judge.

In the case of Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo, he is alleged to have spent much more than his entitlement in refurbishing his official residence.

The in-house inquiry panel had been set up by the previous Chief justice of India, TS Thakur, while acting on the complaints filed by two individuals, who had levelled serious allegations against the two judges. The complainants had also provided material to support their allegations.

If the two judges are indicted by the in-house inquiry panel, the CJI can recommend to the President to initiate the process for their impeachment -- the only way, other than voluntary resignation, judges of Supreme Court and High Courts can be removed from office under law.

The Supreme Court, at a full court meeting on December 15, 1999, had unanimously laid down the in-house procedure for taking suitable action against members of the superior judiciary, who indulge in acts of omission or commission and breach the principles laid down in the Restatement of Values of Judicial Life.?The last case in which the Chief Justice of India had recommended impeachment of a sitting judge for proved misbehaviour or incapacity was Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court, who became the first judge in Independent India to be impeached by the Rajya Sabha. He resigned before the Lok Sabha could vote on the motion.

A ‘SENSITIVE’ INVESTIGATION

·         The panel is conducting an in-house inquiry against two Odisha HC judges for alleged misuse of power and position.

·         Once the name of the senior Supreme Court judge came up, the panel decided to write to the Chief Justice of India.

 

 

Promotion denied as I ordered CBI inquiry, says retired High Court judge 

 

A retired Orissa High Court judge, Justice BP Das, has alleged that his candidacy as chief justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court may have been scuttled because he ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe a controversial allotment of public land. 

The case pertains to plots of land allocated 37 years ago to about 300 people, including Justice Dipak Misra, who was an advocate at the time and is now in the Supreme Court. Some beneficiaries allegedly made false     declarations that they didn’t own any land so that they could get the plots. People close to Misra dismissed the allegations as baseless. 

Justice Das headed a bench that ordered the CBI in January 2012 to probe the land allotment. Das told ET he missed out becoming chief justice because he had ordered the probe by the CBI, which submitted its report in August 2013. 

"The link and presumption is not unfounded," Justice Das said by phone from Cuttack.  "In January, I ordered the CBI probe and three months later, in March 2012, my name came up for appointment as Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court. I had heard that my name was opposed by Justice Dipak Misra, but I don't have any record with me. Well, but for this, I would have retired as chief justice." 

Justice Misra's office did not respond to an emailed questionnaire from ET seeking comment on the matter. However, people close to Justice Misra said he has never   acquired land in a fraudulent manner or by misrepresenting facts. 

"The land was taken in 1979, when he was a young advocate, and he surrendered it in 1985, for which records can be verified. These are all baseless allegations," the people said. Justice Misra was one of the judges who ruled on Wednesday that all Indians have to stand and listen to the National Anthem before watching a movie in a theatre. He is in line to become the Chief Justice of India in 2017. 

 

Separately, an Odisha-based activist Jayanta Das complained against Justice Misra to the President of India in September, seeking action against him for acquiring public land by allegedly misrepresenting facts. The President's office declined to comment on the matter. 

ET is in possession of the complaint and related documents, which show that two acres of land in Cuttack were allotted to Misra on November 30, 1979. The allocation was cancelled by an additional district magistrate  in 1985, who ordered the land records to be corrected. 

The ADM of Cuttack passed the order in a suo moto revision case, saying the land was obtained through fraud and misrepresentation, Das said. The records were corrected 27 years later, after the high court intervened and asked the collector to submit a report. 

"The CBI report also said the land record was not corrected till 2012. Technically speaking, Justice Dipak Misra, among others, from 1979 to 2012,  were in possession of this land," Justice Das said. "There were about 300 allottees. This was a case of encroachment/illegal allotment to individuals, who misrepresented facts and claimed to be landless." 

Justice Das contended that Justice Misra had no locus standi to oppose his candidature as chief justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court. 

"Dipak Misra had already moved to the Madhya Pradesh High Court when I became a judge, so he had no idea about  my performance as a judge. But he on his own wrote to the collegium opposing my appointment," Das said. "Plus, there was a conflict of interest – his name figured in the land allotment case being heard by me and he didn't declare his interest to the SC collegium." 

People close to Misra debunked this allegation as a disgruntled grouse. "These are someone's grievances because he could not be elevated. Why bring in collegium matters here? And something which happened long back?  You must find out which all people got plots out of discretionary quotas," they said. 

ET spoke to legal luminaries, including judges, who confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that Justice Misra had "serious reservations" about appointing Justice Das as chief justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court. 

Further inquiries revealed that facts about the land allotment case may not have been brought to the notice of the SC collegium when Justice Misra was considered  for appointment to the nation's top court. Misra was appointed as a judge of the apex court in October 2011and is due to retire in 2018. 

"It may not have been brought to the notice of the collegium, but I don’t have any records," Justice Das said. 

"This is something very serious and was not brought to the notice of the collegium. There was no IB report also," said a legal luminary who asked not to be identified. "The SC collegium should take cognisance of this as per  in-house mechanism, since the complaint is also addressed to Chief Justice of India TS Thakur." 

"Justice Misra is known for his credibility and integrity," the people close to him said. "Do you think it is possible that the facts weren't brought to the notice of the collegium headed by CJI SH Kapadia, who was a very strict chief justice, known for his integrity? Do you think he wouldn't know about it?" 

 

Uttarakhand chief justice not elevated “under govt pressure”: Demand to make public dissenting note

 

Well-known legal rights organization, Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), has said that Justice KM Joseph’s non-elevation to Supreme Court judge is linked with his “bold decision striking down the imposition of President’s rule by the Centre in Uttrakhand last year.”
Alleging that the decision not to elevate the Uttarakhand chief justice “has been influenced by pressure from the government”, CJAR has demanded that the full text of Justice J Chelameswar’s dissenting note to the collegium objecting to the non-elevation of Justice Joseph be “put in public domain.”

One of the most influential legal rights organization of India, those associated with CJAR include top Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, former former judges PB Sawant and H Suresh, well-known Magsaysay winning writer Aruna Roy, senior right to information activist Nikhil Dey, other senior activists, experts and lawyers.

Says a CJAR, “As a member of the Supreme Court collegium, while Justice Chelameswar has not disagreed with the names of the five other judges that have been proposed for elevation to the Supreme Court, his criticism that Justice Joseph has been sidelined, is right and justified.”
This is the first time in the annals of the Supreme Court collegium that a member has written a dissent note. Normally such views are conveyed orally.

“We regard Justice Jospeh to have had an outstanding record as an independent judge of high integrity and holding secular views. His being sidelined is surprising since his name for elevation to the Supreme Court, was even recommended by the previous collegium headed by Justice TS Thakur”, CJAR insists.
Pointing out that “transparency in the working of public functionaries, both the judiciary and the government, is critical in a democracy”, CJAR says, “It is ironic that there has been complete opacity from both these institutions” about “disclosing a draft of the memorandum of procedure for appointments to the High Court and Supreme Court.”

“The process has been shrouded in secrecy, excluding public participation in this crucial process”, CJAR says, adding, “There have only been leaked media reports and speculations on certain contentious clauses in the memorandum that have been going back and forth between the government and the judiciary.”

Contending that “repeated requests from CJAR for a draft of the memorandum to be shared” have received “no response”, CJAR asks the Supreme Court chief justice JS Khehar to make public the memorandum, which is being how finalised by the judiciary.

 

Allegations of dalit atrocities and nepotism against CV Nagarjuna Reddy J. of Andhra Pradesh

 

The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) has written to Chief Justice of India TS Thakur seeking initiation of in-house proceedings against Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy for alleged atrocities against members of Dalit community.

In a 9-page letter written on August 30 this year, the CJAR has detailed various allegations against the sitting judge including a detailed account of “criminal misconduct” against a dalit magistrate.

According to the letter, one Rama Krishna, a Principal Junior Civil judge in Kadappa District, was forced by Justice Nagarjuna Reddy to remove the name of Pavan Kumar Reddy from a dying declaration recorded by Rama Krishna when he was posted as a magistrate. Pavan Reddy  happens to be the brother of Justice Reddy.

As per the dying declaration given by the victim, Pavan Reddy had doused the victim with petrol and set him of fire when he refused to sign on a blank paper.

“Soon thereafter, on 30.11.2012, it is alleged by Mr. Rama Krishna that Justice Nagarjuna Reddy rang him up, and directed him to remove his brother’s name from the dying declaration. Mr. Rama Krishna also alleges that he was threatened and abused by the said judge when he refused to accede to his request.”

It has also been alleged that the Magistrate was later summoned to Justice Nagarjuna Reddy’s house where,

“….Pavan Reddy and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy abused him and beat him up. He further alleges that Justice C. V. Nagarjuna Reddy kicked him with his shoes and abused his caste”.

It is Rama Krishna’s allegation that he was victimised following this incident by “unexplained” transfers and suspensions.

Another allegation against the judge is the abuse of power to get that very Pavan Reddy appointed as Additional Public Prosecutor.

“Mr. Pavan Kumar Reddy was appointed as Additional Public Prosecutor in the year 2006 for a period of three years in contravention of the law that mandates seven years of continuous practice as an advocate prior to appointment as an Additional Public Prosecutor.”

Based on the above, CJAR has not only sought an in-house enquiry but has also asked for the suspension of judicial work assigned to Justice Reddy. Chief Justice Thakur has not responded to CJAR’s representation yet.

This is the second such allegation against a sitting judge of High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

In 2015, an Additional District judge from Andhra Pradesh had approached the Supreme Court under Article 32 alleging caste discrimination by a sitting High Court judge, Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy.

The Supreme Court had, however, refused to admit the matter with a Bench presided by then Chief Justice Dattu likening the case to a service matter and observing that the case was a grievance of an individual and cannot be considered as a case pertaining to Fundamental rights.

Impeachment Motion: Five Main Allegations Against Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy

December 9, 2016 8:45 pm

 

Sixty one Rajya Sabha members have moved a petition for impeachment proceedings against Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh/Telangana High Court.

 

The following are the main allegations against the Judge

Misused his position as HC judge to ‘victimize’ a ‘Dalit’ Judge

The impeachment motion describes the allegation made by Mr. Rama Krishna, formerly Principal Junior Civil Judge, Rayachoty, Kadapa District, currently under suspension, that he was forced by Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy to remove the name of Mr. Pavan Kumar Reddy who happens to be the brother of Justice Reddy, from a dying declaration recorded by Mr. Rama Krishna when he was posted as Magistrate in Rayachoty. He alleged that Justice Reddy had summoned him to his home and when he refused to remove the name of his brother from the dying declaration, he kicked him with his shoes and abused his caste.

Charges of Dalit atrocity against spouse, daughter and brother

Another incident of alleged Dalit atrocity pertaining to the registration of an FIR by the ‘Dalit’ tenants against Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy’s wife and daughter, is also mentioned. There also allegations that Mr. Pavan Kumar Reddy commits these various atrocities against the Dalits community under the protective banner of his brother, Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy’s influence

Disproportionate income

The motion also alleges that Justice Reddy abused his position to amass several movable and immovable properties crores of rupees disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Non-Disclosure of Assets and Liabilities

Yet another allegation against Justice Reddy is that he has not disclosed his assets and liabilities in violation of the Code of Conduct that mandates declaration of assets of oneself and dependents by all the judges.

Misconduct when he was an Advocate

It is also mentioned in the impeachment motion that Justice Reddy committed misconduct while he was working as Standing Counsel, for the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.

 

DALIT Judge  dismissed for   being  HONEST ?

-       An  Appeal  to Honourable Chief Justice of India

 

       Chief Judicial Magistrate of Sukma District in Chhattisgarh state of India Mr. Prabhakar Gwal is a Dalit , from oppressed class. Being from an oppressed class  , he best  understood the sufferings  of oppressed sections of society , sufferings  of people  , tribals displaced from forests  to make way for  big industries , MNCs. He understood the  oppression of  common public by police , state  machinery  resulting  in common man’s  human rights , constitutional rights violations. He  understood  the machinations of state machinery  to favor big industrialists , also he understood the misuse of office by  public servants  all against the rule of LAW.

       Sukma CJM  Mr. Gwal  sincerely did his  constitutional duty , to uphold rule of law and earned the wrath of powers that be , Criminal Nexus , he was repeatedly interfered in his judicial  duties , repeatedly transferred and now unjustly dismissed from service without  ANY ENQUIRY  giving a chance for Mr.Gwal to make out his case. Whereas  some other  selfish  judges turned their blind eyes  to the sufferings of public ,  violations of law by public servants , intentionally failed to uphold  the law  and got smooth sailing for their  own  career.

       Hereby , We  urge  the Honourable Chief Justice of India  to  order  the Chhattisgarh  State  Government :

1.    To immediately reinstate Mr.Gwal into judicial service.

2.    To make posting at the same place , same court of Sukma , so that he can  complete the cases concerning the  powers that be to the logical end.

3.    To initiate  criminal legal prosecution  against  district collector , police officials , public servants  who directly & indirectly interfered  in the judicial duties performed by Mr. GWAL.

4.    To initiate criminal legal  prosecution against  Chhattisgarh  High Court Judges  who instead of upholding rule of law , supporting Mr. Gwal in his duties  took sides with criminal nexus , powers that be and repeatedly transferred him and now dismissed him from service without  enquiry.

5.    To reopen all the  buried cases which were dealt by Mr. Gwal and buried by transfer of  judge  Mr. Gwal. To take action against ministers , public servants  involved in those cases.

6.    To initiate  criminal action against  sukma district collector , police officials  and Chhattisgarh  High Court  Judges  on  charges of Atrocities against  DALIT  Mr. Gwal  who  was repeatedly  harassed  by  them.

7.    To initiate  criminal  prosecution under anti terror laws ,  against  present  and past  chattisgarh state government ministers , central government  ministers ,  police officials , public servants who  were and are  responsible for creation  of terror outfit SALWA JUDUM  , it’s recent  terror child salwa judum – 2. These public servants   have indulged in terror acts of salwa judum , by aiding & sponsoring it , which is against law.

Date : 30.04.2016…………………………..Your’s sincerely

Place : Mysuru………………………………Nagaraja.M.R.

 

 

 

 Rejoice, Ye, Supreme Court Judges On Your Pyrrhic Victory; India’s Justice System Got Screwed Up In Karnan’s Case

by Dr P S Sahni 

 

A law student in any university anywhere in the world is taught that before convicting a person of a crime a detailed reasoned judgement ought to be ready. In fact in criminal cases the judgement convicting a person is pronounced on a particular day; and the quantum of punishment is announced later after the lawyers have had a chance to argue on it. In Justice C.S. Karnan’s case the order of conviction and punishment and imprisonment was pronounced on the same day i.e. 9 May, 2017 in his absence; the detailed reasoned judgements– actually two separate but concurring judgements – as per media reports were made available on the Supreme Court website only on 5 July, 2017. These judgementsare said to have been given by the then seven senior most judges of the Supreme Court. Any law student anywhere in the world would naturally be aghast at the violation of a fundamental principle of the justice system. And this is not the only fallacy.

One of the judges who gave the majority judgement had retired on 27 May, 2017; which means that the signatures of all of these judges should have been affixed by 27 May, 2017. But was it done?

From 9 May, 2017 till date Karnan’s lawyers had been trying to get the attention of the Court – both during and after the summer vacation – through the process of ‘mentioning’ before the relevant bench of the time. In fact most of the time Karnan’s lawyers were treated shabbily, threatened with eviction from the court. In one instance Karnan’s lawyers were told to approach the Court after a month i.e. after the vacation. When they did so after the summer break, they were told not to disturb the court proceedings!

It reminds one of how people from the Scheduled Caste community were treated in the last two millennium as and when they tried to enter the holy precincts of a temple in India. Mostly they were kicked out of the temples. Sufi saints like Nanak and Ramdev have captured it well in their verses five centuries back. So even today a Dalit judge like C.S. Karnan is being treated in the same way; one just has to read about how his lawyers had been treated in the Supreme Court from 9 May, 2017 onwards to be convinced about this.

Could it be that one of the judges had actually retired and not affixed his signature on the judgement; so efforts were being made behind the scene for a ‘resolution of this technicality’? This scenario seems more likely than the contrived projection that all the judges in the majority judgement had affixed their signatures on or before 27 May, 2017.

Now that Justice Karnan’s case seeking bail and challenging his six months sentenceis provisionally listed for 7 July, 2017, the timing of the reasoned judgements being made available on 5 July, 2017 raises suspicion. The entire national press (print and t.v. channels) is at the service of the establishment to damn Justice C.S. Karnan. Lest people in India have forgotten, the same seven wise judges of the Supreme Court had put a gag on the press to the effect that Justice Karnan’s statements were not to be carried w.e.f. 9 May, 2017. Thus in effect the media on 6^th and 7^th of July, 2017 would be shredding Karnan’s credibility to smithereens; while Karnan’s view point would stay censored. So the stage is being set to ensure that there is no sympathy for Justice Karnan whatsoever when his case is taken up hopefully on 7 July, 2017 in the Supreme Court.

Only a high level independent enquiry can reveal the truth. To get to the bottom of it, an independent agency would have to get hold of all the personal computers, hard disks etc. of all the seven judges; seal these and send them for forensic examination. All the emails exchanged on the issue between the judges would need to be examined. The effort should be to ascertain when each of the seven judges affixed their signatures on the judgements (as there are more than one judgements). The individual seven judges should be subjected to thorough interrogation to arrive at the truth.

Let us beware that the judicial tyranny and dictatorship are as bad as any oppressive regime.

 

Editorial :  Are all Judges Honest ? Satya Harishchandra ?

 

Why no action against judges who committed sex crimes against women , who swindled employees provident fund money , etc , While Judges belonging to powerful castes , having influence , who have done grave crimes are let off , their cases buried. Justice karnan is tortured as he is a dalit without any influence for exposing crimes. So called learned advocates are defying gentleman's boundaries and personally calling a judge as lunatic. Are those learned advocates cultured , gentleman , what they have done to safeguard justice. Read JUSTICE KARNAN VICTIMIZED in web news paper SOS E CLARION OF DALIT. Judge's Mafia. Overall in this saga certain people want to bury the corruption allegations made by Justice Karnan, by diversion from core issue of corruption by judges. In the same way dalit judges Justice Gwal & Justice Ramakrishna were tortured by High ranking judges , where is the justice to these persecuted dalit judges ? Why not their tormentors high court & supreme court judges legally prosecuted under Prevention of Atrocities Act against SC /ST ?

 

Judges  SEX  crimes

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/judges-sex-crimes

 

A – Z   of   Manipulation  of  Indian  Legal  System

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/187575206/A-Z-of-Manipulation-of-India-Legal-System   ,

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/173854541/Chief-Justice-of-India-A-Criminal   ,

 

 

50% of higher judiciary corrupt, says ex-SC judge Markandey Katju

http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/50-of-higher-judiciary-corrupt-says-ex-sc-judge-markandey-katju/story-Hfu8Ru8o9YfoGOjloboytN.html

 

Eight chief justices were corrupt: Ex-law minister

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Eight-chief-justices-were-corrupt-Ex-law-minister/articleshow/6568723.cms

 

In suicide note, Arunachal CM Kalikho Pul alleges graft by SC judges, Congress

http://www.sify.com/news/in-suicide-note-arunachal-cm-kalikho-pul-alleges-graft-by-sc-judges-congress-news-national-rcruamjjfdhhc.html ,

 

Calcutta HC Justice Karnan calls judiciary corrupt, brings up old allegations against HC judges

 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/calcutta-hc-justice-karnan-calls-judiciary-corrupt-brings-up-old-allegations-against-hc-judges/story-k0WRYaBWRPYaUI6HgzPDHP.html

 

Traitors  in  Judiciary &  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police  ,

 

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/crimes-by-khaki 

 

FIRST  Answer  Judges  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/336585411/FIRST-Answer-Judges-Police 

 

 

     The  mafia  of corrupt  has never allowed for transparent , impartial   investigation into criminal cases  involving higher judges & public servants. Justice Karnan  is in  the position of  high court judge due to his merit , talent , education  not  on the basis of reservation or anybody’s mercy. Justice Karnan is a whistle blower , he has exposed corruption in the higher judiciary , he has not done any crimes. Now , powers that be instead of ordering for a fair investigation into   his charges,  is trying  all out to silence him. Some  people  are  even making personal  attacks , by calling him lunatic. Those persons may be beneficiaries   of the existing corrupt judicial system and they  want to continue  with this present  corrupt system.

   In a Mental Hospital ward , say there  are number of  mentally challenged patients  playing inside the ward. A doctor & his assistant enters  the ward to  check , give  routine medicines , injections to patients and then all those  patients call  the  doctor himself as  mad. It is the same situation now.

     Are  not  the so called learned , aged advocate ( @ god’s airport )  and  learned   judges   see the  crimes by judges in the past. See  sample cases mentioned above & below.  What  action taken by those  learned judges &   learned advocate , to safe guard law  in the above / below  mentioned cases? Our  judicial  system is  being  weakened  by  corrupt  judges &  few  , greedy   advocates  ( learned  ? ) , NOT by  whistle blowers  who  have sacrificed  to protect the  nation from corrupt people.

    In the past  few judges  belonging to powerful castes  facing  charges of  gravest crimes , got a smooth sailing , their  cases white washed. But Justice  Karnan  belonging to oppressed  Dalit  class  is being  tortured  for standing up against corruption. He has done no crimes. This is the very reason few honest judges  & honest  advocates  keep  silent  fearing  victimization.

   Hereby , we  demand Honourable Supreme Court of India :

1.       To  order  transparent , impartial   investigation into all the above mentioned corruption cases involving high ranking judges.

2.       To  order for filing  charges  under SC / ST Atrocities Prevention Act  against  high ranking judges  who  tortured  Dalit Judges – Justice Karnan , Justice Gawl & Justice Ramakrishna.

3.       To  order for filing  charges  under SC / ST Atrocities Prevention Act  against  learned advocate & others  who made personal attacks on Justice Karnan  by calling him as lunatic and  for  obstructing legal prosecution of the corrupt judges.

 

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.

 

Your’s

Nagaraja Mysuru Raghupathi.

 

 

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2  No  761,HUDCO FIRST STAGE ,

OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL ,MYSURU – 570017  KARNATAKA  INDIA

 

Cell : 91 8970318202

 

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5 Star Jails & Judges

Indian’s  Diary  –  e  News  Weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.13..Issue.29........22  / 07 / 2017

 

Editorial :  Corrupt Judges &  5  Star  Jails

-          Safety of Jail Inmates Responsibility of Judges

The presiding judge of the case  who  issues arrest warrant against a person , who rejects the bail plea  of the accused  and  the judge who remands accused to police custody / judicial custody  is fully responsible for safety , human rights of the prison / jail inmates. Use of 3^rd degree torture is rampant in jails   and in all such cases ,  respective presiding judges  must be made to  pay compensation from their pockets and judges must be charged  for  AIDING & ABETTING  THE MURDER  ATTEMPT  on prisoner  by  jail / police authorities.

In the same way ,  it is the duty of the presiding  judge who  convicted or remanded  a person to jail , to ensure whether the person is getting RIGHT PUNISHMENT  as per law  whether less or more  in jail and to ensure right punishment for him. 

Rich & mighty criminals are getting lesser punishment than the “ Judgement “ , enjoying luxurious lifestyles within jails , whereas poor people are exposed to harsh punishment , 3^rd degree torture within jail which  are not permitted by law / judgement. 

This can only happen with the connivance of  corrupt judges & police.   Why not legal prosecution of corrupt judges & police and putting judges , police behind bars ?  Are the JUDGES  &  POLICE  above  Law  ?

  

Presiding Judge  who convicted Sasikala &  Police  fully responsible  for 5 Star  Jail life of Sasikala & Ilavarasi  Watch :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS3JvO8ys-g  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Nsi_dBUl0 ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0pUTMYwyFA ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vveQcSvzUx8 ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8ryW-ePAUU

 

Are  CJI &  Supreme Court Judges  sleeping or conniving ? Anyway SCI Judges  get lakhs of rupees salary , 5 star bungalow , car , etc  even if does duty  properly  or improperly.

 

"As a reward for bribing the prison authorities from Rao to jail warden, Sasikala gets special menu daily, cooked by special chefs in a special kitchen near the women's cell," Roopa is said to have mentioned in the report.

Co-convicts Sasikala's sister-in-law Elavarasi and nephew VK Sudhakaran were also held guilty by a trial court in September 2014 and upheld by the Supreme Court on February 14 in the two-decade-old disproportionate assets case of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. 

32 Convicts Allegedly Tortured At Bengaluru Jail In Sasikala Controversy

 

The complaint was lodged on Monday by BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje, the family members of these prisoners were not being allowed to meet them.

 

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to two top Karnataka prison officials taking cognisance of a complaint about alleged torture and transfer of 32 convicts serving terms in the Central Prison.

An NHRC release said the complaint alleged the prisoners were beaten black-and-blue and shifted overnight (on July 16) in an injured condition to various other prisons at Mysore, Ballari, Belagavi and Davanagere.

According to the complaint, lodged on Monday by BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje, the family members of these prisoners were not being allowed to meet them.

The complaint was filed a day after the prisoners, in a sudden move, were shifted at around 1 am to jails in Ballari and Belagavi for allegedly trying to voice their grievances.

The commission observed that the allegations of physical torture of the prisoners and their overnight transfer to other jails in an injured condition, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of their right to life and dignity.

It issued notices to Karnataka Director General of Police (DGP) and Inspector General (IG), Prisons, asking them to file within four weeks a detailed report on the allegations, along with a note on the current location and health condition of the "injured and shifted" prisoners.

"It need not be restated that a prisoner is not a slave of the State and is not denude of his fundamental rights while in judicial custody," the release said.

Allegedly, the prisoners were meted out this "inhuman" treatment because of their bid to stage a dharna inside the jail premises as they were not allowed to speak to (then) DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had visited the jail, it added.

DIG Roopa had recently flagged certain "grave irregularities" inside the Central Jail, including providing a sophisticated kitchen to one of the prisoners, (AIADMK Amma chief) V Sasikala, and VIP treatment to another prisoner, Abdul Karim Lala Telgi, the release said.

The issue of alleged preferential treatment to Sasikala, serving a four-year term in a disproportionate assets case, came to the fore after Roopa submitted a report to her superior, DGP (Prisons) H N Sathyanarayana Rao.

Both DIG Roopa and DGP Rao were transferred after they sparred over the report in public.

The government has also ordered a probe by a retired official into the allegations.

The release said that according to the complaint, the 32 prisoners were allegedly shifted in a hasty manner in order to avoid any disclosure to the inquiry officer.

 

Review: In Jails, Illegality Is the Norm

BY MAHTAB ALAM

 

Sunetra Choudhury‘s Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous highlights how different jail experiences can be depending on who you are and what you can pay.

 

When I met Santosh Yadav, a journalist from Bastar, for an early morning breakfast in Delhi a few weeks ago, he looked happy. There was a sense of relief and freedom in his eyes. Yadav had been recently released on bail after 17 months of imprisonment. He was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police in September 2015 from his village Darbha in Bastar. At the time of his arrest, Yadav used to report for two Hindi local dailies, the Navbharat and Chhattisgarh. He was accused of being a Maoist supporter and charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and other laws pertaining to crimes ranging from rioting, criminal conspiracy, murder, criminal intimidation and with being a part of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), among the other alleged offences. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on February 26 this year, after his earlier bail petitions were rejected by the lower courts.

As soon as he started narrating his jail experiences, he assumed a different persona altogether. There was a sense of intense gloom and despair in his eyes. “What I saw and went through in jail was beyond my imagination,” he said, adding that “I used to think aisa angrezon ke samay hi hota hoga (things like this could have only happened during colonial rule).” Yadav said he was severely tortured and even kept in solitary confinement during his incarceration, apart from routine beatings by the other inmates on the instructions of the jail officials. Listening to Yadav was like re-reading journalist Iftikhar Gilani’s jail memoir, My Days in Prison. Gilani had been jailed in June 2002 on the charges of possessing ‘classified documents’ and booked under the draconian Official Secrets Act. The only evidence presented was a report he had downloaded from the internet. Eventually, he was discharged. In his memoir, Gilani writes, “I was beaten up many times while inside the prison. For 41 days, I worked as a labourer…”

Not everyone goes through the trials and tribulations that Yadav and Gilani underwent. Jail can be quite a ‘haven’ for some, depending primarily on one’s socio-economic background and political influence, irrespective of how grave the charges or the crimes committed. In fact, it’s possible that the graver the nature of the alleged crime, the better the facilities you can avail. All, of course, through illegal means. Unfortunately, in jails, illegality is the norm.

Sunetra Choudhury’s book Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous tells us how all of this is possible. In so doing, she gives us a glimpse of the underground and parallel economy of jails across the country. Based on extensive secondary research and detailed interviews with people who have spent time in jail as well as those who have worked in or on jails, Choudhury presents a series of stories which are nothing short of eye-opening – dare I say, even eye-popping – in their revelations.

Choudhury profiles the incarceration of 13 people who are either in jail or were at one point of time. While the book mostly concentrates on describing famous people in prison, it does cover others as well. Among the former are politicians Amar Singh, A. Raja and Pappu Yadav, the arms dealer Abhishek Verma’s wife, Anca Verma, CEO Peter Mukherjea and Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy. Businessman Subrata Roy of Sahara also finds a brief mention in the introduction.

Narrating her meeting with Roy, Choudhury writes:

“After walking through a long corridor inside the Chandragupta suite [at the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi] that had been used by heads of state, and after passing a room that only had his shoes, I was ushered into a sitting room with Roy. He was very polite and spoke to me in Bangla, appreciating my work as I’m sure his secretary may have briefed him. Someone brought in some mishit doi and sandesh. As soon as I took out my notebook he said, ‘Listen, don’t include me in this book of yours. I’m not a criminal.’ I told him that not everyone featured in my book would be a criminal. Many would be those wrongly accused of crimes which led them to unfairly spend long years in custody. ‘But I am different. There isn’t even an FIR against me,’ he clarified.”

Roy was given VIP treatment during his jail term. In fact, as the author informs us, he paid a whopping Rs 1.23 crore for the facilities that he received in Tihar. He lived like a king even in jail.

Unbelievable and ridiculous as it may sound, the sad reality is, in the words of Anca Verma, “If you steal 1,000 rupees, the hawaldar will beat the shit out of you and lock you up in in a dungeon with no bulb or ventilation. If you steal 55,000 crore rupees then you get to stay in a 40-foot cell which has four split units, internet, fax, mobile phones and a staff of ten to clean your shoes and cook you food.” This singular quote from the book speaks volumes about the privileges and deprivation faced by people in jails, given their money power and political connections. It also tells us about the rotten nature of our criminal justice system. However, as the author notes, “special treatment in jail is, of course, not a new phenomenon.” She draws our attention towards the case of the infamous Charles Sobhraj. However, what is striking is how, over a period of time, a new normal of ‘super’ special treatment for a certain type of jail inmate has been drawn into our discourse.

Among the most tragic and lesser-known stories is the one of Rehmana. Hers is a clear case of guilt by association. Now out of jail, she is the wife of Pakistani national, Arif who is currently on death row for being an operative of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba convicted in the Red Fort attack case. Though there are several unanswered questions about Arif being an operative of the LeT and his involvement in the attack, Rehmana and her entire family suffer for the crime. “Don’t write their names,” Rehmana requested the author when she met her for an interview.

“Rehmana’s aware that she’s already created considerable problems for everyone associated with her. One of her sisters, a government school teacher in Bhopal, is afraid that Rehmana has spoilt her daughter’s chances of getting a good match. Her brother, a year younger than Rehmana, is still mentally disturbed by all that had happened. Rehmana may have married Arif but they were all hauled to the police station for one night in December. And that night’s nightmare is still too scary for them to emerge from.”

The story of the transgender bar dancer Khushi Sheikh as well as that of the school teacher and a once terror accused Wahid Sheikh are nothing short of horrifying. In both these cases, the perpetrators are those who are entrusted by law to protect the lives and liberties of the people – the police. Referring to Wahid’s case, the author confesses that “Even after two decades of reporting, his account gave me sleepless nights. I realised how in daily journalism we err in relying too much on what authorities say, in not questioning the prosecution agency.”

“Wahid stands acquitted after a decade in jail yet there is no compensation for the time he has lost, for the wounds that he bore from prison. Wahid has given real names of his tormentors, not just to me, but to courts and judges. All of them are decorated police officers—A. N. Roy, K. P. Raghuvanshi, Vijay Salaskar. You can’t dismiss his words because he (Wahid was not convicted) and the others who have been convicted can show you a Mumbai High Court judgement which upholds how they were beaten in jail, their rights violated and then denied medical treatment.”

Though the author regrets not having been able to include the stories of politician M.K. Kanimozhi, IPS officer R. K. Sharma and actress Monica Bedi, one feels that she could have tried including some of the most important stories of those who are either still lodged in jail or have spent years in the prisons of central Indian states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. Stories of people like Soni Sori, Linga Kodopi and Jiten Marandi would have enriched the book. Nevertheless, it is a well-researched book and should be read widely and translated into Indian languages.

 

Jailed for Over a Year, Chhattisgarh Journalist Santosh Yadav Granted Bail

BY THE WIRE STAFF

 

Bastar-based Santosh Yadav had been jailed in September 2015 by the Chhattisgarh police who accused him of having links with Naxals and of involvement in operations against the security forces.

 

Chhattisgarh journalist Santosh Yadav was granted bail by the Supreme Court, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced in a tweet. Yadav was arrested in September 2015 by the state police under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act for “associating with a terrorist organisation” and “supporting and aiding terrorist groups”.

Yadav, a Bastar-based freelance journalist, was arrested on September 29, 2015, after Chhattisgarh Police Special Task Force Commander Mahant Singh had said he saw him standing behind a Maoist fighter during an ambush in Darbha in August of that year. The district police echoed Singh’s claims, accusing Yadav of being a Maoist sympathiser; the superintendent also announced that Yadav was suspected of having links with Shankar, a Maoist leader in the area. However, Singh later “expressed inability to identify the accused with certainty”, according to an identification parade memo dated January 1, 2016.

Described as a fearless writer by fellow journalists, Yadav has contributed stories to various Hindi dailies including Dainik Navbharat, Patrika and Dainik Chhattisgarh, reporting on human rights violations in Bastar. Yadav often introduced the family members of those arrested by state police forces to the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, a lawyers’ collective that offered free legal services to victims of police excesses. Journalists and activists across the country protested following Yadav’s arrest.

Yadav had served as a point of contact and verification for other reporters writing Bastar, which has been described as a media blackhole, with journalists subjected to routine threats, intimidation, and harassment by both Maoists and the police.

In the chargesheet filed by the Chhattisgarh Police on February 17, 2016, Yadav was charged under various sections of the Arms Act 1959 and the Explosive Substances Act 1908. He was also charged under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA) and the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA), both of which are anti-terrorism legislations.

Sudha Bharadwaj, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, told Scroll.in that the UAPA and the CSPSA are “widely held as draconian as the ‘unlawful activity’ laid down in these Acts are vague and so broad as to be highly amenable to gross abuse and arbitrary and unreasonable action by the state police and administration”.

Yadav’s case points to the broader issue of dwindling press freedom in India, coupled with increasing rates of violence against journalists. In its report published in December 2016, the CPJ had said Yadav was the only Indian journalist to be imprisoned because of his work. According to the 2016 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India ranks abysmally low at 133 among 180 countries, The Hindu reported.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems indifferent to these threats and problems, and there is no mechanism for protecting journalists,” the RSF report asserted.

 

Prosecute  Sanjay  Dutt  under  TADA 

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/prosecute-sanjay-dutt-under-tada  ,

Revoke Bail of Salman Khan

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/revoke-bail-of-salman-khan ,

 

Aeroplane Rides for Corrupt Police Corrupt Judges

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/aeroplane-rides-for-corrupt-police-corrupt-judges  ,

 

Traitors  in  Judiciary &  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police  ,

 

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/crimes-by-khaki 

 

FIRST  Answer  Judges  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/336585411/FIRST-Answer-Judges-Police 

 

 

In ‘safe’ custody

 

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, throws light on custodial torture

 

In-custody torture, though illegal under law, is often resorted too, worldwide, making it one of worst forms of human rights violations. Meenakshi Ganguly, former Time journalist and now, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, takes up a few questions here to address the subject. Excerpts:

Do you think India should also come out with an official report documenting in-custody torture as the U.S. Senate recently did on CIA's secret torture program?

Torture and other ill-treatment are absolutely forbidden under universally applicable international laws. Most that defend torture argue, as was done by the CIA, that harsh methods are necessary when there is great danger to public security. They speak of the ‘ticking bomb.’ In fact, any experienced interrogator would agree that using torture is not effective because it can produce inaccurate intelligence or generate false leads. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program shows that not only was the CIA torture far more brutal and harsh than previously admitted, it was not an effective means of producing valuable or useful intelligence. Repeated claims that the program was necessary to protect Americans turned out to be false.

India has prepared a draft bill seeking to prohibit torture. But as long as there is a culture of impunity, where public officials are protected from prosecution, the law will fail.

Some argue that our judiciary already has enough checks and balances to protect prisoners from abuse. Do you agree with it?

Indian law does not allow confessions to the police as evidence because there is concern that such confessions might be coerced. Under POTA, confessions to the police were permitted, and eventually the law was repealed because it was abused.

Although most police will argue that “third degree” is generally discouraged, in our discussions with the police we also found that it is the most used instrument in their non-existent toolkit. Overworked, where good work is seldom rewarded, junior level staff is expected to produce prompt results — and they do so by rounding up suspects and beating them, hoping to solve the case. Inevitably, they end up with false leads, often make wrong arrests and are unable to secure convictions due to lack of evidence. Poor witness protection and harassment to witnesses also means that they do not want to get involved in a long drawn out trial.

The senior officer level police complain of undue pressure from politicians and powerful figures, who can act as patrons to criminals, demanding they be protected from arrest and prosecution. Instead of upholding the law, it is the police that end up breaking it. The Supreme Court has ruled that the government must engage in police reform. This is crucial to ensure that police in India becomes an effective and accountable force. The judiciary rightly acquits people for lack of evidence. But if police does not receive the training to gather proper evidence, it also means that criminals can get away, while innocents suffer wrongful Muslim, calling me a traitor arrests, torture, and lengthy under trial detention. It also leads to an even more frightening outcome — where the police do not have evidence to convict, they decide to be both judge and executioner, doling out punishment that can range from slaps to extrajudicial killings, or fake encounters.

What vital points does HRW’s in-custody torture report of 2011 throw up?

We found that there is urgent need to implement reforms to the criminal justice system. The police in India operates as it did under colonial rule. We found that fear of police is a barrier to seeking justice. Women and children, victims of sexual attacks, said they feared further abuse if they did venture into a police station. Dalits complain that if they muster the courage to complain, they often find that the victims are made to sit on the floor outside while the upper caste perpetrators are served tea by the officer. Muslims complain of being held in suspicion.

The constabulary and the police station is often the only State presence available to the public, and it is not a pleasant experience. Many policemen agreed that they are often rude and harsh, but they also point to their own frustration, having to deal with a range of issues from domestic violence to communal riots, often because the civil administration simply fails to do its part inimplementing policy. We found police stations with desktop computers, but no electricity or even a trained operator, forget access to data and information. At some places, the residential quarters were shocking. Policemen said they are accused of demanding money when they have to travel a distance in rural areas to investigate a complaint, but said there was a shortage of vehicles or funds to pay for fuel. On the other hand, we found that many State governments are yet to establish independent and effective human rights commissions or set up a complaints authority to investigate police abuse.

Don’t we have guidelines to prevent custodial torture?

The Supreme Court and the NHRC have laid down guidelines. Unfortunately, they are routinely ignored. That is why there is such a strong demand to seek the repeal of AFSPA to be replaced by one that has stronger human rights protections. The law provides widespread powers, but protects soldiers when those powers are abused.

In the investigation of terror attacks, police have made mistakes, often due to the use of torture. The Andhra Pradesh Minorities Rights Commission, for instance, found the wrongful use of torture and recommended compensations. In one case in Orissa, we had a man tell us that he was beaten by the police so severely, his leg was fractured. In agony, when the police continued to hit his injured leg, he blurted out the names of his office colleagues, who were then arrested and tortured. All of them were charged under the counter terror laws as members of the banned Maoist groups. Eventually, they were found to be innocent by the courts.

India is yet to sign the UN Convention Against Torture. Will it help?

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had even permitted UN special rapporteurs on torture to visit their countries but reports of in-custody torture continue to pour in from such countries. Police often say that human rights impose restrictions when tough measures are needed for tough challenges. Unfortunately, any compromise is only going to lead to bad outcomes.When the State allows, even rewards, its security forces to violate the fundamental principles of the Constitution, it rarely turns out well. It leads to corruption at the very least. It can also turn policemen into killers for hire, or as a military court discovered recently, lead soldiers to kill innocents for profit.

In Sri Lanka, we have documented torture including sexual abuse of suspected LTTE supporters and sympathisers. In Bangladesh, the Rapid Action Battalion was created as a counter-terror force, but instead has repeatedly been accused of extrajudicial executions. People want to feel safe. However, we often find that denial of rights can cause security challenges, but the continued violation of human rights aggravates the situation, leading to a cycle of violence and placing innocents at risk.

 

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2  No  761,HUDCO FIRST STAGE ,

OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL ,MYSURU – 570017  KARNATAKA  INDIA

 

Cell : 91 8970318202

 

Home page :  

 http://evoiceforjustice.dalitonline.in/  ,

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https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/indians--diary  ,

https://indiansdiary1.blogspot.in/ ,

https://in.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/indiansdiary/info ,

https://naghrw.tripod.com/ ,

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Secure  Mail :  Naag@torbox3uiot6wchz.onion ,    

Ban Beef ?

Dalit’s  Diary -  Weekly  Newspaper  On  Web  

Working  For  The  Rights  &  Survival  Of  The Oppressed

Editor: NAGARAJA.M.R… VOL.11 issue.28…… . 19  / 07 / 2017

 

 

 

 

SHOCKING  IMAGES :  Dark  Side  of   Eating  Meat

ADULTS  ONLY     Watch video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCPNRsYij3o&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLCPNRsYij3o&has_verified=1  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KezHKbUzy0A ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuW4lwa6FRI  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf6vGNaCxgc  ,

 

Editorial  :  Dalits , Muslims & Cow Slaughter

-          An  Appeal  to  H.E.President  of  India

 

       Bigger stronger animal  feeds  on smaller weak animal.  Law of Nature.  In the same way , all over the world  in a particular area or  a  country stronger majority community   subjugates  the weak , smaller communities.  

       Since  centuries  dalits  were subjugated into doing menial jobs  and   their livelihood depended on whatever  was thrown  at  them.  Civilizations  dawned , people  became civilized in their  outlook , but deep inside  uncivilized , animal  resides in many people.

     There are good as well as bad people in all communities, religions & all walks of life.  Whenever  a terrorist  strike  happens ,  Muslims  are blamed.  For all miseries  in India , Dalits are blamed.  Just imagine  if there was no barber , how civilized a person will be without hair cutting ?  Just think there is no  sweeper   to clean drainage line ,  how   houses , roads will be  full of excreta , human rejections , how stinky &  disease prone it will be ? 

    Dalits are doing yeoman   commendable  service  to society ,  keeping  all the others in a civilized manner  in a healthy environment. Nobody recognizes their service.  Since centuries , dalits were entrusted with the job of removing carcass of cattles, it was not their choice, it was  mandated by majority community at that time. Being utterly poor ,  dalits  depended on  cattle meat for food and  used  bones , hides for footwear , etc. .  Now , few individuals  all of a sudden  are trying to turn upside down , this centuries old practice and  cow vigilantes are attacking  dalits. Few are taking law into their hands.  What  three  great  acharyas – Sri Shankaracharya , Sri Ramanujacharya , Sri  Madhwacharya  failed to achieve , what  Sri Gowthama Buddha ,  Sri Mahaveera  failed to achieve  stopping animal killing , now cow vigilantes are trying to achieve  the same with violence.

    Say , after two decades  few  groups , individuals will proclaim everybody must stop eating vegetarian food . Then  can  all veggies  turn into non veg , not feasible.   With regards to certain section of society eating non veg is a taboo , with others  non veg with exclusion of beef , pork is ok. Food is the choice of individual.

   Now ,  let us see the facts  for practical way forward :

1.      Since centuries Dalits  are in the  profession of  cow slaughter not by choice , but by compulsion of times.

2.      Since centuries  dalits &   others   are eating beef as it is cheaper than other meat.

3.      Cows  are  holy  for hindus equivalent to mother herself  and equivalent to god.  Cow products are  used since centuries in  hindu religious rituals.

4.      In rural house holds , when a  mother dies while delivering baby or  when  a mother  cann’t breast feed baby due to lack of milk  , COW in the  house hold becomes  a  surrogate  mother for the baby. Baby  feeds , lives on cow’s  milk.

5.      Inspite of such great respect  many hindu  folk  sell  old  , barren , diseased cows  to muslim or dalit   buyers  knowing  fully  well  that  buyer cann’t  get milk from  the cow  only he can get meat & hide from slaughtering it. Some  hindu  folk  drive away  old , diseased , barren cows  from their home. It is same as driving away old , diseased mother  , deserting our own mother.

6.      In  many Islamic  countries , jewish  countries    pig  meat /  pork  is banned ,  hindus  & Christians  who go to such countries for job / business   abide  by  laws  of Islamic countries.  They give up eating pork although way back in their home countries  they consume pork.

 

Practical Way  Forward :

1.      Banning cow slaughter , beef   is ok in national interest ,  in the  interest of religious sentiments of a community.

2.      Government must provide alternate food items to consumers at affordable prices than beef.

3.      Government  must  extend helping hand to Dalits , Muslims who are  in cow slaughter trade to switch over to other business.

4.      Government  must  charge sheet the seller of  cows , deserter of cows  not merely transporter  , buyer  or  the  butcher.

5.      Government must discourage farmers  from rearing cattles when they are incapable of  looking after old cattles.

6.      Government must educate people  about reducing  milk products consumption; When Milk  products consumption reduces automatically  rearing of cattle reduces.

7.      Most important of all ,  when  a pork  eating  Indian  goes to  Saudi Arabia  on job assignment and  lives  there for two decades. When he can  simply  give up pork , follow the rule of pork ban and change his dietary habbits ,  why cann’t others  reciprocate the same here with respect to beef ban.

8.      Government must adopt a way of educating  people about good dietary habbits  rather than policy  of stick.

9.      Cow vigilantes who take law into their own hands instead of reporting to authorities must be legally prosecuted.

10. Government must  set up   FREE  Cow sheds with  adequate fodder  supplies  all over the country on urgent basis to accommodate orphaned cows , diseased cows and old cows.  If government fails  to set up  it proves it’s  vanity.

 

Bottomline :  As per scientific studies , human beings digestive system has evolved to digest  vegetarian food  not non vegetarian food.  Choice is left to consumers.

 

 

India tops in cow slaughterhouse and most slaughtering are doing Hindus

By SKN WEB - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 

 

India tops in cow slaughterhouse and most slaughtering are doing Hindus. Recently I just came to know about the slaughterhouse rank in India, and most slaughtering are doing Hindus. After Brazil India is second highest, below is a pathetic story about slaughterhouse processes. Here India’s largest al Kabeer slaughterhouse taken in. I am not sure about the authenticity of this write-up, please being verified yourself.

 

Al-Kabeer exports Pvt.Ltd. Rudraram Village, Andhra Pradesh, Patancheru, Medak, Hyderabad – 500 033.

 

 Do you know that the biggest cow slaughterhouse (cow killing factory) in the WORLD is located just 30 km from Hyderabad in “Rudraram village” near Patancheru. It is called Alkabir in built nearly 400 acres of land with High security and most workers are Hindus. The story of Al-Kabir Hyderabad Tyranny: Don’t think that these animals are killed easily and painlessly. Their agonies start along before they are dead. They are brought to Alkair in trucks, from far away distances for economy, 20-25 huge buffalo are stacked up in each truck. Nobody cares to feed them food, or even water while in transit. They are packed so tightly in the truck, that they are hurt by each other. By the time they arrive, they are no more capable of standing on their own feet! They are moved with force of whips…

They are brought into the final ground, where at least a thousand animals are stored. This is their last open air. They are kept here for four days, hungry and thirsty. Then their legs are broken and eyes poked, so that a ‘Certificate’ can be obtained about their uselessness. The hunger and thirst of four days cause the hemoglobin to move from blood in to fat. The meat with higher hemoglobin fetches better prices. 

Now these animals are pushed into washing showers. Extremely hot water (200 degrees centigrade!) is sprayed on them for five minutes, to soften their skins, so they will be easy to remove. The animal’s faints at this point, but it is not dead yet. Now it is hung upside down with one leg, on a chain-pulley conveyor. Then half of the neck is slit. This drains the blood, but does not kill the animal. After death, the skin swells thick, which sells for a poor price. But the skin of live Animals is still thin, which has better economic value. On one side the blood is dripping from the neck, and on the other side a hole is made in stomach, from which air is pumped inside. This causes the body to swell, making it easier to peel the skin. After removing the leather, the animal is cut into four pieces: head, legs, body, and tail.

 

 The machines remove bones, and pack small pieces of meat into cans for shipping to Alkabir’s headquarters in Hyderabad. From there it is shipped to Mumbai for exporting to its final destination. Working! Most of the people working here are Hindus. The Director, Subhash Sabarwal, is an NRI in Dubai, and his brother, Satish Sabarwal, manages the plant. The other principals are Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (Dubai), Dilip Himmat Kothari, B.N. Raman, etc. Even though the main workers on cutting machines are from Kerala and Muslims from Mumbai, the administration, security, etc. consists mainly of Hindus.

 

There are several other equally large (or large) plants in India, owned and operated similarly by NRI’s and Arab citizens in cooperation. The people working here are paid very handsomely. This is a big attraction. A monthly salary of Rs. 50,000 to 75,000 is common. At the site, there are many veterinarians, but their job is not to save healthy live. Their only concern is to see that the meat does not carry any germs which may hurt the customers. In fact, there is a small army of government veterinarians, whose job is to see that healthy and useful animals do not get butchered. But these corrupt officials write false certificates according to wishes of Alkabir. You cannot easily enter Alkabir, because outside people are not allowed in there. Even the local veterinarians and police cannot go inside, so there is no question about the other local poor people even coming close to its boundaries…Security is tightened at nights with hunting dogs. Now the neighboring people do not even come close to it.

 

SECONDLY

·         Beef exports up 44% in 4 years, India is top seller - The Times of India

·         Beef exports up 44% in 4 years, India is top seller - The Center's Pink Revolution to promote meat production and export has led to a 44% increase in meat consumption and export in four years, but it has failed to regulate...

 

THIRDLY

World Beef Exports: Ranking Of Countries

·         World Beef Exports: Ranking Of Countries Four (4) countries exported more than 1.1 million metric tons of beef in 2013: Brazil, India, Australia & the United States.

 

 World | 9,165,000 
Rank      Country                2013                      % Of World
1.            Brazil                    1,849,000             20.17%
2.            India                     1,765,000             19.26% 
3.            Australia              1,593,000             17.38% 
4.            United States     1,172,000             12.79%
5.            New Zealand      529,000                 5.77 

 

AGAINST CRUELTY IN INHUMAN SLAUGHTERHOUSES

 

"...Everyday millions of people go to McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken and enjoy a juicy hamburger or consume a crispy, golden-fried chicken. Billions of families around the world eat meat and share laughs together over the dinner table. But, what goes on behind the closed doors of slaughterhouses before producers deliver perfectly packaged meat to our grocery stores? 

Employees of Kentucky Fried Chicken, one of the biggest fast-food chains of poultry, were caught in July 2004, torturing their chickens for fun. Workers were videoed stomping on chickens, kicking them, and slamming them violently against floors and walls. Workers also ripped the animals' beaks, twisted their heads off, spray-painted their faces, and squeezed the chickens' bodies until they would die.

Each year a person will consume 230 pounds of meat. Together, the world consumes 2.6 billion pounds of dairy cow a year. Eight billion animals a year are slaughtered for food. However, the conditions under which they are processed are brutal. For example, animals are supposed to have space when they are transported but instead they are packed together, not having any room to move, walk, and barely breathe. This causes many animals to become sick. Some die on the way. 

In fact, half a million animals a year that arrive at slaughterhouses are either dead or in unacceptable condition for slaughter. Many of the remaining animals have broken limbs. Even these are further injured when they are unloaded. 

Other forms of brutality include the "Halal method," where the animal's neck is slit in two and a half spots and, while conscious, allowed to bleed to death. A similar "method" is hanging the live, fully conscious animals upside down while their carotid arteries are cut. 

Once aware of these procedures, many fast-food fans are reconsidering their diets. "It is repulsive and sick what is being committed by humans to animals in the U.S.," said Ashley Coutier, a resident of Sparta. "It should be stopped as soon as possible." 

In 1960, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was passed, but unfortunately everyday laws are violated, and the truth needs come out. "I have heard about some of the things slaughterhouses do, but there are some things I just don't want to know and I am better off not knowing about," said Steve Snow, a sophomore at Sparta High School..."

http://media.www.tchnews.com/media/storage/paper840/news/2008/03/10/News/Animal.Cruelty.In.Slaughterhouses-3259951.shtml

"...A wise woman named Linda McCartney once said, %u201CIf slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone in the world would be a vegetarian%u201D.

This is one of the truest statements ever made. If people thought about or saw what really happens to animals in slaughterhouses for more than a second, it would get to them and they would not be able to bring themselves to still be a carnivore. Those animals endure some of the cruelest treatment and neglect. Also, slaughterhouses are kept in the most unsanitary conditions and violate more laws then almost any other business. The slaughter of animals for human consumption should be banned.

First of all, the statistics show it would benefit land, animals%u2019 lives, and the grain and food supply if we stopped eating meat. Each person consumes 230 pounds of animals each year. Together we consume 2.6 billion pounds of dairy cow a year. There has been an increase in the amount of animals we consume and how much grain it%u2019s taking to feed them. Eight billion animals a year are slaughtered for food. [Ed. note: In 2002 the total was ten billion.]

The breakdown of each animal that is slaughtered is 38 million cows and calves, 95 million hogs, 5 million sheep and goats, 278 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, and over 7 billion chickens. The average cow should live 20 years but because they are not allowed to have a normal life and they are just raised to be slaughtered, the average life expectancy is 6 to 8 years, and sometimes even then the cows only live to 14 months. The amount of animals that are raised annually for slaughter is 30 times more then the total human population in the US, and more then the number of humans in the world.

Twenty years ago livestock consumed 6% of Mexico%u2019s grain and today they consume nearly 50%, and in Canada 77% of their grain is used to raise livestock. If American countries alone would reduce their meat consumption by just 10% that would save enough grain to feed 60 million people. The reality is it takes 4 acres of land to feed a meat eater, but only 1/2 an acre or less to feed a vegetarian. On 1/2 an acre of land 10,000lbs of apples and 20,000lbs of potatoes can be grown successfully into food. Only 100lbs of beef can be raised on that. Over a lifetime, a vegetarian will save 21 cows, 14 sheep, 12 hogs, and 1400 chickens from being slaughtered. They will also save 1 acre of trees a year from being cut down.

Slaughterhouses shouldn%u2019t be allowed to still be in operation. They have violated almost every restriction, law, and rule that has been placed on their industry. Almost everything added to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in 1960 is being violated. It%u2019s known that no matter what the animals condition is the butcher takes it into their own hands to make the most money possible. There are rules about loading and unloading that are broken every second. The animals are supposed to have space when they are transported but instead they are packed together like sardines.

There are rules about cruelty to animals such as no torturing or subjecting them to unnecessary pain and suffering, and no keeping them in cages that there is not sufficient room to go with their measurements. One of the biggest issues is that the animals are not supposed to be exposed to their own kind getting slaughtered, but they are constantly having to watch their own kind getting dragged mercilessly to their brutal death. It%u2019s also against the law to slaughter animals below 6 months, pregnant animals, sick animals, and young animals who are supplying milk. A slaughterhouse in Texas had 22 violations during a period of 6 months. During one of those inspections there were 9 live cattle found dangling from an overhead chain. Yet this is how slaughterhouses operate over and over again each day. It doesn%u2019t help that cases against them are usually not pursued because venturing deep into slaughterhouses is not an idea liked by officials. Transporting animals should be like transporting a human, each one having their own space and each one being reasonably taken care of.

However, if people were treated like the livestock while riding a bus or any other kind of transportation, many people would be facing serious charges. Just because it is abuse to an animal and not a human doesn%u2019t mean any less should be done about it. Animals are packed and pressed together so close into vehicles that they can%u2019t move and can barley breathe. A lot of times just in the process of loading the animals they will trample each other to death and blind one another with their horns. The law states that in that process they should have food, water, veterinary services, and protection from natural elements (wind, rain, fire, etc.). That is the care that any living thing should be entitled too. Those poor animals don%u2019t ever get to see a drop of any of those things though. While getting an animal from a distant place into the city where they are loaded, the animals are sometimes made to run there.

No matter what the whether conditions are. Red chili powder is put in their eyes in order to force them to run faster. They are beaten and severely tortured just to accomplish getting them to a destination. Sometimes the drivers of the vehicles make fast turns and stops that causes the animals to get knocked around and injured. The animals fall on each other which causes suffocation and more broken bones. When it finally comes down to unloading the animals, the condition they are in is appalling. Half a million animals a year that arrive at slaughterhouses are dead or in unacceptable condition for slaughter. Other animals are half dead but are still just picked up and thrown down on the concrete. Many have broken limbs but are further injured when they are getting unloaded. The handlers don%u2019t bother with kindness or care because they figure they are going to face the butchers knife anyway.

While keeping the animals before it%u2019s their time to be slaughtered they endure a series of inhumane procedures and treatment. PETA described what they witnessed one morning at a slaughterhouse %u201CBy 10:00 a.m. there were already more than a dozen downed cattle. One bull kept trying to rise to his feet but could not. He struggled before collapsing under the scorching sun, blood oozing out of his nose; his legs and horns broken.%u201D This is one example of what someone saw, but there are things that happen like that every day.

There is also a videotape that was secretly set up in an Iowa pork plant that caught live hogs squealing and kicking as they were being lowered into a tank of water. Unfortunately, there are things that are more unbelievable then that which happen and have not been caught on tape yet. However, even though it%u2019s not captured on tape we do know some other things that happen in slaughterhouses. Some of the treatment includes the use of electric prods, castration with no anesthetic, branding and tail docking with no pain relief, and hot iron de-horning with no pain relief. The de-horning involves pressing scorching heat onto the calves horns for a full 30 seconds then repeating it on the other side for another 30 seconds. Also, de-beaking with no pain relief. For that they use hot glue guns or cigarette lighters to cut through bone, cartilage, and tissue of the birds. In a different part of the slaughter house there may be birds that are alive and dangling by their feet on metal hooks. Electricity stuns them as they roll on the line for the neck blade to come down and kill them. Other handling that the animals are subjected to is the hens are forced into a schedule that restricts their water for 2 weeks and cows are limited to 2 milkings a day, when they are supposed to have 6. The average life span of a hen is 16 years but with what they endure in slaughterhouses it%u2019s shortened to 18 months. Roosters aren%u2019t that lucky, they are gassed right away and their remains are sent to rendering plants. Others don%u2019t get to be put out of their misery so fast.

There are animals that have their legs broken or hacked off so they can%u2019t run away. Some animals who are incapacitated are left laying around for days, suffering much neglect. If they%u2019re left laying outside long enough, a number of them freeze to death in the winter and fry to death in the summer. Many of the animals suffer the equivalent to that when they are dragged with chains and pushed with tractors, causing torn ligaments and broken bones.

The way in which the animals are slaughtered is tragic. The animals suffer copious amounts of pain and are sometimes alive and alert when they are being slaughtered. Every animal is supposed to be separated from others, be rendered unconscious, and then be slaughtered. They are not supposed to be dragged by their legs, ears, and horns. However, that usually is how it is done.

There are a few methods of slaughtering that are practiced, and not one is humane and how it%u2019s supposed to be done. One is decapitating the animal. Another is the Halal method where the neck is slit in 2 1/2 spots while they are conscious and that forces them to bleed to death. In that case the animal is alive and aware that they are severely bleeding and they are in excruciating pain. Burying an animal%u2019s head in the ground is not a common practice but it is still used. That way they are suffocated to death. One of the most mortifying ways of slaughtering is %u201Csticking a long iron rod through the anal opening, through the body, and making it emerge through the mouth%u201D.

All the while the animal, usually a pig, is squealing endlessly. Sometimes there is not even that much effort put into slaughtering the animal and they will just burn them to death. Cattle are many times stunned in the head with a steel bolt, their throats are slit, then they are left laying around to bleed to death. The bleeding method is used when they want the least damage to the carcass as possible. The animal is cut in a place where they will bleed the fastest. One man that has worked in a slaughterhouse says %u201CThey blink. They make noises. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around%u201D. He watches animals die a slow and painful death everyday when the animals are perfectly alive and conscious. He also said, %u201CSome would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, and the hide puller. They die, piece by piece". Many animals do make it as far as being skinned when they are still living and feeling pain to the fullest.

Last of all, slaughterhouses do the least proficient job of cleaning up after animals are killed. It would be bad enough living near a slaughterhouse, but many neighbors say the worst thing is not the thought. They are constantly inhaling the nauseating stench each and every day. Neighbors also have entrails, skin, joints, and blood being dropped onto their property. Birds of prey get a hold of the barley disposed remains, fly away with them, then drop it on the near by people%u2019s land. There are usually rivers of blood flowing around the slaughterhouses and sometimes make it as far as to where the neighbors can see or smell it. The bones are boiled on the slaughter house premise which causes them to create further pollution and stench. The skins are sitting around outside in piles, sometimes for long periods of time, waiting for the tanneries to come pick them up. In unsanitary towns the carcasses are transported around with out being frozen. The water flowing through slaughterhouses go through treatment tanks like public sewers and then they end up spilling into creeks and rivers, generating more pollution. A number of slaughter houses have been ordered to add more washers and thorouly clean up. The evidence shows that many have not followed that order because the swelling of the rivers have not gone down yet.

Slaughterhouses have no right to be doing what they are doing. They perform every operation illegally. They don%u2019t give the animals food, water, shelter, veterinary services, or humane treatment. There is a pile of violations on them and yet they still continue to break more laws. Then on top of that they cause pollution and a disturbance to their surrounding neighbors. For some reason they think that in their industry they are allowed to make their own rules and do business however they please.

We need to show them that that%u2019s not allowed by shutting them down right away.

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-aninsidelook.html

SOLUTIONS WE REQUIRE (THESE OR BETTER):

 

"First, rules must be clear so that enforcement is not an inherently subjective process prone to mistakes and abuse. In particular, the downer loophole must be closed. ...The current flawed rule depends on plant workers summoning a USDA inspector back to reevaluate an animal who becomes nonambulatory after initial inspection, in order for the inspector to decide if the animal can be slaughtered, a system that seems bound to fail given the enormous pressure plant workers are under by their company superiors to move the maximum number of animals quickly to slaughter. This system creates financial incentives for precisely those abuses that we witnessed in the undercover footage....

 

"For the animals, removing current incentives that encourage workers to try every cruel tactic imaginable to move downers to the kill box would alleviate suffering. If crippled animals cannot be sold for food, slaughter plants have no reason to prolong their misery to try to get them through the slaughter process."

Temple Grandin, Professor, Colorado State University and author of Animals in Translation, testified, " I have worked for over 30 years to improve the treatment of animals at slaughter plants. Half the cattle and 25% of the pigs are handled in facilities I have designed. ...The recent video of dairy cows being tortured with a forklift made me sick. The abuse of cattle at this plant was 100% caused by a lack of employee supervision and a complete failure of the USDA inspectors. The Humane Slaughter Act prohibits dragging of crippled animals, and it was not enforced..... 

"[M]any of the ... regulations are vague and subject to different interpretations. Inspectors need better training and clear directives to improve consistency. It is impossible for different inspectors to be consistent when vague terminology is used such as %u2018unnecessary pain and suffering.'"

Grandin explained, "The present system of USDA inspection is like having traffic police giving out speeding tickets when they think cars are speeding. Police departments are able to enforce the speed limits in a uniform manner because the officer MEASURES a car's speed with radar. The decision to pull a car over is based on a measurement, not subjective judgment of speed. For other traffic rules such as being in the wrong lane, the rules are very clearly written so that the officers will interpret them the same way."

 

Grandin recommended clear bans on certain practices. She further recommended "animal based outcome standards [measured with] numerical scoring. For example, the percentage of animals that fall during handling can be caused by either a slick floor or rough handling by people. Falling is an outcome of bad equipment, poorly trained people, or very weak cows that should have never been brought to the plant. Measuring the percentage of cows that fall at a plant is a sensitive indicator of three different types of problems [which can then be corrected]. The percentage of cattle falling can never be zero, so falling cannot be banned, but it should be kept at a very low level."

 

Grandin developed a numerical scoring system during a survey in 1996 of slaughter plants.

 

Grandin concluded, "I recommend that the USDA adopt numerical scoring to make enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act more uniform and to uphold higher standards. Many progressive inspectors are already informally using it. For the practices that are prohibited, a handbook of very clear guidelines is needed for enforcement. It would list prohibited practices where there is a zero tolerance."

%u3000

http://www.animallawcoalition.com/farm-animals/article/492

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Brussels - The European Commission on Thursday called for new rules aimed at reducing animal suffering in Europe's butcheries.

Under the proposals, slaughterhouses should appoint a trained staffer responsible for ensuring that animals are being treated humanely.

Such a person would, among other things, have to ensure that animals which are stunned do not regain consciousness before they are slaughtered.

Manufacturers of stunning equipment would have to provide detailed instructions on how to stun animals, while European governments would have to create research centres tasked with assisting official inspectors.

"As a society we have a duty of care to animals, which includes minimising distress and avoiding pain throughout the slaughtering process," said EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.

Vassiliou's proposals, which are not likely to be approved by EU governments until next year, were welcomed by animal-rights groups.

"These proposals are a step in the right direction and will benefit millions of animals," said Sonja Van Tichelen of Eurogroup for Animals, a pressure group.

"It is unacceptable in a civilised society that animals have to suffer in their final moments. So much of their suffering can be avoided or decreased by having well-trained staff and by using appropriate stunning techniques," Van Tichelen said.

Groups representing meat traders and slaughterhouses said they still needed to study the proposals to find out whether such measures would result in higher production costs.

"A good cost-benefit analysis is necessary. Generally speaking we cannot be against measures that aim at protecting animals," said Jean-Luc Meriaux of the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union.

Officials in Brussels note that smaller slaughterhouses may be exempted from the new rules.

Nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle, as well as several billion poultry, are killed in EU slaughterhouses each year.

A further 25 million animals are slaughtered by the fur industry, according to commission figures.

To ensure fair competition, the commission's proposals would also apply to non-EU producers who export their products to member states. (dpa)

http://www.topnews.in/european-commission-seeks-more-humane-treatment-slaughterhouses-268693

%u3000

%u3000

 

EU wants welfare officers in slaughterhouses

Slaughterhouses throughout the EU could be obliged to appoint special officers for animal welfare who are to ensure that pigs, sheep, goats, cattle and poultry are humanely treated at the time of their killing, according to European Commission proposals unveiled on Thursday (18 October).

If approved by all 27 member states, the European Commission's proposal will "integrate welfare considerations into the design of slaughterhouses," requiring the killing techniques to be constantly monitored.

A cow restrained for stunning ahead of slaughter

Abattoirs will have to appoint a specific person responsible for animal welfare and ensure that their staff are properly trained and certified, although. Small slaughterhouses will be exempt from this requirement.

Every year, nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle as well as several billion chickens are killed in EU slaughterhouses for their meat. The EC proposal will also apply to the about 25 million animals killed for their fur.

"As a society we have a duty of care towards animals, which includes minimising distress and avoiding pain throughout the slaughtering process," EU health commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said.

"The current EU rules are outdated and need revision. This proposal will make a real difference to the way animals are treated at the time of slaughter, as well as promoting innovation and providing a level playing field for operators," she added.

Animal rights groups hailed the commission proposal.

Eurogroup for Animals spokesperson Steven Blaakman told EUobserver: "The commission made no mention of religious slaughter," pointing out that some countries such as France allow exceptions on religious grounds from having to stun an animal before it is killed. "There, a large amount of sheep meat comes from animals killed via religious slaughter," Mr Blaakman said, while Sweden permits no exceptions on religious grounds.

Enforcing the regulations in the new member states may be difficult however. Romania maintains a strong tradition of slaughtering pigs for Christmas in one's own back yard instead of at slaughterhouses.

 

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Dalits Muslims & Cow Slaughter

Indian’s  Diary - e-news weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.13..Issue.28........15 / 07 / 2017

 

 

SHOCKING  IMAGES :  Dark  Side  of   Eating  Meat

ADULTS  ONLY     Watch video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCPNRsYij3o&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLCPNRsYij3o&has_verified=1  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KezHKbUzy0A ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuW4lwa6FRI  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf6vGNaCxgc  ,

 

Editorial  :  Dalits , Muslims & Cow Slaughter

-          An  Appeal  to  H.E.President  of  India

 

       Bigger stronger animal  feeds  on smaller weak animal.  Law of Nature.  In the same way , all over the world  in a particular area or  a  country stronger majority community   subjugates  the weak , smaller communities.  

       Since  centuries  dalits  were subjugated into doing menial jobs  and   their livelihood depended on whatever  was thrown  at  them.  Civilizations  dawned , people  became civilized in their  outlook , but deep inside  uncivilized , animal  resides in many people.

     There are good as well as bad people in all communities, religions & all walks of life.  Whenever  a terrorist  strike  happens ,  Muslims  are blamed.  For all miseries  in India , Dalits are blamed.  Just imagine  if there was no barber , how civilized a person will be without hair cutting ?  Just think there is no  sweeper   to clean drainage line ,  how   houses , roads will be  full of excreta , human rejections , how stinky &  disease prone it will be ? 

    Dalits are doing yeoman   commendable  service  to society ,  keeping  all the others in a civilized manner  in a healthy environment. Nobody recognizes their service.  Since centuries , dalits were entrusted with the job of removing carcass of cattles, it was not their choice, it was  mandated by majority community at that time. Being utterly poor ,  dalits  depended on  cattle meat for food and  used  bones , hides for footwear , etc. .  Now , few individuals  all of a sudden  are trying to turn upside down , this centuries old practice and  cow vigilantes are attacking  dalits. Few are taking law into their hands.  What  three  great  acharyas – Sri Shankaracharya , Sri Ramanujacharya , Sri  Madhwacharya  failed to achieve , what  Sri Gowthama Buddha ,  Sri Mahaveera  failed to achieve  stopping animal killing , now cow vigilantes are trying to achieve  the same with violence.

    Say , after two decades  few  groups , individuals will proclaim everybody must stop eating vegetarian food . Then  can  all veggies  turn into non veg , not feasible.   With regards to certain section of society eating non veg is a taboo , with others  non veg with exclusion of beef , pork is ok. Food is the choice of individual.

   Now ,  let us see the facts  for practical way forward :

1.      Since centuries Dalits  are in the  profession of  cow slaughter not by choice , but by compulsion of times.

2.      Since centuries  dalits &   others   are eating beef as it is cheaper than other meat.

3.      Cows  are  holy  for hindus equivalent to mother herself  and equivalent to god.  Cow products are  used since centuries in  hindu religious rituals.

4.      In rural house holds , when a  mother dies while delivering baby or  when  a mother  cann’t breast feed baby due to lack of milk  , COW in the  house hold becomes  a  surrogate  mother for the baby. Baby  feeds , lives on cow’s  milk.

5.      Inspite of such great respect  many hindu  folk  sell  old  , barren , diseased cows  to muslim or dalit   buyers  knowing  fully  well  that  buyer cann’t  get milk from  the cow  only he can get meat & hide from slaughtering it. Some  hindu  folk  drive away  old , diseased , barren cows  from their home. It is same as driving away old , diseased mother  , deserting our own mother.

6.      In  many Islamic  countries , jewish  countries    pig  meat /  pork  is banned ,  hindus  & Christians  who go to such countries for job / business   abide  by  laws  of Islamic countries.  They give up eating pork although way back in their home countries  they consume pork.

 

Practical Way  Forward :

1.      Banning cow slaughter , beef   is ok in national interest ,  in the  interest of religious sentiments of a community.

2.      Government must provide alternate food items to consumers at affordable prices than beef.

3.      Government  must  extend helping hand to Dalits , Muslims who are  in cow slaughter trade to switch over to other business.

4.      Government  must  charge sheet the seller of  cows , deserter of cows  not merely transporter  , buyer  or  the  butcher.

5.      Government must discourage farmers  from rearing cattles when they are incapable of  looking after old cattles.

6.      Government must educate people  about reducing  milk products consumption; When Milk  products consumption reduces automatically  rearing of cattle reduces.

7.      Most important of all ,  when  a pork  eating  Indian  goes to  Saudi Arabia  on job assignment and  lives  there for two decades. When he can  simply  give up pork , follow the rule of pork ban and change his dietary habbits ,  why cann’t others  reciprocate the same here with respect to beef ban.

8.      Government must adopt a way of educating  people about good dietary habbits  rather than policy  of stick.

9.      Cow vigilantes who take law into their own hands instead of reporting to authorities must be legally prosecuted.

10. Government must  set up   FREE  Cow sheds with  adequate fodder  supplies  all over the country on urgent basis to accommodate orphaned cows , diseased cows and old cows.  If government fails  to set up  it proves it’s  vanity.

 

Bottomline :  As per scientific studies , human beings digestive system has evolved to digest  vegetarian food  not non vegetarian food.  Choice is left to consumers.

 

 

India tops in cow slaughterhouse and most slaughtering are doing Hindus

By SKN WEB - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 

 

India tops in cow slaughterhouse and most slaughtering are doing Hindus. Recently I just came to know about the slaughterhouse rank in India, and most slaughtering are doing Hindus. After Brazil India is second highest, below is a pathetic story about slaughterhouse processes. Here India’s largest al Kabeer slaughterhouse taken in. I am not sure about the authenticity of this write-up, please being verified yourself.

 

Al-Kabeer exports Pvt.Ltd. Rudraram Village, Andhra Pradesh, Patancheru, Medak, Hyderabad – 500 033.

 

 Do you know that the biggest cow slaughterhouse (cow killing factory) in the WORLD is located just 30 km from Hyderabad in “Rudraram village” near Patancheru. It is called Alkabir in built nearly 400 acres of land with High security and most workers are Hindus. The story of Al-Kabir Hyderabad Tyranny: Don’t think that these animals are killed easily and painlessly. Their agonies start along before they are dead. They are brought to Alkair in trucks, from far away distances for economy, 20-25 huge buffalo are stacked up in each truck. Nobody cares to feed them food, or even water while in transit. They are packed so tightly in the truck, that they are hurt by each other. By the time they arrive, they are no more capable of standing on their own feet! They are moved with force of whips…

They are brought into the final ground, where at least a thousand animals are stored. This is their last open air. They are kept here for four days, hungry and thirsty. Then their legs are broken and eyes poked, so that a ‘Certificate’ can be obtained about their uselessness. The hunger and thirst of four days cause the hemoglobin to move from blood in to fat. The meat with higher hemoglobin fetches better prices. 

Now these animals are pushed into washing showers. Extremely hot water (200 degrees centigrade!) is sprayed on them for five minutes, to soften their skins, so they will be easy to remove. The animal’s faints at this point, but it is not dead yet. Now it is hung upside down with one leg, on a chain-pulley conveyor. Then half of the neck is slit. This drains the blood, but does not kill the animal. After death, the skin swells thick, which sells for a poor price. But the skin of live Animals is still thin, which has better economic value. On one side the blood is dripping from the neck, and on the other side a hole is made in stomach, from which air is pumped inside. This causes the body to swell, making it easier to peel the skin. After removing the leather, the animal is cut into four pieces: head, legs, body, and tail.

 

 The machines remove bones, and pack small pieces of meat into cans for shipping to Alkabir’s headquarters in Hyderabad. From there it is shipped to Mumbai for exporting to its final destination. Working! Most of the people working here are Hindus. The Director, Subhash Sabarwal, is an NRI in Dubai, and his brother, Satish Sabarwal, manages the plant. The other principals are Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (Dubai), Dilip Himmat Kothari, B.N. Raman, etc. Even though the main workers on cutting machines are from Kerala and Muslims from Mumbai, the administration, security, etc. consists mainly of Hindus.

 

There are several other equally large (or large) plants in India, owned and operated similarly by NRI’s and Arab citizens in cooperation. The people working here are paid very handsomely. This is a big attraction. A monthly salary of Rs. 50,000 to 75,000 is common. At the site, there are many veterinarians, but their job is not to save healthy live. Their only concern is to see that the meat does not carry any germs which may hurt the customers. In fact, there is a small army of government veterinarians, whose job is to see that healthy and useful animals do not get butchered. But these corrupt officials write false certificates according to wishes of Alkabir. You cannot easily enter Alkabir, because outside people are not allowed in there. Even the local veterinarians and police cannot go inside, so there is no question about the other local poor people even coming close to its boundaries…Security is tightened at nights with hunting dogs. Now the neighboring people do not even come close to it.

 

SECONDLY

·         Beef exports up 44% in 4 years, India is top seller - The Times of India

·         Beef exports up 44% in 4 years, India is top seller - The Center's Pink Revolution to promote meat production and export has led to a 44% increase in meat consumption and export in four years, but it has failed to regulate...

 

THIRDLY

World Beef Exports: Ranking Of Countries

·         World Beef Exports: Ranking Of Countries Four (4) countries exported more than 1.1 million metric tons of beef in 2013: Brazil, India, Australia & the United States.

 

 World | 9,165,000 
Rank      Country                2013                      % Of World
1.            Brazil                    1,849,000             20.17%
2.            India                     1,765,000             19.26% 
3.            Australia              1,593,000             17.38% 
4.            United States     1,172,000             12.79%
5.            New Zealand      529,000                 5.77 

 

AGAINST CRUELTY IN INHUMAN SLAUGHTERHOUSES

 

"...Everyday millions of people go to McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken and enjoy a juicy hamburger or consume a crispy, golden-fried chicken. Billions of families around the world eat meat and share laughs together over the dinner table. But, what goes on behind the closed doors of slaughterhouses before producers deliver perfectly packaged meat to our grocery stores? 

Employees of Kentucky Fried Chicken, one of the biggest fast-food chains of poultry, were caught in July 2004, torturing their chickens for fun. Workers were videoed stomping on chickens, kicking them, and slamming them violently against floors and walls. Workers also ripped the animals' beaks, twisted their heads off, spray-painted their faces, and squeezed the chickens' bodies until they would die.

Each year a person will consume 230 pounds of meat. Together, the world consumes 2.6 billion pounds of dairy cow a year. Eight billion animals a year are slaughtered for food. However, the conditions under which they are processed are brutal. For example, animals are supposed to have space when they are transported but instead they are packed together, not having any room to move, walk, and barely breathe. This causes many animals to become sick. Some die on the way. 

In fact, half a million animals a year that arrive at slaughterhouses are either dead or in unacceptable condition for slaughter. Many of the remaining animals have broken limbs. Even these are further injured when they are unloaded. 

Other forms of brutality include the "Halal method," where the animal's neck is slit in two and a half spots and, while conscious, allowed to bleed to death. A similar "method" is hanging the live, fully conscious animals upside down while their carotid arteries are cut. 

Once aware of these procedures, many fast-food fans are reconsidering their diets. "It is repulsive and sick what is being committed by humans to animals in the U.S.," said Ashley Coutier, a resident of Sparta. "It should be stopped as soon as possible." 

In 1960, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was passed, but unfortunately everyday laws are violated, and the truth needs come out. "I have heard about some of the things slaughterhouses do, but there are some things I just don't want to know and I am better off not knowing about," said Steve Snow, a sophomore at Sparta High School..."

http://media.www.tchnews.com/media/storage/paper840/news/2008/03/10/News/Animal.Cruelty.In.Slaughterhouses-3259951.shtml

"...A wise woman named Linda McCartney once said, %u201CIf slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone in the world would be a vegetarian%u201D.

This is one of the truest statements ever made. If people thought about or saw what really happens to animals in slaughterhouses for more than a second, it would get to them and they would not be able to bring themselves to still be a carnivore. Those animals endure some of the cruelest treatment and neglect. Also, slaughterhouses are kept in the most unsanitary conditions and violate more laws then almost any other business. The slaughter of animals for human consumption should be banned.

First of all, the statistics show it would benefit land, animals%u2019 lives, and the grain and food supply if we stopped eating meat. Each person consumes 230 pounds of animals each year. Together we consume 2.6 billion pounds of dairy cow a year. There has been an increase in the amount of animals we consume and how much grain it%u2019s taking to feed them. Eight billion animals a year are slaughtered for food. [Ed. note: In 2002 the total was ten billion.]

The breakdown of each animal that is slaughtered is 38 million cows and calves, 95 million hogs, 5 million sheep and goats, 278 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, and over 7 billion chickens. The average cow should live 20 years but because they are not allowed to have a normal life and they are just raised to be slaughtered, the average life expectancy is 6 to 8 years, and sometimes even then the cows only live to 14 months. The amount of animals that are raised annually for slaughter is 30 times more then the total human population in the US, and more then the number of humans in the world.

Twenty years ago livestock consumed 6% of Mexico%u2019s grain and today they consume nearly 50%, and in Canada 77% of their grain is used to raise livestock. If American countries alone would reduce their meat consumption by just 10% that would save enough grain to feed 60 million people. The reality is it takes 4 acres of land to feed a meat eater, but only 1/2 an acre or less to feed a vegetarian. On 1/2 an acre of land 10,000lbs of apples and 20,000lbs of potatoes can be grown successfully into food. Only 100lbs of beef can be raised on that. Over a lifetime, a vegetarian will save 21 cows, 14 sheep, 12 hogs, and 1400 chickens from being slaughtered. They will also save 1 acre of trees a year from being cut down.

Slaughterhouses shouldn%u2019t be allowed to still be in operation. They have violated almost every restriction, law, and rule that has been placed on their industry. Almost everything added to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in 1960 is being violated. It%u2019s known that no matter what the animals condition is the butcher takes it into their own hands to make the most money possible. There are rules about loading and unloading that are broken every second. The animals are supposed to have space when they are transported but instead they are packed together like sardines.

There are rules about cruelty to animals such as no torturing or subjecting them to unnecessary pain and suffering, and no keeping them in cages that there is not sufficient room to go with their measurements. One of the biggest issues is that the animals are not supposed to be exposed to their own kind getting slaughtered, but they are constantly having to watch their own kind getting dragged mercilessly to their brutal death. It%u2019s also against the law to slaughter animals below 6 months, pregnant animals, sick animals, and young animals who are supplying milk. A slaughterhouse in Texas had 22 violations during a period of 6 months. During one of those inspections there were 9 live cattle found dangling from an overhead chain. Yet this is how slaughterhouses operate over and over again each day. It doesn%u2019t help that cases against them are usually not pursued because venturing deep into slaughterhouses is not an idea liked by officials. Transporting animals should be like transporting a human, each one having their own space and each one being reasonably taken care of.

However, if people were treated like the livestock while riding a bus or any other kind of transportation, many people would be facing serious charges. Just because it is abuse to an animal and not a human doesn%u2019t mean any less should be done about it. Animals are packed and pressed together so close into vehicles that they can%u2019t move and can barley breathe. A lot of times just in the process of loading the animals they will trample each other to death and blind one another with their horns. The law states that in that process they should have food, water, veterinary services, and protection from natural elements (wind, rain, fire, etc.). That is the care that any living thing should be entitled too. Those poor animals don%u2019t ever get to see a drop of any of those things though. While getting an animal from a distant place into the city where they are loaded, the animals are sometimes made to run there.

No matter what the whether conditions are. Red chili powder is put in their eyes in order to force them to run faster. They are beaten and severely tortured just to accomplish getting them to a destination. Sometimes the drivers of the vehicles make fast turns and stops that causes the animals to get knocked around and injured. The animals fall on each other which causes suffocation and more broken bones. When it finally comes down to unloading the animals, the condition they are in is appalling. Half a million animals a year that arrive at slaughterhouses are dead or in unacceptable condition for slaughter. Other animals are half dead but are still just picked up and thrown down on the concrete. Many have broken limbs but are further injured when they are getting unloaded. The handlers don%u2019t bother with kindness or care because they figure they are going to face the butchers knife anyway.

While keeping the animals before it%u2019s their time to be slaughtered they endure a series of inhumane procedures and treatment. PETA described what they witnessed one morning at a slaughterhouse %u201CBy 10:00 a.m. there were already more than a dozen downed cattle. One bull kept trying to rise to his feet but could not. He struggled before collapsing under the scorching sun, blood oozing out of his nose; his legs and horns broken.%u201D This is one example of what someone saw, but there are things that happen like that every day.

There is also a videotape that was secretly set up in an Iowa pork plant that caught live hogs squealing and kicking as they were being lowered into a tank of water. Unfortunately, there are things that are more unbelievable then that which happen and have not been caught on tape yet. However, even though it%u2019s not captured on tape we do know some other things that happen in slaughterhouses. Some of the treatment includes the use of electric prods, castration with no anesthetic, branding and tail docking with no pain relief, and hot iron de-horning with no pain relief. The de-horning involves pressing scorching heat onto the calves horns for a full 30 seconds then repeating it on the other side for another 30 seconds. Also, de-beaking with no pain relief. For that they use hot glue guns or cigarette lighters to cut through bone, cartilage, and tissue of the birds. In a different part of the slaughter house there may be birds that are alive and dangling by their feet on metal hooks. Electricity stuns them as they roll on the line for the neck blade to come down and kill them. Other handling that the animals are subjected to is the hens are forced into a schedule that restricts their water for 2 weeks and cows are limited to 2 milkings a day, when they are supposed to have 6. The average life span of a hen is 16 years but with what they endure in slaughterhouses it%u2019s shortened to 18 months. Roosters aren%u2019t that lucky, they are gassed right away and their remains are sent to rendering plants. Others don%u2019t get to be put out of their misery so fast.

There are animals that have their legs broken or hacked off so they can%u2019t run away. Some animals who are incapacitated are left laying around for days, suffering much neglect. If they%u2019re left laying outside long enough, a number of them freeze to death in the winter and fry to death in the summer. Many of the animals suffer the equivalent to that when they are dragged with chains and pushed with tractors, causing torn ligaments and broken bones.

The way in which the animals are slaughtered is tragic. The animals suffer copious amounts of pain and are sometimes alive and alert when they are being slaughtered. Every animal is supposed to be separated from others, be rendered unconscious, and then be slaughtered. They are not supposed to be dragged by their legs, ears, and horns. However, that usually is how it is done.

There are a few methods of slaughtering that are practiced, and not one is humane and how it%u2019s supposed to be done. One is decapitating the animal. Another is the Halal method where the neck is slit in 2 1/2 spots while they are conscious and that forces them to bleed to death. In that case the animal is alive and aware that they are severely bleeding and they are in excruciating pain. Burying an animal%u2019s head in the ground is not a common practice but it is still used. That way they are suffocated to death. One of the most mortifying ways of slaughtering is %u201Csticking a long iron rod through the anal opening, through the body, and making it emerge through the mouth%u201D.

All the while the animal, usually a pig, is squealing endlessly. Sometimes there is not even that much effort put into slaughtering the animal and they will just burn them to death. Cattle are many times stunned in the head with a steel bolt, their throats are slit, then they are left laying around to bleed to death. The bleeding method is used when they want the least damage to the carcass as possible. The animal is cut in a place where they will bleed the fastest. One man that has worked in a slaughterhouse says %u201CThey blink. They make noises. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around%u201D. He watches animals die a slow and painful death everyday when the animals are perfectly alive and conscious. He also said, %u201CSome would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, and the hide puller. They die, piece by piece". Many animals do make it as far as being skinned when they are still living and feeling pain to the fullest.

Last of all, slaughterhouses do the least proficient job of cleaning up after animals are killed. It would be bad enough living near a slaughterhouse, but many neighbors say the worst thing is not the thought. They are constantly inhaling the nauseating stench each and every day. Neighbors also have entrails, skin, joints, and blood being dropped onto their property. Birds of prey get a hold of the barley disposed remains, fly away with them, then drop it on the near by people%u2019s land. There are usually rivers of blood flowing around the slaughterhouses and sometimes make it as far as to where the neighbors can see or smell it. The bones are boiled on the slaughter house premise which causes them to create further pollution and stench. The skins are sitting around outside in piles, sometimes for long periods of time, waiting for the tanneries to come pick them up. In unsanitary towns the carcasses are transported around with out being frozen. The water flowing through slaughterhouses go through treatment tanks like public sewers and then they end up spilling into creeks and rivers, generating more pollution. A number of slaughter houses have been ordered to add more washers and thorouly clean up. The evidence shows that many have not followed that order because the swelling of the rivers have not gone down yet.

Slaughterhouses have no right to be doing what they are doing. They perform every operation illegally. They don%u2019t give the animals food, water, shelter, veterinary services, or humane treatment. There is a pile of violations on them and yet they still continue to break more laws. Then on top of that they cause pollution and a disturbance to their surrounding neighbors. For some reason they think that in their industry they are allowed to make their own rules and do business however they please.

We need to show them that that%u2019s not allowed by shutting them down right away.

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-aninsidelook.html

SOLUTIONS WE REQUIRE (THESE OR BETTER):

 

"First, rules must be clear so that enforcement is not an inherently subjective process prone to mistakes and abuse. In particular, the downer loophole must be closed. ...The current flawed rule depends on plant workers summoning a USDA inspector back to reevaluate an animal who becomes nonambulatory after initial inspection, in order for the inspector to decide if the animal can be slaughtered, a system that seems bound to fail given the enormous pressure plant workers are under by their company superiors to move the maximum number of animals quickly to slaughter. This system creates financial incentives for precisely those abuses that we witnessed in the undercover footage....

 

"For the animals, removing current incentives that encourage workers to try every cruel tactic imaginable to move downers to the kill box would alleviate suffering. If crippled animals cannot be sold for food, slaughter plants have no reason to prolong their misery to try to get them through the slaughter process."

Temple Grandin, Professor, Colorado State University and author of Animals in Translation, testified, " I have worked for over 30 years to improve the treatment of animals at slaughter plants. Half the cattle and 25% of the pigs are handled in facilities I have designed. ...The recent video of dairy cows being tortured with a forklift made me sick. The abuse of cattle at this plant was 100% caused by a lack of employee supervision and a complete failure of the USDA inspectors. The Humane Slaughter Act prohibits dragging of crippled animals, and it was not enforced..... 

"[M]any of the ... regulations are vague and subject to different interpretations. Inspectors need better training and clear directives to improve consistency. It is impossible for different inspectors to be consistent when vague terminology is used such as %u2018unnecessary pain and suffering.'"

Grandin explained, "The present system of USDA inspection is like having traffic police giving out speeding tickets when they think cars are speeding. Police departments are able to enforce the speed limits in a uniform manner because the officer MEASURES a car's speed with radar. The decision to pull a car over is based on a measurement, not subjective judgment of speed. For other traffic rules such as being in the wrong lane, the rules are very clearly written so that the officers will interpret them the same way."

 

Grandin recommended clear bans on certain practices. She further recommended "animal based outcome standards [measured with] numerical scoring. For example, the percentage of animals that fall during handling can be caused by either a slick floor or rough handling by people. Falling is an outcome of bad equipment, poorly trained people, or very weak cows that should have never been brought to the plant. Measuring the percentage of cows that fall at a plant is a sensitive indicator of three different types of problems [which can then be corrected]. The percentage of cattle falling can never be zero, so falling cannot be banned, but it should be kept at a very low level."

 

Grandin developed a numerical scoring system during a survey in 1996 of slaughter plants.

 

Grandin concluded, "I recommend that the USDA adopt numerical scoring to make enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act more uniform and to uphold higher standards. Many progressive inspectors are already informally using it. For the practices that are prohibited, a handbook of very clear guidelines is needed for enforcement. It would list prohibited practices where there is a zero tolerance."

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http://www.animallawcoalition.com/farm-animals/article/492

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Brussels - The European Commission on Thursday called for new rules aimed at reducing animal suffering in Europe's butcheries.

Under the proposals, slaughterhouses should appoint a trained staffer responsible for ensuring that animals are being treated humanely.

Such a person would, among other things, have to ensure that animals which are stunned do not regain consciousness before they are slaughtered.

Manufacturers of stunning equipment would have to provide detailed instructions on how to stun animals, while European governments would have to create research centres tasked with assisting official inspectors.

"As a society we have a duty of care to animals, which includes minimising distress and avoiding pain throughout the slaughtering process," said EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.

Vassiliou's proposals, which are not likely to be approved by EU governments until next year, were welcomed by animal-rights groups.

"These proposals are a step in the right direction and will benefit millions of animals," said Sonja Van Tichelen of Eurogroup for Animals, a pressure group.

"It is unacceptable in a civilised society that animals have to suffer in their final moments. So much of their suffering can be avoided or decreased by having well-trained staff and by using appropriate stunning techniques," Van Tichelen said.

Groups representing meat traders and slaughterhouses said they still needed to study the proposals to find out whether such measures would result in higher production costs.

"A good cost-benefit analysis is necessary. Generally speaking we cannot be against measures that aim at protecting animals," said Jean-Luc Meriaux of the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union.

Officials in Brussels note that smaller slaughterhouses may be exempted from the new rules.

Nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle, as well as several billion poultry, are killed in EU slaughterhouses each year.

A further 25 million animals are slaughtered by the fur industry, according to commission figures.

To ensure fair competition, the commission's proposals would also apply to non-EU producers who export their products to member states. (dpa)

http://www.topnews.in/european-commission-seeks-more-humane-treatment-slaughterhouses-268693

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%u3000

 

EU wants welfare officers in slaughterhouses

Slaughterhouses throughout the EU could be obliged to appoint special officers for animal welfare who are to ensure that pigs, sheep, goats, cattle and poultry are humanely treated at the time of their killing, according to European Commission proposals unveiled on Thursday (18 October).

If approved by all 27 member states, the European Commission's proposal will "integrate welfare considerations into the design of slaughterhouses," requiring the killing techniques to be constantly monitored.

A cow restrained for stunning ahead of slaughter

Abattoirs will have to appoint a specific person responsible for animal welfare and ensure that their staff are properly trained and certified, although. Small slaughterhouses will be exempt from this requirement.

Every year, nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle as well as several billion chickens are killed in EU slaughterhouses for their meat. The EC proposal will also apply to the about 25 million animals killed for their fur.

"As a society we have a duty of care towards animals, which includes minimising distress and avoiding pain throughout the slaughtering process," EU health commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said.

"The current EU rules are outdated and need revision. This proposal will make a real difference to the way animals are treated at the time of slaughter, as well as promoting innovation and providing a level playing field for operators," she added.

Animal rights groups hailed the commission proposal.

Eurogroup for Animals spokesperson Steven Blaakman told EUobserver: "The commission made no mention of religious slaughter," pointing out that some countries such as France allow exceptions on religious grounds from having to stun an animal before it is killed. "There, a large amount of sheep meat comes from animals killed via religious slaughter," Mr Blaakman said, while Sweden permits no exceptions on religious grounds.

Enforcing the regulations in the new member states may be difficult however. Romania maintains a strong tradition of slaughtering pigs for Christmas in one's own back yard instead of at slaughterhouses.

 

DECLARATION

 

Name : ...........................NAGARAJA.M.R.

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Owner/editor/printer/publisher : NAGARAJA.M.R.

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Body Donation : Physical Body of Nagaraja M R , Editor ,  Indian’s  Diary  is donated to JSS Medical College , Mysore             ( Donation No. 167 dated 22 / 10 / 2003 ) , In case of either Unnatural death or Natural Death at the hands of criminal nexus , my body must be handed over to JSS Medical College , Mysore for the study purposes of medical students.

Eye Donation : Both EYES of Nagaraja M R , Editor ,  Indian’s  Diary  are donated to Mysore Eye Bank , Mysore , In case of either Unnatural death or Natural Death at the hands of criminal nexus , my eyes must be handed over to Mysore Eye Bank , Mysore WITHIN 6 Hours for immediate eye transplantation to the needy.

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It is the duty of Supreme Court of India to Protect , Guard the constitutional rights , fundamental rights of every Indian citizen . Since 25 years  I am  appealing  to SCI  about  issues concerning public welfare , national security , etc and as a result suffering injustices , my constitutional rights , human rights are repeatedly violated  but SCI is mum even when repeated appeals were made to it. Paradoxically , after these appeals for justice , I have suffered more injustices , attempts on my life were made ,  physically assaulted , livelihood  / jobs were  denied , news publication closed , press accreditation denied ,  received threatening  calls , blank calls, even to date  rough elements follow us , rough elements  scout  near home at mid night. Does  not these indicate some ties between rough elements & SCI  Judges ?

 

Public Interest Litigation is an appeal  for justice  to the courts , to redress  the injustices meted out to  the public.  Individual cases of injustices  pertaining to an individual are not covered under PIL, however  an individual an activist  who  is fighting for public causes  suffering  injustices  as a result of   his struggle  ,caused by powers that be to silence him  can club  his individual case under the public causes  (PIL ) he is  appealing.

 

Nowadays people of questionable character , integrity  are being selected to public posts , end result is present day india.  In the following web sites I have shown  few actual cases of crimes by judges & police , just imagine what type of justice common man gets.

Traitors  in   Indian  Judiciary & Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://www.scribd.com/document/334590032/Crimes-by-Khaki  ,

Police show full bravery , courage , use  full might of law while acting against innocents , commoners. Even  takes suo motto action. Frequently crosses legal limits  while acting against commoners like 3^rd degree torture , arrest / search  , seizure without warrant , arrest in mid night , etc . While they are supposed to take action against rich crooks , their own corrupt colleagues  no suo motto action , delayed action inspite of complaint  allowing time for rich crook to get anticipatory bail , no 3^rd degree torture on him , no arrest , search , seizure without warrant. Where is the bravery , courage of police ?

Judges show their full wisdom , apply rigid law book while  judging cases of commoners , take suo motto action  where as  cases involving rich crooks comes before them inspite of repeated PILs they don’t consider it , let alone take suo motto action. Judges make far fetched interpretations of law , ultimately benefitting the rich crook. Where is the wisdom of Judges ?

I ,NAGARAJA.M.R. hereby do declare that information given above are true to the best of my knowledge & belief. If i am repeatedly called to police station or else where for the sake of investigations , the losses i do incurr as a result like loss of wages , transportation , job , etc must be borne by the government. prevoiusly the police / IB personnel repeatedly called me the complainant (sufferer of injustices) to police station for questioning , but never called the guilty culprits , rich crooks , criminals even once to police station for questioning , as the culprits are high & mighty . this type of one sided questioning must not be done by police or investigating agencies . if anything untoward happens to me or to my family members like loss of job , meeting with hit & run accidents , loss of lives , death due to improper medical care , etc , the jurisdictional police together with above mentioned accussed public servants will be responsible for it. Even if criminal nexus levels fake charges , police file fake cases against me or my dependents to silence me , this complaint is & will be effective.

Powers that  be , higher ups have referred all my previous cases to police although in most of the cases  police don’t  have jurisdiction over it.  It  sends  a subtle message by police force to  the  complainant  to keep silent . In the remaining cases  which are under their jurisdiction police  don’t act against higher ups , high & mighty. In such cases police lack  practical powers , their hands are tied although they  are  honest.  As a end result , police  have repeatedly called   me to police station  number of  times  ( have never called guilty  influential persons even once)  took  statement  from  me and closed  the files.

 

Hereby , I do make it clear  the statements made by me  in my original petitions , PILs , news papers  , etc  while I was in  a free & fair atmosphere  are  TRUE  , over rides , prevails over all the statements made by me before police  earlier and  which will be made by me  in future before police.

 

If I or my family members or my dependents are denied our fundamental rights , human rights , denied proper medical care for ourselves , If anything untoward happens to me or to my dependents or to my family members – In such case Chief Justice of India together with the jurisdictional revenue & police officials will be responsible for it , in such case the government of india is liable to pay Rs. TWO crore as compensation to survivors of my family. if my whole family is eliminated by the criminal nexus ,then that compensation money must be donated to Indian Army Welfare Fund. Afterwards , the money must be recovered by GOI as land arrears from the salary , pension , property , etc of guilty police officials , Judges , public servants & Constitutional functionaries.

 

date :  08.07.2017…………………………..Your’s sincerely,

place : India……………………………………Nagaraja.M.R.

 

 

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2  No  761,HUDCO FIRST STAGE ,

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Dalits Muslims & Cow Slaughter

Indian’s  Diary - e-news weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.13..Issue.28........15 / 07 / 2017

 

 

SHOCKING  IMAGES :  Dark  Side  of   Eating  Meat

ADULTS  ONLY     Watch video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCPNRsYij3o&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLCPNRsYij3o&has_verified=1  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KezHKbUzy0A ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuW4lwa6FRI  ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf6vGNaCxgc  ,

 

Editorial  :  Dalits , Muslims & Cow Slaughter

-          An  Appeal  to  H.E.President  of  India

 

       Bigger stronger animal  feeds  on smaller weak animal.  Law of Nature.  In the same way , all over the world  in a particular area or  a  country stronger majority community   subjugates  the weak , smaller communities.  

       Since  centuries  dalits  were subjugated into doing menial jobs  and   their livelihood depended on whatever  was thrown  at  them.  Civilizations  dawned , people  became civilized in their  outlook , but deep inside  uncivilized , animal  resides in many people.

     There are good as well as bad people in all communities, religions & all walks of life.  Whenever  a terrorist  strike  happens ,  Muslims  are blamed.  For all miseries  in India , Dalits are blamed.  Just imagine  if there was no barber , how civilized a person will be without hair cutting ?  Just think there is no  sweeper   to clean drainage line ,  how   houses , roads will be  full of excreta , human rejections , how stinky &  disease prone it will be ? 

    Dalits are doing yeoman   commendable  service  to society ,  keeping  all the others in a civilized manner  in a healthy environment. Nobody recognizes their service.  Since centuries , dalits were entrusted with the job of removing carcass of cattles, it was not their choice, it was  mandated by majority community at that time. Being utterly poor ,  dalits  depended on  cattle meat for food and  used  bones , hides for footwear , etc. .  Now , few individuals  all of a sudden  are trying to turn upside down , this centuries old practice and  cow vigilantes are attacking  dalits. Few are taking law into their hands.  What  three  great  acharyas – Sri Shankaracharya , Sri Ramanujacharya , Sri  Madhwacharya  failed to achieve , what  Sri Gowthama Buddha ,  Sri Mahaveera  failed to achieve  stopping animal killing , now cow vigilantes are trying to achieve  the same with violence.

    Say , after two decades  few  groups , individuals will proclaim everybody must stop eating vegetarian food . Then  can  all veggies  turn into non veg , not feasible.   With regards to certain section of society eating non veg is a taboo , with others  non veg with exclusion of beef , pork is ok. Food is the choice of individual.

   Now ,  let us see the facts  for practical way forward :

1.      Since centuries Dalits  are in the  profession of  cow slaughter not by choice , but by compulsion of times.

2.      Since centuries  dalits &   others   are eating beef as it is cheaper than other meat.

3.      Cows  are  holy  for hindus equivalent to mother herself  and equivalent to god.  Cow products are  used since centuries in  hindu religious rituals.

4.      In rural house holds , when a  mother dies while delivering baby or  when  a mother  cann’t breast feed baby due to lack of milk  , COW in the  house hold becomes  a  surrogate  mother for the baby. Baby  feeds , lives on cow’s  milk.

5.      Inspite of such great respect  many hindu  folk  sell  old  , barren , diseased cows  to muslim or dalit   buyers  knowing  fully  well  that  buyer cann’t  get milk from  the cow  only he can get meat & hide from slaughtering it. Some  hindu  folk  drive away  old , diseased , barren cows  from their home. It is same as driving away old , diseased mother  , deserting our own mother.

6.      In  many Islamic  countries , jewish  countries    pig  meat /  pork  is banned ,  hindus  & Christians  who go to such countries for job / business   abide  by  laws  of Islamic countries.  They give up eating pork although way back in their home countries  they consume pork.

 

Practical Way  Forward :

1.      Banning cow slaughter , beef   is ok in national interest ,  in the  interest of religious sentiments of a community.

2.      Government must provide alternate food items to consumers at affordable prices than beef.

3.      Government  must  extend helping hand to Dalits , Muslims who are  in cow slaughter trade to switch over to other business.

4.      Government  must  charge sheet the seller of  cows , deserter of cows  not merely transporter  , buyer  or  the  butcher.

5.      Government must discourage farmers  from rearing cattles when they are incapable of  looking after old cattles.

6.      Government must educate people  about reducing  milk products consumption; When Milk  products consumption reduces automatically  rearing of cattle reduces.

7.      Most important of all ,  when  a pork  eating  Indian  goes to  Saudi Arabia  on job assignment and  lives  there for two decades. When he can  simply  give up pork , follow the rule of pork ban and change his dietary habbits ,  why cann’t others  reciprocate the same here with respect to beef ban.

8.      Government must adopt a way of educating  people about good dietary habbits  rather than policy  of stick.

9.      Cow vigilantes who take law into their own hands instead of reporting to authorities must be legally prosecuted.

10. Government must  set up   FREE  Cow sheds with  adequate fodder  supplies  all over the country on urgent basis to accommodate orphaned cows , diseased cows and old cows.  If government fails  to set up  it proves it’s  vanity.

 

Bottomline :  As per scientific studies , human beings digestive system has evolved to digest  vegetarian food  not non vegetarian food.  Choice is left to consumers.

 

 

India tops in cow slaughterhouse and most slaughtering are doing Hindus

By SKN WEB - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 

 

India tops in cow slaughterhouse and most slaughtering are doing Hindus. Recently I just came to know about the slaughterhouse rank in India, and most slaughtering are doing Hindus. After Brazil India is second highest, below is a pathetic story about slaughterhouse processes. Here India’s largest al Kabeer slaughterhouse taken in. I am not sure about the authenticity of this write-up, please being verified yourself.

 

Al-Kabeer exports Pvt.Ltd. Rudraram Village, Andhra Pradesh, Patancheru, Medak, Hyderabad – 500 033.

 

 Do you know that the biggest cow slaughterhouse (cow killing factory) in the WORLD is located just 30 km from Hyderabad in “Rudraram village” near Patancheru. It is called Alkabir in built nearly 400 acres of land with High security and most workers are Hindus. The story of Al-Kabir Hyderabad Tyranny: Don’t think that these animals are killed easily and painlessly. Their agonies start along before they are dead. They are brought to Alkair in trucks, from far away distances for economy, 20-25 huge buffalo are stacked up in each truck. Nobody cares to feed them food, or even water while in transit. They are packed so tightly in the truck, that they are hurt by each other. By the time they arrive, they are no more capable of standing on their own feet! They are moved with force of whips…

They are brought into the final ground, where at least a thousand animals are stored. This is their last open air. They are kept here for four days, hungry and thirsty. Then their legs are broken and eyes poked, so that a ‘Certificate’ can be obtained about their uselessness. The hunger and thirst of four days cause the hemoglobin to move from blood in to fat. The meat with higher hemoglobin fetches better prices. 

Now these animals are pushed into washing showers. Extremely hot water (200 degrees centigrade!) is sprayed on them for five minutes, to soften their skins, so they will be easy to remove. The animal’s faints at this point, but it is not dead yet. Now it is hung upside down with one leg, on a chain-pulley conveyor. Then half of the neck is slit. This drains the blood, but does not kill the animal. After death, the skin swells thick, which sells for a poor price. But the skin of live Animals is still thin, which has better economic value. On one side the blood is dripping from the neck, and on the other side a hole is made in stomach, from which air is pumped inside. This causes the body to swell, making it easier to peel the skin. After removing the leather, the animal is cut into four pieces: head, legs, body, and tail.

 

 The machines remove bones, and pack small pieces of meat into cans for shipping to Alkabir’s headquarters in Hyderabad. From there it is shipped to Mumbai for exporting to its final destination. Working! Most of the people working here are Hindus. The Director, Subhash Sabarwal, is an NRI in Dubai, and his brother, Satish Sabarwal, manages the plant. The other principals are Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (Dubai), Dilip Himmat Kothari, B.N. Raman, etc. Even though the main workers on cutting machines are from Kerala and Muslims from Mumbai, the administration, security, etc. consists mainly of Hindus.

 

There are several other equally large (or large) plants in India, owned and operated similarly by NRI’s and Arab citizens in cooperation. The people working here are paid very handsomely. This is a big attraction. A monthly salary of Rs. 50,000 to 75,000 is common. At the site, there are many veterinarians, but their job is not to save healthy live. Their only concern is to see that the meat does not carry any germs which may hurt the customers. In fact, there is a small army of government veterinarians, whose job is to see that healthy and useful animals do not get butchered. But these corrupt officials write false certificates according to wishes of Alkabir. You cannot easily enter Alkabir, because outside people are not allowed in there. Even the local veterinarians and police cannot go inside, so there is no question about the other local poor people even coming close to its boundaries…Security is tightened at nights with hunting dogs. Now the neighboring people do not even come close to it.

 

SECONDLY

·         Beef exports up 44% in 4 years, India is top seller - The Times of India

·         Beef exports up 44% in 4 years, India is top seller - The Center's Pink Revolution to promote meat production and export has led to a 44% increase in meat consumption and export in four years, but it has failed to regulate...

 

THIRDLY

World Beef Exports: Ranking Of Countries

·         World Beef Exports: Ranking Of Countries Four (4) countries exported more than 1.1 million metric tons of beef in 2013: Brazil, India, Australia & the United States.

 

 World | 9,165,000 
Rank      Country                2013                      % Of World
1.            Brazil                    1,849,000             20.17%
2.            India                     1,765,000             19.26% 
3.            Australia              1,593,000             17.38% 
4.            United States     1,172,000             12.79%
5.            New Zealand      529,000                 5.77 

 

AGAINST CRUELTY IN INHUMAN SLAUGHTERHOUSES

 

"...Everyday millions of people go to McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken and enjoy a juicy hamburger or consume a crispy, golden-fried chicken. Billions of families around the world eat meat and share laughs together over the dinner table. But, what goes on behind the closed doors of slaughterhouses before producers deliver perfectly packaged meat to our grocery stores? 

Employees of Kentucky Fried Chicken, one of the biggest fast-food chains of poultry, were caught in July 2004, torturing their chickens for fun. Workers were videoed stomping on chickens, kicking them, and slamming them violently against floors and walls. Workers also ripped the animals' beaks, twisted their heads off, spray-painted their faces, and squeezed the chickens' bodies until they would die.

Each year a person will consume 230 pounds of meat. Together, the world consumes 2.6 billion pounds of dairy cow a year. Eight billion animals a year are slaughtered for food. However, the conditions under which they are processed are brutal. For example, animals are supposed to have space when they are transported but instead they are packed together, not having any room to move, walk, and barely breathe. This causes many animals to become sick. Some die on the way. 

In fact, half a million animals a year that arrive at slaughterhouses are either dead or in unacceptable condition for slaughter. Many of the remaining animals have broken limbs. Even these are further injured when they are unloaded. 

Other forms of brutality include the "Halal method," where the animal's neck is slit in two and a half spots and, while conscious, allowed to bleed to death. A similar "method" is hanging the live, fully conscious animals upside down while their carotid arteries are cut. 

Once aware of these procedures, many fast-food fans are reconsidering their diets. "It is repulsive and sick what is being committed by humans to animals in the U.S.," said Ashley Coutier, a resident of Sparta. "It should be stopped as soon as possible." 

In 1960, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was passed, but unfortunately everyday laws are violated, and the truth needs come out. "I have heard about some of the things slaughterhouses do, but there are some things I just don't want to know and I am better off not knowing about," said Steve Snow, a sophomore at Sparta High School..."

http://media.www.tchnews.com/media/storage/paper840/news/2008/03/10/News/Animal.Cruelty.In.Slaughterhouses-3259951.shtml

"...A wise woman named Linda McCartney once said, %u201CIf slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone in the world would be a vegetarian%u201D.

This is one of the truest statements ever made. If people thought about or saw what really happens to animals in slaughterhouses for more than a second, it would get to them and they would not be able to bring themselves to still be a carnivore. Those animals endure some of the cruelest treatment and neglect. Also, slaughterhouses are kept in the most unsanitary conditions and violate more laws then almost any other business. The slaughter of animals for human consumption should be banned.

First of all, the statistics show it would benefit land, animals%u2019 lives, and the grain and food supply if we stopped eating meat. Each person consumes 230 pounds of animals each year. Together we consume 2.6 billion pounds of dairy cow a year. There has been an increase in the amount of animals we consume and how much grain it%u2019s taking to feed them. Eight billion animals a year are slaughtered for food. [Ed. note: In 2002 the total was ten billion.]

The breakdown of each animal that is slaughtered is 38 million cows and calves, 95 million hogs, 5 million sheep and goats, 278 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, and over 7 billion chickens. The average cow should live 20 years but because they are not allowed to have a normal life and they are just raised to be slaughtered, the average life expectancy is 6 to 8 years, and sometimes even then the cows only live to 14 months. The amount of animals that are raised annually for slaughter is 30 times more then the total human population in the US, and more then the number of humans in the world.

Twenty years ago livestock consumed 6% of Mexico%u2019s grain and today they consume nearly 50%, and in Canada 77% of their grain is used to raise livestock. If American countries alone would reduce their meat consumption by just 10% that would save enough grain to feed 60 million people. The reality is it takes 4 acres of land to feed a meat eater, but only 1/2 an acre or less to feed a vegetarian. On 1/2 an acre of land 10,000lbs of apples and 20,000lbs of potatoes can be grown successfully into food. Only 100lbs of beef can be raised on that. Over a lifetime, a vegetarian will save 21 cows, 14 sheep, 12 hogs, and 1400 chickens from being slaughtered. They will also save 1 acre of trees a year from being cut down.

Slaughterhouses shouldn%u2019t be allowed to still be in operation. They have violated almost every restriction, law, and rule that has been placed on their industry. Almost everything added to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in 1960 is being violated. It%u2019s known that no matter what the animals condition is the butcher takes it into their own hands to make the most money possible. There are rules about loading and unloading that are broken every second. The animals are supposed to have space when they are transported but instead they are packed together like sardines.

There are rules about cruelty to animals such as no torturing or subjecting them to unnecessary pain and suffering, and no keeping them in cages that there is not sufficient room to go with their measurements. One of the biggest issues is that the animals are not supposed to be exposed to their own kind getting slaughtered, but they are constantly having to watch their own kind getting dragged mercilessly to their brutal death. It%u2019s also against the law to slaughter animals below 6 months, pregnant animals, sick animals, and young animals who are supplying milk. A slaughterhouse in Texas had 22 violations during a period of 6 months. During one of those inspections there were 9 live cattle found dangling from an overhead chain. Yet this is how slaughterhouses operate over and over again each day. It doesn%u2019t help that cases against them are usually not pursued because venturing deep into slaughterhouses is not an idea liked by officials. Transporting animals should be like transporting a human, each one having their own space and each one being reasonably taken care of.

However, if people were treated like the livestock while riding a bus or any other kind of transportation, many people would be facing serious charges. Just because it is abuse to an animal and not a human doesn%u2019t mean any less should be done about it. Animals are packed and pressed together so close into vehicles that they can%u2019t move and can barley breathe. A lot of times just in the process of loading the animals they will trample each other to death and blind one another with their horns. The law states that in that process they should have food, water, veterinary services, and protection from natural elements (wind, rain, fire, etc.). That is the care that any living thing should be entitled too. Those poor animals don%u2019t ever get to see a drop of any of those things though. While getting an animal from a distant place into the city where they are loaded, the animals are sometimes made to run there.

No matter what the whether conditions are. Red chili powder is put in their eyes in order to force them to run faster. They are beaten and severely tortured just to accomplish getting them to a destination. Sometimes the drivers of the vehicles make fast turns and stops that causes the animals to get knocked around and injured. The animals fall on each other which causes suffocation and more broken bones. When it finally comes down to unloading the animals, the condition they are in is appalling. Half a million animals a year that arrive at slaughterhouses are dead or in unacceptable condition for slaughter. Other animals are half dead but are still just picked up and thrown down on the concrete. Many have broken limbs but are further injured when they are getting unloaded. The handlers don%u2019t bother with kindness or care because they figure they are going to face the butchers knife anyway.

While keeping the animals before it%u2019s their time to be slaughtered they endure a series of inhumane procedures and treatment. PETA described what they witnessed one morning at a slaughterhouse %u201CBy 10:00 a.m. there were already more than a dozen downed cattle. One bull kept trying to rise to his feet but could not. He struggled before collapsing under the scorching sun, blood oozing out of his nose; his legs and horns broken.%u201D This is one example of what someone saw, but there are things that happen like that every day.

There is also a videotape that was secretly set up in an Iowa pork plant that caught live hogs squealing and kicking as they were being lowered into a tank of water. Unfortunately, there are things that are more unbelievable then that which happen and have not been caught on tape yet. However, even though it%u2019s not captured on tape we do know some other things that happen in slaughterhouses. Some of the treatment includes the use of electric prods, castration with no anesthetic, branding and tail docking with no pain relief, and hot iron de-horning with no pain relief. The de-horning involves pressing scorching heat onto the calves horns for a full 30 seconds then repeating it on the other side for another 30 seconds. Also, de-beaking with no pain relief. For that they use hot glue guns or cigarette lighters to cut through bone, cartilage, and tissue of the birds. In a different part of the slaughter house there may be birds that are alive and dangling by their feet on metal hooks. Electricity stuns them as they roll on the line for the neck blade to come down and kill them. Other handling that the animals are subjected to is the hens are forced into a schedule that restricts their water for 2 weeks and cows are limited to 2 milkings a day, when they are supposed to have 6. The average life span of a hen is 16 years but with what they endure in slaughterhouses it%u2019s shortened to 18 months. Roosters aren%u2019t that lucky, they are gassed right away and their remains are sent to rendering plants. Others don%u2019t get to be put out of their misery so fast.

There are animals that have their legs broken or hacked off so they can%u2019t run away. Some animals who are incapacitated are left laying around for days, suffering much neglect. If they%u2019re left laying outside long enough, a number of them freeze to death in the winter and fry to death in the summer. Many of the animals suffer the equivalent to that when they are dragged with chains and pushed with tractors, causing torn ligaments and broken bones.

The way in which the animals are slaughtered is tragic. The animals suffer copious amounts of pain and are sometimes alive and alert when they are being slaughtered. Every animal is supposed to be separated from others, be rendered unconscious, and then be slaughtered. They are not supposed to be dragged by their legs, ears, and horns. However, that usually is how it is done.

There are a few methods of slaughtering that are practiced, and not one is humane and how it%u2019s supposed to be done. One is decapitating the animal. Another is the Halal method where the neck is slit in 2 1/2 spots while they are conscious and that forces them to bleed to death. In that case the animal is alive and aware that they are severely bleeding and they are in excruciating pain. Burying an animal%u2019s head in the ground is not a common practice but it is still used. That way they are suffocated to death. One of the most mortifying ways of slaughtering is %u201Csticking a long iron rod through the anal opening, through the body, and making it emerge through the mouth%u201D.

All the while the animal, usually a pig, is squealing endlessly. Sometimes there is not even that much effort put into slaughtering the animal and they will just burn them to death. Cattle are many times stunned in the head with a steel bolt, their throats are slit, then they are left laying around to bleed to death. The bleeding method is used when they want the least damage to the carcass as possible. The animal is cut in a place where they will bleed the fastest. One man that has worked in a slaughterhouse says %u201CThey blink. They make noises. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around%u201D. He watches animals die a slow and painful death everyday when the animals are perfectly alive and conscious. He also said, %u201CSome would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, and the hide puller. They die, piece by piece". Many animals do make it as far as being skinned when they are still living and feeling pain to the fullest.

Last of all, slaughterhouses do the least proficient job of cleaning up after animals are killed. It would be bad enough living near a slaughterhouse, but many neighbors say the worst thing is not the thought. They are constantly inhaling the nauseating stench each and every day. Neighbors also have entrails, skin, joints, and blood being dropped onto their property. Birds of prey get a hold of the barley disposed remains, fly away with them, then drop it on the near by people%u2019s land. There are usually rivers of blood flowing around the slaughterhouses and sometimes make it as far as to where the neighbors can see or smell it. The bones are boiled on the slaughter house premise which causes them to create further pollution and stench. The skins are sitting around outside in piles, sometimes for long periods of time, waiting for the tanneries to come pick them up. In unsanitary towns the carcasses are transported around with out being frozen. The water flowing through slaughterhouses go through treatment tanks like public sewers and then they end up spilling into creeks and rivers, generating more pollution. A number of slaughter houses have been ordered to add more washers and thorouly clean up. The evidence shows that many have not followed that order because the swelling of the rivers have not gone down yet.

Slaughterhouses have no right to be doing what they are doing. They perform every operation illegally. They don%u2019t give the animals food, water, shelter, veterinary services, or humane treatment. There is a pile of violations on them and yet they still continue to break more laws. Then on top of that they cause pollution and a disturbance to their surrounding neighbors. For some reason they think that in their industry they are allowed to make their own rules and do business however they please.

We need to show them that that%u2019s not allowed by shutting them down right away.

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-aninsidelook.html

SOLUTIONS WE REQUIRE (THESE OR BETTER):

 

"First, rules must be clear so that enforcement is not an inherently subjective process prone to mistakes and abuse. In particular, the downer loophole must be closed. ...The current flawed rule depends on plant workers summoning a USDA inspector back to reevaluate an animal who becomes nonambulatory after initial inspection, in order for the inspector to decide if the animal can be slaughtered, a system that seems bound to fail given the enormous pressure plant workers are under by their company superiors to move the maximum number of animals quickly to slaughter. This system creates financial incentives for precisely those abuses that we witnessed in the undercover footage....

 

"For the animals, removing current incentives that encourage workers to try every cruel tactic imaginable to move downers to the kill box would alleviate suffering. If crippled animals cannot be sold for food, slaughter plants have no reason to prolong their misery to try to get them through the slaughter process."

Temple Grandin, Professor, Colorado State University and author of Animals in Translation, testified, " I have worked for over 30 years to improve the treatment of animals at slaughter plants. Half the cattle and 25% of the pigs are handled in facilities I have designed. ...The recent video of dairy cows being tortured with a forklift made me sick. The abuse of cattle at this plant was 100% caused by a lack of employee supervision and a complete failure of the USDA inspectors. The Humane Slaughter Act prohibits dragging of crippled animals, and it was not enforced..... 

"[M]any of the ... regulations are vague and subject to different interpretations. Inspectors need better training and clear directives to improve consistency. It is impossible for different inspectors to be consistent when vague terminology is used such as %u2018unnecessary pain and suffering.'"

Grandin explained, "The present system of USDA inspection is like having traffic police giving out speeding tickets when they think cars are speeding. Police departments are able to enforce the speed limits in a uniform manner because the officer MEASURES a car's speed with radar. The decision to pull a car over is based on a measurement, not subjective judgment of speed. For other traffic rules such as being in the wrong lane, the rules are very clearly written so that the officers will interpret them the same way."

 

Grandin recommended clear bans on certain practices. She further recommended "animal based outcome standards [measured with] numerical scoring. For example, the percentage of animals that fall during handling can be caused by either a slick floor or rough handling by people. Falling is an outcome of bad equipment, poorly trained people, or very weak cows that should have never been brought to the plant. Measuring the percentage of cows that fall at a plant is a sensitive indicator of three different types of problems [which can then be corrected]. The percentage of cattle falling can never be zero, so falling cannot be banned, but it should be kept at a very low level."

 

Grandin developed a numerical scoring system during a survey in 1996 of slaughter plants.

 

Grandin concluded, "I recommend that the USDA adopt numerical scoring to make enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act more uniform and to uphold higher standards. Many progressive inspectors are already informally using it. For the practices that are prohibited, a handbook of very clear guidelines is needed for enforcement. It would list prohibited practices where there is a zero tolerance."

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http://www.animallawcoalition.com/farm-animals/article/492

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Brussels - The European Commission on Thursday called for new rules aimed at reducing animal suffering in Europe's butcheries.

Under the proposals, slaughterhouses should appoint a trained staffer responsible for ensuring that animals are being treated humanely.

Such a person would, among other things, have to ensure that animals which are stunned do not regain consciousness before they are slaughtered.

Manufacturers of stunning equipment would have to provide detailed instructions on how to stun animals, while European governments would have to create research centres tasked with assisting official inspectors.

"As a society we have a duty of care to animals, which includes minimising distress and avoiding pain throughout the slaughtering process," said EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.

Vassiliou's proposals, which are not likely to be approved by EU governments until next year, were welcomed by animal-rights groups.

"These proposals are a step in the right direction and will benefit millions of animals," said Sonja Van Tichelen of Eurogroup for Animals, a pressure group.

"It is unacceptable in a civilised society that animals have to suffer in their final moments. So much of their suffering can be avoided or decreased by having well-trained staff and by using appropriate stunning techniques," Van Tichelen said.

Groups representing meat traders and slaughterhouses said they still needed to study the proposals to find out whether such measures would result in higher production costs.

"A good cost-benefit analysis is necessary. Generally speaking we cannot be against measures that aim at protecting animals," said Jean-Luc Meriaux of the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union.

Officials in Brussels note that smaller slaughterhouses may be exempted from the new rules.

Nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle, as well as several billion poultry, are killed in EU slaughterhouses each year.

A further 25 million animals are slaughtered by the fur industry, according to commission figures.

To ensure fair competition, the commission's proposals would also apply to non-EU producers who export their products to member states. (dpa)

http://www.topnews.in/european-commission-seeks-more-humane-treatment-slaughterhouses-268693

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EU wants welfare officers in slaughterhouses

Slaughterhouses throughout the EU could be obliged to appoint special officers for animal welfare who are to ensure that pigs, sheep, goats, cattle and poultry are humanely treated at the time of their killing, according to European Commission proposals unveiled on Thursday (18 October).

If approved by all 27 member states, the European Commission's proposal will "integrate welfare considerations into the design of slaughterhouses," requiring the killing techniques to be constantly monitored.

A cow restrained for stunning ahead of slaughter

Abattoirs will have to appoint a specific person responsible for animal welfare and ensure that their staff are properly trained and certified, although. Small slaughterhouses will be exempt from this requirement.

Every year, nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle as well as several billion chickens are killed in EU slaughterhouses for their meat. The EC proposal will also apply to the about 25 million animals killed for their fur.

"As a society we have a duty of care towards animals, which includes minimising distress and avoiding pain throughout the slaughtering process," EU health commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said.

"The current EU rules are outdated and need revision. This proposal will make a real difference to the way animals are treated at the time of slaughter, as well as promoting innovation and providing a level playing field for operators," she added.

Animal rights groups hailed the commission proposal.

Eurogroup for Animals spokesperson Steven Blaakman told EUobserver: "The commission made no mention of religious slaughter," pointing out that some countries such as France allow exceptions on religious grounds from having to stun an animal before it is killed. "There, a large amount of sheep meat comes from animals killed via religious slaughter," Mr Blaakman said, while Sweden permits no exceptions on religious grounds.

Enforcing the regulations in the new member states may be difficult however. Romania maintains a strong tradition of slaughtering pigs for Christmas in one's own back yard instead of at slaughterhouses.

 

DECLARATION

 

Name : ...........................NAGARAJA.M.R.

Address : ...................LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL , MYSORE - 570017 INDIA

Old  Professional / Trade Title : S.O.S - e – Voice For Justice

 

New  Professional / Trade Title :   Indian’s  Diary

 

Periodicity : WEEKLY

Circulation : FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION ON WEB

Donations : NOT ACCEPTED. Self financing . Never accepted any donations , subscriptions either for ourselves or on behalf of other organizations / individuals .

Monetary gains : nil , never made any monetary gain by way of advertisements on my websites or web news paper or otherwise.

Owner/editor/printer/publisher : NAGARAJA.M.R.

Nationality : INDIAN

Body Donation : Physical Body of Nagaraja M R , Editor ,  Indian’s  Diary  is donated to JSS Medical College , Mysore             ( Donation No. 167 dated 22 / 10 / 2003 ) , In case of either Unnatural death or Natural Death at the hands of criminal nexus , my body must be handed over to JSS Medical College , Mysore for the study purposes of medical students.

Eye Donation : Both EYES of Nagaraja M R , Editor ,  Indian’s  Diary  are donated to Mysore Eye Bank , Mysore , In case of either Unnatural death or Natural Death at the hands of criminal nexus , my eyes must be handed over to Mysore Eye Bank , Mysore WITHIN 6 Hours for immediate eye transplantation to the needy.

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It is the duty of Supreme Court of India to Protect , Guard the constitutional rights , fundamental rights of every Indian citizen . Since 25 years  I am  appealing  to SCI  about  issues concerning public welfare , national security , etc and as a result suffering injustices , my constitutional rights , human rights are repeatedly violated  but SCI is mum even when repeated appeals were made to it. Paradoxically , after these appeals for justice , I have suffered more injustices , attempts on my life were made ,  physically assaulted , livelihood  / jobs were  denied , news publication closed , press accreditation denied ,  received threatening  calls , blank calls, even to date  rough elements follow us , rough elements  scout  near home at mid night. Does  not these indicate some ties between rough elements & SCI  Judges ?

 

Public Interest Litigation is an appeal  for justice  to the courts , to redress  the injustices meted out to  the public.  Individual cases of injustices  pertaining to an individual are not covered under PIL, however  an individual an activist  who  is fighting for public causes  suffering  injustices  as a result of   his struggle  ,caused by powers that be to silence him  can club  his individual case under the public causes  (PIL ) he is  appealing.

 

Nowadays people of questionable character , integrity  are being selected to public posts , end result is present day india.  In the following web sites I have shown  few actual cases of crimes by judges & police , just imagine what type of justice common man gets.

Traitors  in   Indian  Judiciary & Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://www.scribd.com/document/334590032/Crimes-by-Khaki  ,

Police show full bravery , courage , use  full might of law while acting against innocents , commoners. Even  takes suo motto action. Frequently crosses legal limits  while acting against commoners like 3^rd degree torture , arrest / search  , seizure without warrant , arrest in mid night , etc . While they are supposed to take action against rich crooks , their own corrupt colleagues  no suo motto action , delayed action inspite of complaint  allowing time for rich crook to get anticipatory bail , no 3^rd degree torture on him , no arrest , search , seizure without warrant. Where is the bravery , courage of police ?

Judges show their full wisdom , apply rigid law book while  judging cases of commoners , take suo motto action  where as  cases involving rich crooks comes before them inspite of repeated PILs they don’t consider it , let alone take suo motto action. Judges make far fetched interpretations of law , ultimately benefitting the rich crook. Where is the wisdom of Judges ?

I ,NAGARAJA.M.R. hereby do declare that information given above are true to the best of my knowledge & belief. If i am repeatedly called to police station or else where for the sake of investigations , the losses i do incurr as a result like loss of wages , transportation , job , etc must be borne by the government. prevoiusly the police / IB personnel repeatedly called me the complainant (sufferer of injustices) to police station for questioning , but never called the guilty culprits , rich crooks , criminals even once to police station for questioning , as the culprits are high & mighty . this type of one sided questioning must not be done by police or investigating agencies . if anything untoward happens to me or to my family members like loss of job , meeting with hit & run accidents , loss of lives , death due to improper medical care , etc , the jurisdictional police together with above mentioned accussed public servants will be responsible for it. Even if criminal nexus levels fake charges , police file fake cases against me or my dependents to silence me , this complaint is & will be effective.

Powers that  be , higher ups have referred all my previous cases to police although in most of the cases  police don’t  have jurisdiction over it.  It  sends  a subtle message by police force to  the  complainant  to keep silent . In the remaining cases  which are under their jurisdiction police  don’t act against higher ups , high & mighty. In such cases police lack  practical powers , their hands are tied although they  are  honest.  As a end result , police  have repeatedly called   me to police station  number of  times  ( have never called guilty  influential persons even once)  took  statement  from  me and closed  the files.

 

Hereby , I do make it clear  the statements made by me  in my original petitions , PILs , news papers  , etc  while I was in  a free & fair atmosphere  are  TRUE  , over rides , prevails over all the statements made by me before police  earlier and  which will be made by me  in future before police.

 

If I or my family members or my dependents are denied our fundamental rights , human rights , denied proper medical care for ourselves , If anything untoward happens to me or to my dependents or to my family members – In such case Chief Justice of India together with the jurisdictional revenue & police officials will be responsible for it , in such case the government of india is liable to pay Rs. TWO crore as compensation to survivors of my family. if my whole family is eliminated by the criminal nexus ,then that compensation money must be donated to Indian Army Welfare Fund. Afterwards , the money must be recovered by GOI as land arrears from the salary , pension , property , etc of guilty police officials , Judges , public servants & Constitutional functionaries.

 

date :  08.07.2017…………………………..Your’s sincerely,

place : India……………………………………Nagaraja.M.R.

 

 

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2  No  761,HUDCO FIRST STAGE ,

OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL ,MYSURU – 570017  KARNATAKA  INDIA

 

Cell : 91 8970318202

 

Home page :  

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https://sites.google.com/site/indiansdiary/ ,

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PIL - Compensate Prisoners
Topic: human rights , media

S.O.S   e - Voice For Justice - e-news weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.13..Issue.27........08 / 07 / 2017

 

 

PIL –   Compensate  Prisoners  illegally  detained

An Appeal to Honourable Supreme Court of India , Karnataka High Court & National Human Rights Commission

 

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2017

 

 

IN THE MATTER OF

 

NAGARAJA . M.R

editor SOS e Clarion of Dalit & SOS e Voice for Justice

# LIG 2 , No 761 ,, HUDCO First Stage , Laxmikantanagar ,

Hebbal , Mysore – 570017 , Karnataka State

....Petitioner

 

Versus

 

Honourable Chief Secretary , Government of Karnataka & Others

....Respondents

 

PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 12 to ARTICLE 35 & ARTICLE 51A OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF A WRIT IN THE NATURE OF MANDAMUS UNDER ARTICLE 32 & ARTICLE 226 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.

 

To ,

Hon'ble The Chief Justice of India and His Lordship's Companion

Justices of the Supreme Court of India. The Humble petition of the

Petitioner above named.

 

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH :

 

1. Facts of the case:

 

"Power will go to the hands of rascals, , rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight among themselves for

power and will be lost in political squabbles . A day would come when even air & water will be taxed." Sir Winston made this statement in the House of Commons just before the independence of India & Pakistan. Sadly , the forewarning of Late Winston Churchill has been proved right by some of our criminal , corrupt public servants.

  Majority  of  prisoners  in  Indian  jails  belong  to   poor , minority , oppressed  sections of society and  2/3^rd  of  prison  population  comprises of undertrials.  Are  not  there any criminals  among rich , affluent  and forward castes , majority community ?  It  proves the bias , prejudice  of  police , establishment. There are  good  , honest  people  as  well as criminals  in  all castes , religions and all walks of life. There are deadly anti nationals , criminals among the police force , judiciary , parliament  , but due to their  caste , financial clout  escaping from conviction , legal prosecution.

    As  per  law , all citizens of india are equal.  However  under trials  ( who are innocents till proven guilty )  are discriminated in Indian jails.  Ordinary citizens / accused  are crammed in rooms resembling  pig stays . whereas  accused  from  rich / influential back grounds  are given separate rooms with cot , bed , television , news paper , etc.

   As  per  law , all citizens of india are equal.  A criminal is a criminal . However   Indian prison authorities discriminates here also.  Former ministers  who looted  crores of rupees from public  exchequer , corporate  persons  industrialists who have cheated public , public banks of crores of rupees are given royal treatment , get best food , health care where as an ordinary pick pocket , house burglar  are  treated like slaves , pigs don’t get proper food , health care.

   India Jail Manual   procedures differentiate prisoners based on their caste , social  background ,  while  allotting  prison cells , food , visitor facility , parole ,  mandatory work , recreation facilities - which in itself is illegal.

   Apart from this , corruption in Indian jails is rampant.  Prisoners with money , influence  get everything within  jail itself , mobile phone , drugs , fire arms , etc. some  mafia dons  run their empire from prison itself.

  Poor prisoners are tortured by  police , jail personnel and   criminals  within jails. Indian Jails are reform centre , where everyone should treated equally in all respects. By practicing discrimination  jail  authorities  are promoting small time criminals to commit  bigger crimes to get royal treatment in society as well  as in jail.

  Few   prisoners convicted by lower court due to bias of police , prosecutor  &  lower court judges are acquitted by higher courts.  However  due to this wrong conviction of innocents , the innocent person is deprived of his life & liberty for  years , decades. But the culprits  Investigating officer , police , public prosecutor & judge are not prosecuted for their crimes. In this  manner  even innocents are killed in fake encounters or  by death sentence.

  It is the duty of the judge  who awards  jail sentence to a  convict or an accused  , to  ensure his safety , health care  and to  see that prisoner gets right punishment as per law. Here our judges have failed. SHAME SHAME to police & judges.

 If  the Supreme Court of India ,  NHRC  delays  in acting on this PIL  petition  resulting in  prolonged  imprisonment of  undertrials , convicts or Innocents , Supreme Court of India  / NHRC  judges  also jointly become responsible for the  crimes against those  illegally imprisoned and  SCI judges are also equally responsible to pay compensation from their personal pockets.

 

2. Question(s) of Law:

 

Are  not all  prisoners  equal ?  is not  theft  of ten rupees  or theft of thousand crores of rupees , both crimes ?  Are not both criminals thieves ? then why differentiation ? Is it not the constitutional duty  of a judge  who has  awarded jail sentence to  an accused / a convict ,  to  ensure safety , health care of the said prosiner ? is it  not the duty of  the judge  to monitor whether  the convict is getting  right  punishment  as per law  nothing  less  nothing  more ? 

 

3. Grounds:

 

Requests for equitable justice , equal treatment of prisoners. Requests of  stopping torture of poor prisoners. Prosecution of  corrupt  judges , police & jail personnel.

 

4. Averment:

Prosecute  Sanjay  Dutt  under  TADA

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/prosecute-sanjay-dutt-under-tada   ,

Revoke Bail of Salman Khan

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/revoke-bail-of-salman-khan  ,

 

Aeroplane Rides for Corrupt Police Corrupt Judges

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/aeroplane-rides-for-corrupt-police-corrupt-judges   ,

 

Traitors  in  Judiciary &  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/329980170/Traitors-in-Judiciary-Police   ,

 

Crimes  by  Khaki

https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/crimes-by-khaki

 

FIRST  Answer  Judges  Police

https://www.scribd.com/document/336585411/FIRST-Answer-Judges-Police  

 

Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants in the  cases to perform their duties.

 

 

PRAYER:

In the above premises, it is prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased:

 

 

a . Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants , Government of Karnataka authorities in the case to perform their duties.

 

b. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  immediately annul  the Jail Manuals  of all state governments of india , which are discriminatory.

c. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to constitute an expert committee  to frame a “ Model Jail Manual “ applicable to all Indian states , union territories.

d. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  initiate legal prosecution of jail personnel , police &  judges who failed in their duties to  ensure safety of prisoners , resulting in torture of prisoners and  for  prolonged imprisonment or   illegal  imprisonment of innocents.

e. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to order all state governments to ensure food , health care , recreational facilities , parole  on an equal footing  to all prisoners without discrimination.

f. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  order respective state governments pay compensation to prisoners  for  suffering discrimination , torture.

g. Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India  to  order respective state governments pay compensation to prisoners  who spent years behind bars , finally acquitted by courts  and in the case of prisoners  who spent more years in jail than the  quantum of punishment  codified in IPC  due to prolonged  case trials. In both such cases afterwards state government must recover money from  respective presiding judges , investigation officer & government  legal prosecutor.

 

h . to pass such other orders and further orders as may be deemed necessary on the facts and in the circumstances of the case.

 

FOR WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER SHALL BE DUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.

 

Dated : 01^st July  2017 …………………. FILED BY: NAGARAJA.M.R.

 

Place : Mysuru , India…………………….PETITIONER-IN-PERSON

 

SC dismisses state govt's plea against acquittal of man who "mistakenly" served seven years in prison for rape

 

In a setback to the Maharashtra government, the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by it seeking permission to file an appeal challenging the acquittal of a Ghatkopar resident booked for rape in a case of "mistaken identity". Gopal Shetye had served seven years in prison for the rape case and has now filed a case in the Bombay high court seeking Rs 200 crore as compensation for the "wrongful prosecution".

 

"There is a delay of 357 days in filing the special leave petition, which has not been satisfactorily explained (by the state)," said a division bench of Justice A K Sikri and Justice N V Ramana. "Also the fact that Shetye, though acquitted, has served the complete sentence awarded by the Trial court, we are not inclined to entertain this special leave petition," the apex court bench added while dismissing the state's plea as barred by limitation.

 

 

The state had filed the appeal after Shetye filed his petition seeking compensation.

 

 

Shetye, who used to work in a hotel in Ghatkopar, was arrested on July 29, 2009. He later found out that he was charged with raping a 28-year-old woman from Aurangabad sleeping on a railway bridge at Ghatkopar station 10 days prior to his arrest.In 2010, a sessions court convicted him and sentenced him to seven years jail. By the time, the HC decided his appeal, he had served his jail term. In 2015, HC found no evidence to link Shetye to the murder.

 

 

The victim had said that the man who raped her was "Gopi" and the court said that the police themselves had floated the theory that "Gopi" was Gopal Shetye.

 

 

The HC had also picked holes in the police case—Shetye was shown to the victim in the police station before the test identification parade and the investigation agency had not produced the CCTV footage."This was a case where the identity of Shetye as the culprit had not been satisfactorily established," the HC had said. "The investigation had not been satisfactory. No serious efforts were taken to find out the truth or to collect evidence."

 

False Terror Cases: Can Compensation Assuage a Victim’s Trauma?

By  Alok Prasanna Kumar

 

With a trial court acquitting two out of the three accused in the Delhi blast case of 2005, The Quint revisits the debate on whether the state is liable for compensation for falsely implicating the innocent in terror-related cases. This article was first published on 31 January 2017.

Another so-called “terror case” prosecution has fallen apart in the light of judicial scrutiny. Eleven years after Delhi’s notorious “Special Cell” detained Irshad Ali and Maurif Qamar for allegedly being members of the Al-Badr Brigade, a trial court in Delhi acquitted them of all charges pointing out that they were in fact police informers who had been falsely framed.

This is in addition to the debacle it suffered in court over the “Malda fake currency” case, where the Special Cell claimed to have caught – in filmy-style – men attempting to smuggle fake currency into Delhi. Once again the trial court found out that there was simply no basis for the Special Cell’s case.

Adambhai Ajmeri was found guilty of having been part of the terrorist attack on the Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad, his conviction was upheld by the Gujarat High Court, but was entirely acquitted by the Supreme Court that found that the whole case had been concocted against him and five others. This was after 11 years in prison and eight years on death row.

 

Victimisation of Minorities

I could go on, but the stories are depressingly identical. Innocent men – mostly Muslims – are picked up in the name of “anti-terror operations”, detained for years, while evidence is cooked up and false charges slapped on them. Usually these cases fall apart on the most basic judicial scrutiny. Sometimes, as in Adambhai’s case, it requires the Supreme Court’s intervention before justice is done.

All of these cases are indicative of a deep-rooted prejudice and dysfunction in our police forces.

Delhi Police’s “Special Cell” may be the most notorious, but by no means exceptional in its persecution of innocents. The Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association has documented 16 such cases, including Irshad and Qamar’s cases. Such abuse of the criminal justice process and the victimisation of Muslims have been well-documented and widespread.

It’s not just Muslims in the context of terror cases. People from socially and economically backward classes are also severely discriminated against by police when it comes to even routine cases.

 

Is the State Responsible for False Charges?

•           The root cause behind false charges in terror-related cases is the lack of reforms in the police, often seen as an instrument of state control.

•           The State owes responsibility in false terror cases since the law establishes that onus of malfeasance of public servants lies with the government.

•           What needs to be worked out is a mechanism of providing compensation to the victims, by the State and its intricate bureaucracy.

•           Compensation should be provided only in cases where the accused has been in custody for more than 60-90 days and the case is a fabricated one.

•           There should be a punitive element as well, making the errant police officers liable to bear a certain amount of the compensation.

Discrimination Against Tribals, Dalits

The caste-wise break-up of under-trials across the country, and also those who have been sentenced to death, shows a distinct bias towards the Dalits and adivasis. The recent “Swathi murder case” is another example of this discrimination. After detaining a Dalit man, who was accused of being the murderer on the most flimsy evidence, police were unable to file a chargesheet even six months after having allegedly “cracked” the case.

His death in police custody – in poorly explained circumstances – only makes the initial arrest and investigation more suspicious. Many adivasis still languish in jail as the Chhattisgarh government detains them under the notorious Special Public Security Act, 2005, slapping multiple false cases on them, denying even basic legal protection to the most vulnerable sections of the society.

The basic, underlying cause for this is the fact that the colonial police force inherited by the modern Indian state has not been reformed at all. It is still seen as an instrument of state control of the subject population, both by the rulers and the ruled. The police forces are ill-equipped and ill-trained to be modern police forces fit for a constitutional democracy, and are in no way representative enough to inspire confidence in the weaker sections of the society.

Need for Police and Judicial Reforms

Reforming the police forces will take a generation at least – that is, if the state governments cease resistance to reform and seriously start implementing even the most basic recommendations made by the Supreme Court. There is a need for a much-wider reform, including reconceptualisation of what a police force in India is supposed to do, who it is supposed to protect and from whom.

That said, there are some things that can be done instantly to remedy the injustices suffered by those who have been at the receiving end of the police malfeasance in criminal cases.

One argument that is made is the granting of compensation to those who have been victimised by false terror or other criminal cases. However, this didn’t find favour with the Supreme Court recently when the victims of such false accusations approached it seeking compensation.

Responsibility of the State

There is no denying though that the need is pressing and the State cannot escape responsibility. It is well-established in law that the state is responsible for the malfeasance of its servants in the course of their official duties. This principle is applicable even if the government servant exceeds her brief, but so long as the act was done while she was “in uniform” (so to speak), the Government can be held liable. This is a claim that can be made not only in the context of the law of torts, but also in the realm of constitutional law.

For instance, the Union Government on the orders of the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court, had to pay compensation to a Bangladeshi woman who was raped by the Indian Railways employees on railway premises. Custodial deaths have been held to entitle the deceased’s family to compensation from the government responsible. Most recently, we have seen the National Human Rights Commission direct the Chhattisgarh government to pay compensation to the adivasi women who were raped by the security forces.

But, false terror and other criminal cases are not one-off failures that require one-off remedies from the court. The victims of the criminal justice system, who have suffered economically, emotionally, physically and psychologically for years on end can’t be expected to gird their loins for a long and bruising battle in courts. The problem is systemic and so should be the solution.

Compensation for the Victims

Equally, it would also be utopian to expect the State to set up a sufficiently-responsive and active mechanism to provide compensation for such victims of the criminal justice system. Given that most of the victims are dis-empowered, to expect them to negotiate the intricacies of bureaucracy and other state agencies on a matter where the State would already be disinclined to believe them would be an unfair burden.

In such a situation, what reasonable solution can we offer?

One possible answer is to empower the court that acquits or discharges unfairly charged persons to award compensation to those whose lives have been destroyed by the false case. Since this court or more specifically, this judge, is the one who has just examined all the evidence in a case and has taken a call on the guilt or otherwise of the accused, where the judge finds that the case has been falsely foisted on a person by the police, she should be empowered to award compensation to the person she has acquitted or discharged.

To make this mechanism more effective, and targeted, compensation should be awarded not in all acquittals, but only when two criteria should be met: the accused should have been in custody for more than 90 days or 60 days statutory limit placed in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1974 and that the case should have been patently false. The latter would be fulfilled if the police did not follow the statutory procedures in collecting evidence, or made false statements in the court or elsewhere, or are shown to have subjected the accused to torture or other degrading treatment to obtain a confession. This does not preclude separate criminal proceedings against the concerned police officers for perjury, assault and other crimes; it will ensure that at least the unfairly accused gets some relief.

Quantum of Compensation

The concerned court should be empowered to take any further material that the victim can place before deciding the quantum of compensation. The compensation should not only address the economic aspect, loss of income, and expenditure on litigation, but also address the emotional and psychological trauma that such false cases cause. There should, in addition, be a punitive element to this compensation that should, ideally, be recoverable from the concerned police officers.

The concept of a criminal court awarding compensation is not unknown in the Indian law. Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, allows the court to direct the payment of compensation to the victim of a crime from the fine payable by a convicted person.

State Governments Should Take the Lead

Likewise, if an accused has been arrested on the basis of a complaint given by a person, and the court finds that no case was made out against accused, it can award compensation to such accused in accordance with Section 250 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is also not entirely unfamiliar to the system – in most places the same judge exercises both civil and criminal jurisdictions in a given district. To that extent, it is a reform that is rather easily implementable.

When compared with large-scale police reform, this is relatively low hanging fruit for the state governments in India to undertake. That our criminal justice is broken and dysfunctional cannot be disputed. Rectifying it should not only focus on addressing the larger issues, but also address the needs of the victims of this system.

 

 

Prisoners of the system

By  Sonam Saigal

 

Terror suspects find themselves jailed for long periods without trial, and when proven innocent, find that the country does not make any kind of reparation

On January 15, 1994, Mohammad Nisarudin was at home in Gulbarga, Karnataka, preparing for his Diploma in Pharmacy final exams, 15 days away. After he qualified, the 19-year-old planned to get a job in one of the Gulf countries, a dream he and his best friend Sajid (name changed) had talked about since they were seven. But that day, the police knocked at the door of his parents’ home and took him away in handcuffs. Initially, the police booked him for a bomb blast that had taken place in October 1993 in a Muslim educational institute in Hyderabad, then he was booked in a few unsolved bomb blasts that had taken place in August and September in 1993, then he was booked under the anti-terror law Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) — which was repealed two years later, in 1996 — for planting the bombs that took two lives and injured 22 in five trains on December 5 and 6 1993 in Mumbai, and after a ‘confession,’ put into Ajmer Central Jail. On February 28, 2005 a TADA court at Ajmer convicted him and gave him a life sentence.

Mr. Nisarudin stayed there for 23 years labelled a terror-accused. “Main yaad bhi nahin karna chahta unn dino ko; mujhe darkinar kar diya tha 73 days ke liye, chaar din tak khade rakha bediyon se baandh kar. (I don’t even want to recount those days, I was isolated for 73 days in the lock up, was made to stand and chained for four days]. On May 11 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that his confession, which was taken in police custody, was totally inadmissible, acquitted him of all charges and set aside his life sentence.

Left behind

When The Hindu spoke to Mr. Nisarudin at the home of his older brother Zahirudin, in Gulbarga, Karnataka, his voice quavered with emotion. “23 years of my life are gone to prove my innocence. Sab mujhse aage badh gaye, aur main sabse peeche reh gaya [Everyone has gone ahead in life and I am left far behind]. Most of my friends have gone abroad and those here don’t relate to me anymore. They could not even recognise me, how would they? There is a difference in the 19-year-old Nisarudin they last saw and today’s 42-year-old. An entire generation has gone by.” When this reporter asked him whether he had sought compensation of any kind from the State, his sorrow turned to anger: “How can I be compensated for all the years lost? Can I ever be compensated in any manner?”

Unable to carry on, he put his brother on the line. Mr. Zahirudin says that the family has used up all their savings in the long legal fight to bring Mr. Nisarudin home and were living day to day at the moment. “We do not have any resources to fight another legal battle.” Mr. Zahirudin says. “It takes a lot of money to do so and we lost all that we had to bring my brother home. Even if I seek action against those who falsely implicated him, half of them are dead. What is the way forward then?”

The focus now, Mr. Zahirudin says, is to help his brother put his life together again. “He is also entitled to be happy, just like you and me. I want to see him settle down. But people still don’t want to get their daughter or sister married in our family. Not only my brother, my entire family is a victim of the judiciary.” He says that though he tries to explain that his brother was falsely implicated and has been proved innocent, people fear that because he was accused of a terror crime, he will probably be picked up by the police for any blast that takes place in the country.

What rankles most is that though his brother has spent more than half his life in jail, the system has not expressed regret: “The least the judges could have done was expressed some sympathy or remorse.” In his opinion, the system has much to answer for; he says that when TADA was repealed his brother should have been released, but because presiding judges got transferred, public prosecutors were absent or repeatedly sought adjournments, it cost Nisaruddin 23 years in jail.

Victims of the system

While the length of Mr. Nisarudin’s incarceration is an extreme, his isn’t an isolated case.

Take Abdul Wahid Din Mohammad Shaikh, 39 now. He was charged of complicity in the Mumbai train blasts of November 7, 2006 and spent nine years in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai before being acquitted of all charges — the only one of those accused to be acquitted — and released. Mr. Shaikh told The Hindu that all the accused were made to sign many documents, some of which were blank. “Had I known the consequences I would have never done so.” While in jail, he enrolled in a law course, and finished a course in journalism. If he knew something of the law at the time he was arrested, he said, “I would have known what a confession is, what the consequences of signing on any written or blank pages are, what is the rights of an accused are, what the rights of those arrested are, what the duties of an investigating officer and agency are.”

While he was in prison, his wife, who had never stepped out of the house, had to go out to work to make ends meet. Now that he is free and exonerated, his goal is to secure the release of the others who were, in his opinion, wrongful implicated and convicted in the same case. “Once those trapped in this case are out, I will strive to release those languishing in jail for being falsely implicated.”

And there is Adnan Mulla, 40, who was sentenced to 10 years for the Mulund blasts of March 1, 2003. Initially he was illegally detained in 2003 and not released because the police wanted to make him a witness. Then he was made an accused after he refused to give a statement against his brother-in-law of Saquib Nachan (former general secretary of the now-banned Students Islamic Movement of India, SIMI). “I spent six years and one month in jail,” he says. Throughout his incarceration, he was kept in the anda cell, an egg-shaped high security block. “I was going to get married the same month I was picked up,” he says. “My fiancée waited for seven years for me to be released. Only I know how much she and both our families suffered. How can the loss of time be compensated by any officer or government?”

A system in need of reform

In 1765, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, jurist Sir William Blackstone wrote, “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” While India borrowed much of the UK’s legal system, the spirit of the ‘Blackstone Formulation’ (as it has come to be known) does not seem to be followed. (See box.)

There are no figures for the number of people released for lack of evidence after long spells in prison. Even more disquieting is that India does not have any compensation for people who have lost years of their lives to the justice system.

“Under normal circumstances we want to book the real culprit and have no motive to trap someone in a case,” says Prakash Singh, a retired Director General of Police. “We want to do a fair investigation, but the instruments of investigation are blunted and rusted as the police apparatus is in bad shape. It is possible that police officers are susceptible to bias and pressures from all areas and if politicians decide, don’t catch people from my community but from the other one, then there is selective prosecution.”

“When there is a terror case, you should have an open mind and take into consideration all aspects,” Mr. Singh says. “It is unfortunate that 90% of the time members of a certain community are involved. When one is investigating, I am not denying there may be some prejudice as there are pressures. Sometimes there are mistakes, and sometimes just because someone has a bad character and is in the bad books, an officer succumbs to the temptation [of implicating him]. These things do happen in real practice; I am not denying it.”

Although the Supreme Court has granted compensation in some cases in the past, it has not laid down any guidelines on how compensation can be calculated. One possible difficulty: terror cases are very different from, say, a motor vehicles case, which can have a formula.

Advocate Indira Jaisingh, former Additional Solicitor-General of India says, “The first step for the State would be to just acknowledge the wrong-doing. Then reparation. This will also act as a deterrent, as the officers need to be more careful in future. The demand for compensation certainly raises an issue that the Indian legal system has to learn to deal with, whether by legislation or in courts.”

Right to compensation

“The right to compensation is a human right,” says advocate and human rights activist Vrinda Grover, “and it is the responsibility of the State in falsely implicated cases because people are picked up for their religious affiliation or denomination and the police, who is an agent of the State, know that the person has nothing to do with the case but wrongly implicated the person.”

Courts have the power to compensate, says P.D. Kode, a retired judge of the Bombay High Court, “It depends upon the judge; once the trial is over and he has ascertained the evidence and if a person is prosecuted maliciously, the victim can file a suit for damages.” He says that high courts have awarded exemplary compensation in many cases, for example in ‘encounter’ cases. “They have to show that witnesses were liars. If such things come on record, the court has the power to order compensation. If courts come to a conclusion that the accused was framed, courts have wide powers to do justice to the accused.”

The Innocence Network (IN) is an affiliation of organisations that provides free legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to prove their innocence of crimes, and supporting them after they are freed. It is also working to eliminate the causes of wrongful convictions. IN suggests that the government should grant compensation to the those exonerated, for the loss and harm caused to them and for violating their rights under Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution of India. It says compensation should be calculated on case-to-case basis, factoring in the length of incarceration, loss of income, loss of opportunities (of education, possibilities of livelihood, skills), and the amount spent on legal fees, as well as more intangible harm like the loss of family life, stigmatisation, psychological and emotional harm caused to the accused and their families. They also recommend that the amount may be recovered from the officers responsible for the wrongful arrests and prosecution.

Ms. Grover agrees that compensation must be directly taken from officers responsible — so a clear signal is sent that these acts won’t be condoned — but says that an arithmetic calculation could not be done. “But there needs to be a very high compensation, something to the tune of ₹10 lakh is a small minimum.”

Justice A P Shah, former Chairman of the Law Commission and a member of the jury of the Innocence Network, says, “Terror cases are very different. With the stigma of being associated with terror cases, families are huge sufferers. Ideally we should have legislation but even in the absence of that courts have awarded compensation in several cases. The courts have even booked erring officers if evidence is fabricated, officers are booked for perjury, contempt of court and other offences under the Indian Penal Code.” He says that since the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010, has not been introduced in Parliament — it was sent back by the Select Committee four years ago — the only way to fight is in the court of law.

Abandoned by all

“Ours is a befitting case for compensation,” says Mr. Zahirudin. “But there need to be categories for those acquitted: benefit of doubt, insufficient evidence, falsely implicated. The third category needs to be chalked out differently. The courts need to look into reasons of why this happens and how and why someone is implicated. Why is only a certain section of the society targeted? Pick up any blasts case whether it is Ajmer or Malegaon…”

Mr. Nisarudin interrupts, not quite calm, but less emotional now: “I want to start a business of my own. I always wanted to open a hardware shop with my brother, but we have no money to do so. Will people come forward and help me financially in any manner? If they do it will go a long way in rehabilitating me. I have very little hope from the government.”

The story has a small silver lining. The Hindu first spoke to the brothers in December 2016. A few weeks later, the family found a bride for Mr. Nisarudin, “after great difficulty,” his brother says. He was married on February 10.

How the world makes reparation

Article 14 (6) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him.

• United Kingdom: The Home Secretary, under specified conditions and upon receipt of applications, is obligated to pay compensation for wrongful conviction or incarceration.

• France: Code de Procedure Penale follows International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

• Germany: An Act of Parliament (the Law on Compensation for Criminal Prosecution Proceedings 1971) specifies that whoever has suffered damage as a result of a criminal conviction which is later quashed or lessened the applicant shall be compensated by the State.

• Australia: In 2004, the Australian Capital Territory incorporated a slightly reworded version of Article 14 (6) within ACT legislation. As per the Human Rights Act 2004, an individual who is wrongfully convicted of a criminal offence may seek compensation.

• New Zealand: A guided discretionary system of compensation under the Compensation and Ex Gratia Payments for Persons Wrongly Convicted and Imprisoned in Criminal Cases.

Born to the wrong community

According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s 2015 statistics, out of 185,182 prisoners in Central Jails, 94,675 (51.1%) are ‘undertrials’ (the term for people who are suspected of a crime, arrested, incarcerated but not yet tried in court) and in district jails, out of 180,893 prisoners, 143,495 (79.3%) are undertrials.

NCRB numbers say that over 55% of undertrials across the country are either Muslims, Dalits or tribals. Scheduled Castes are 16.6% of India’s population, and Scheduled Tribes are 8.6%. Muslims are roughly 18% of India’s population, but make up 15.8% of the country’s convicts and 20.9% of its undertrials.

The creaking legal system means that long periods can pass before a case comes to trial: in 2013, 62% of total inmates were undertrials who had been in jail for more than three months; on 2014, that figure was 65%.

A study by the Quill Foundation’s Centre for Research and Advocacy on terror prosecution in Maharashtra since 1993 found that an overwhelming number of the more than 460 accused of terrorism in Maharashtra have been declared innocent after spending an average of three to six years in prison. More than half of the accused in the state were doctors, engineers, and educated professionals at the beginning of their careers. Almost all of who had been released after being found innocent had, after their release, been forced to pick up traditional occupations or small scale businesses, or remain unemployed. The study found that both the judicial process and the conviction rate in terror-related cases has been very low: only 42 of 93 cases filed since 2001 against SIMI (with more than 200 accused), have been heard and concluded. Of these 42, only three saw convictions (with sentences of two years each) and 39 have resulted in acquittals.

 

 

COMPENSATE   ACQUITTED  INNOCENTS  -   JUSTICE  A P SHAH

 

One of the biggest pitfalls of arresting a person on malicious and wrongful intent in terror cases is that while innocents get behind the bars, the real culprits go scot-free which can be very dangerous for the society, observed Justice AP Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, while releasing the first Peoples’ Tribunal report on acquitted innocents.

“We need to improve the efficiency of our investigating agencies to ensure that such pitfalls that have ruined and are still ruining hundreds of lives are removed. The trial in such cases takes seven to eight years or more to complete, and by the time the accused is released, his or her life is in a shambles,” said Justice Shah, citing the case of Nisaruddin, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2016 after spending 23 years in prison.

The tribunal, first of its kind, heard depositions from nine acquitted innocents over a period of two months who were picked up by the police in terror cases but later exonerated by the courts for want of evidence but in the process had to suffer the humiliation and social stigma of being a terror accused.

One of the acquitted victims who spent 14 years in jail, Mohammed Aamir Khan, termed the report as a milestone but found it lacking in spelling out what could be done to save the terror accused within the four walls of prison.

“I was acquitted after 14 years. Our jails are no better than Abu Ghraib where accused like me go through the worst kind of torture and are always at the mercy of police and other convicts. Many get killed like what happened in Bhopal jailbreak case,” said Aamir.

Giving its recommendations to save, compensate and rehabilitate exonerated accused of terror cases, the tribunal observed that the government should grant compensation to the exonerees for violating their right to life and liberty and the torture they underwent under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“It is shameful that India does not have any such provision,” said Justice Shah, adding that the cost may be recovered from the officers responsible for the wrongful arrests and prosecution.

The tribunal recommends greater accountability and transparency of investigating agency for which they should be subjected to initiation of departmental enquiry against the officers concerned and the erring officers must be suspended with immediate effect pending enquiry. “If found that the criminal prosecution against the acquitted persons was malafide and amounts to offences under IPC Sections 194, 196 and 211, the officers named by the exonerees should be prosecuted,” the report said.

The report recommended enactment of law to compensate for miscarriage of justice, pass the prevention of torture bill that is pending in the parliament for four years, shifting the burden of proof in offenses related to custodial violence and torture by bringing amendment in section 114B (1) of the Indian Evidence Act as proposed by the Tenth Law Commission.

On MCOCA

The tribunal explicitly recommended repealing Section 18 of MCOCA thus calling for an end to the admissibility of confessions as evidence and bringing all undergoing trials in repealed and lapsed TADA and POTA under ordinary law.

 

Acquitted Innocents

Shoeb Jagirdar — Mecca Masjid Blast case

Shoeb Jagirdar is a resident from Jalna, Maharashtra. He was first accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case. After his bail was furnished in this case he was charged in the Gokul Chat blast case. The charges against him in the Mecca Masjid blast case was of smuggling RDX and of fake passport acquisition. In the Gokul Chat case he was charged against Sec 107 of the IPC. He was acquitted after spending 7 years as an undertrial.

Mohammad Aamir Khan

Mohammad Aamir Khan is a residence of Delhi. All the blast between the years of 1996-97 that took place in Delhi was charged against him. They were a total of 19 cases against him under charges of sec 121, 122 302 and 307 IPC and sec 3 and 4 of Explosive Act. He spent 14 years in the prison.

Dr. Yunus — Jaipur SIMI case

Dr Yunus and 10 others were arrested for the Jaipur SIMI case. They were accused of taking forward the activities of the banned organization SIMI. Dr Yunus was brutally tortured in prison where he spent a total of 3years. The ba􀄴ery of charges against Dr Yunus had to do with speech and association- talking against national unity , integrity and secularism , of involving Muslim youth in anti- national activities, taking forward the activities of the banned organization SIMI and sympathizing with those carrying on similar activities, and not violence. He was found innocent on all counts.

Abdul Azeem — Aurangabad Arm Haul Case

Abdul Azeem is a resident of Beed, Maharashtra. He was alleged to be the driver of the terrorists of the Aurangabad Arms Haul case. He was acqui􀄴ed after spending 10 years and 3 months in prison. The charges against him included Sections 10(a), 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 38, 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and Sections 3(2), 3(1)(ii) & 3(4) of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, 1999.

Maulana Salees — SIMI case

He spent about 2.5 years in jail and still some of the charges continue to be against him. He was alleged to be a SIMI member at the age of fifty. Later 4 more charges were put against him. He was also held responsible for the Kanpur blast case. However, he was found innocent on all counts.

Wasif Haider

He was accused of waging war against the nation (sedition), rioting, of a􀄴empt to murder under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and some other sections of national security act (NSA). He was also accused of being a Hizbul Mujahideen operative. Nothing though could be proved in the court, and he was honorably acqui􀄴ed. The prosecution appealed against Wasif’s acquittal in the High Court, but its appeal was dismissed by the court at the primary stage itself.

Nisar and Zaheer Ahmed — 1996 Railway Blast case

Nisar Ahmed was acqui􀄴ed after 23 long years of jail. He along with his brother Mohammad Zaheer- who spent 14 years in prison- was convicted for the railway blast cases in 1996. The charges against them were of under various sections of TADA, IPC, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and Railways Act for planting bombs in five trains.

Wahid sheikh — 7/11 Train Blast case

Wahid Sheikh was charged for 7/11 train blast case. The charged included 3 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) of MCOC Act 1999 r/w Sacs 10, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 40 of UAPA 1967 r/w Sacs. 302, 307, 326, 325, 324, 427, 436, 121-A, 122, 123, 124-A, 201, 212, 120-B. Wahid Sheikh was acquitted of all charges after spending more than 10 years in prison. A government school teacher before his arrest, he has fought an uphill battle to get his job back. However, he is yet to receive his salary as well as his arrears for the last 10 years which he spent incarcerated as an undertrial.

Iftikhar Gilani — Official Secrets Act

He was charged for violating the Official Secrets Act. He was accused of possessing classified documents that violated the provisions of the statute. The evidences against him included the possession of a public document released in 1995 by Pakistan's Foreign Ministry that includes information about alleged human rights abuses committed by Indian troops in Kashmir. The charge was found fake and the evidence planted. He spent about 7 months in the jail without any bail.

 

Wrongful   Execution   DEATH  PENALTY

 

Wrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment. Cases of wrongful execution are cited as an argument by opponents of capital punishment, while proponents suggest that the argument of innocence concerns the credibility of the justice system as a whole and does not solely undermine the use of death penalty.[1][2]

A number of people are claimed to have been innocent victims of the death penalty.[3][4] Newly available DNA evidence has allowed the exoneration and release of more than 20 death rowinmates since 1992 in the United States,[5] but DNA evidence is available in only a fraction of capital cases. Others have been released on the basis of weak cases against them, sometimes involving prosecutorial misconduct; resulting in acquittal at retrial, charges dropped, or innocence-based pardons. The Death Penalty Information Center (U.S.) has published a list of 10 inmates "executed but possibly innocent".[6] At least 39 executions are claimed to have been carried out in the U.S. in the face of evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt.[7]

In the UK, reviews prompted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission have resulted in one pardon and three exonerations for people executed between 1950 and 1953 (when the execution rate in England and Wales averaged 17 per year), with compensation being paid.

 

Specific examples[edit]

Australia[edit]

Colin Campbell Ross was hanged in Melbourne in 1922 for the murder of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke the previous year in what became known as the Gun Alley Murder. The case was re-examined in the 1990s using modern techniques and Ross was eventually pardoned in 2008. Capital punishment in Australia was abolished in all jurisdictions, with the last execution taking place in 1967.

People's Republic of China[edit]

Wei Qing'an (Chinese: 魏清安, 1961–1984, 23 years old) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for the rape of Kun Liu, a woman who had disappeared. The execution was carried out on 3 May 1984 by the Intermediate People's Court. In the next month, Tian Yuxiu (田玉修) was arrested and admitted that he had committed the rape. Three years later, Wei was officially declared innocent.[8]

Teng Xingshan (Chinese: 滕兴善, ?–1989) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for supposedly having raped, robbed and murdered Shi Xiaorong (石小荣), a woman who had disappeared. An old man found a dismembered body, and incompetent police forensics claimed to have matched the body to the photo of the missing Shi Xiaorong. The execution was carried out on 28 January 1989 by the Huaihua Intermediate People's Court. In 1993, the previously missing woman returned to the village, saying she had been kidnapped and taken to Shandong. The absolute innocence of the wrongfully executed Teng was not admitted until 2005.[9]

Nie Shubin (Chinese: 聂树斌, 1974–1995) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for the rape and murder of Kang Juhua (康菊花), a woman in her thirties. The execution was carried out on April 27, 1995 by the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court. In 2005, ten years after the execution, Wang Shujin (Chinese: 王书金) admitted to the police that he had committed the murder.[10][11]

Qoγsiletu or Huugjilt (Mongolian:qoγsiletu, Chinese:呼格吉勒图, 1977-1996) was an Inner Mongolian who was executed for the rape and murder of a young girl on June 10, 1996. On December 5, 2006, ten years after the execution, Zhao Zhihong (Chinese: 赵志红) wrote the Petition of my Death Penalty admitting he had committed the crime. Huugjilt was posthumously exonerated and Zhao Zhihong was sentenced to death in 2015.[12]

Ireland[edit]

Harry Gleeson was executed in Ireland in April 1941 for the Murder of Moll McCarthy in County Tipperary in November 1940. The Gardai withheld crucial evidence and fabricated other evidence against Gleeson. In 2015 he was posthumously pardoned.[13][14]

Republic of China (Taiwan)[edit]

Jiang Guoqing (Jiang is the family name, Chinese: 江國慶, 1975–1997) was a Republic of China(Taiwan) Air Force private who was executed by a military tribunal on August 13, 1997 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl. On January 28, 2011, over 13 years after the execution, Xu Rongzhou (Chinese: 許榮洲), who had a history of sexual abuse, admitted to the prosecutor that he had been responsible for the crime. In September 2011 Jiang was posthumously acquitted by a military court who found Jiang's original confession had been obtained by torture. Ma Ying-jeou, Republic of China's(Taiwan) president, apologised to Jiang's family.[15]

United Kingdom[edit]

•           In 1660, in a series of events known as the Campden Wonder, an Englishman named William Harrison disappeared after going on a walk, near the village of Charingworth, in Gloucestershire. Some of his clothing was found slashed and bloody on the side of a local road. Investigators interrogated Harrison’s servant, John Perry, who eventually confessed that his mother and his brother had killed Harrison for money. Perry, his mother, and his brother were hanged. Two years later, Harrison reappeared, telling the incredibly unlikely tale that he had been abducted by three horsemen and sold into slavery in the Ottoman Empire. Though his tale was implausible, he indubitably had not been murdered by the Perry family.

•           Timothy Evans was tried and executed in March 1950 for the murder of his wife and infant daughter. An official inquiry conducted 16 years later determined that it was Evans's fellow tenant, serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie, who was responsible for the murder. Christie also admitted to the murder of Evans's wife, as well as five other women and his own wife. Christie may have murdered other women, judging by evidence found in his possession at the time of his arrest, but it was never pursued by the police. Evans was posthumously pardoned in 1966. The case had prompted the abolition of capital punishment in the UK in 1965.

•           George Kelly was executed in March 1950 for the 1949 murder of the manager of the Cameo Cinema in Liverpool, UK and his assistant during a robbery that went wrong. This case became known as the Cameo Murder. Kelly's conviction was overturned in 2003. Another man, Donald Johnson, had confessed to the crime but the police bungled Johnson's case and had not divulged his confession at Kelly's trial.[16]

•           Mahmood Hussein Mattan was executed in 1952 for the murder of Lily Volpert. In 1998 the Court of Appeal decided that the original case was, in the words of Lord Justice Rose, "demonstrably flawed". The family were awarded £725,000 compensation, to be shared equally among Mattan's wife and three children. The compensation was the first award to a family for a person wrongfully hanged.

•           Derek Bentley was a mentally handicapped young man who was executed in 1953. He was convicted of the murder of a police officer during an attempted robbery, despite the facts that it was his accomplice who fired the gun and that Bentley was already under arrest at the time of the shooting. The accomplice who actually fired the fatal shot could not be executed due to his young age, and served only ten years in prison before he was released.[17]

United States[edit]

See also: List of wrongful convictions in the United States

University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross led a team of experts in the law and in statistics that estimated the likely number of unjust convictions. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences determined that at least 4% of people on death row were and are likely innocent. Gross has no doubt that some innocent people have been executed.[18][19]

Statistics likely understate the actual problem of wrongful convictions because once an execution has occurred there is often insufficient motivation and finance to keep a case open, and it becomes unlikely at that point that the miscarriage of justice will ever be exposed. For example, in the case of Joseph Roger O'Dell III, executed in Virginia in 1997 for a rape and murder, a prosecuting attorney argued in court in 1998 that if posthumous DNA results exonerated O'Dell, "it would be shouted from the rooftops that ... Virginia executed an innocent man." The state prevailed, and the evidence was destroyed.[20]

Chipita Rodriguez was hanged in San Patricio County, Texas in 1863 for murdering a horse trader, and 122 years later, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution exonerating her.

Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed in 1915 for the murder of a man involved in an interracial affair two years previously but were pardoned 94 years after execution. It is thought that they were arrested and charged because they were viewed as wealthy enough to hire competent legal counsel and get an acquittal.[21]

Joe Arridy (April 15, 1915 – January 6, 1939) was a mentally disabled American man executed for rape and murder and posthumously granted a pardon. Arridy was sentenced to death for the murder and rape of a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Pueblo, Colorado. He confessed to murdering the girl and assaulting her sister. Due to the sensational nature of the crime precautions were taken to keep him from being hanged by vigilante justice. His sentence was executed after multiple stays on January 6, 1939, in the Colorado gas chamber in the state penitentiary in Canon City, Colorado. Arridy was the first Colorado prisoner posthumously pardoned in January 2011 by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former district attorney, after research had shown that Arridy was very likely not in Pueblo when the crime happened and had been coerced into confessing. Among other things, Arridy had an IQ of 46, which was equal to the mental age of a 6-year-old. He did not even understand that he was going to be executed, and played with a toy train that the warden, Roy Best, had given to him as a present. A man named Frank Aguilar had been executed in 1937 in the Colorado gas chamber for the same crime for which Arridy ended up also being executed. Arridy's posthumous pardon in 2011 was the first such pardon in Colorado history. A press release from the governor's office stated, "[A]n overwhelming body of evidence indicates the 23-year-old Arridy was innocent, including false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else." The governor also pointed to Arridy's intellectual disabilities. The governor said, “Granting a posthumous pardon is an extraordinary remedy. But the tragic conviction of Mr. Arridy and his subsequent execution on Jan. 6, 1939, merit such relief based on the great likelihood that Mr. Arridy was, in fact, innocent of the crime for which he was executed, and his severe mental disability at the time of his trial and execution."

George Stinney, a 14-year old black boy, was electrocuted in South Carolina in 1944 for the murder of two white girls, aged 7 and 11. He was the youngest person executed in the United States. More than 70 years later, a judge threw out the conviction, calling it a "great injustice."[22]

Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in December 1989. Subsequent investigations cast strong doubt upon DeLuna's guilt for the murder of which he had been convicted.[23][24]

Jesse Tafero was convicted of murder and executed via electric chair in May 1990 in the state of Florida for the murders of two Florida Highway Patrol officers. The conviction of a co-defendant was overturned in 1992 after a recreation of the crime scene indicated a third person had committed the murders.[25]

Johnny Garrett of Texas was executed in February 1992 for allegedly raping and murdering a nun. In March 2004 cold-case DNA testing identified Leoncio Rueda as the rapist and murderer of another elderly victim killed four months earlier.[26] Immediately following the nun's murder, prosecutors and police were certain the two cases were committed by the same assailant.[27] The flawed case is explored in a 2008 documentary entitled The Last Word.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in February 2004 for murdering his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas. Nationally known fire investigator Gerald Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene, and said in December 2004 that "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire."[28] In 2010, the Innocence Project filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, seeking a judgment of "official oppression".[29]

In 2015, the Justice Department and the FBI formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an FBI forensic squad overstated forensic hair matches for two decades before the year 2000.[30][31] Of the 28 forensic examiners testifying to hair matches in a total of 268 trials reviewed, 26 overstated the evidence of forensic hair matches and 95% of the overstatements favored the prosecution. Defendants were sentenced to death in 32 of those 268 cases.

Exonerations and pardons[edit]

Main article: List of exonerated death row inmates

Kirk Bloodsworth was the first American to be freed from death row as a result of exoneration by DNA fingerprinting. Ray Krone is the 100th American to have been sentenced to death and then later exonerated.

In the UK, reviews prompted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission have resulted in one pardon and three exonerations for people that were executed between 1950 and 1953 (when the execution rate in England and Wales averaged 17 per year), with compensation being paid. Timothy Evans was granted a posthumous free pardon in 1966. Mahmood Hussein Mattan was convicted in 1952 and was the last person to be hanged in Cardiff, Wales, but had his conviction quashed in 1998. George Kelly was hanged at Liverpool in 1950, but had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in June 2003.[32] Derek Bentley had his conviction quashed in 1998 with the appeal trial judge, Lord Bingham, noting that the original trial judge, Lord Goddard, had denied the defendant "the fair trial which is the birthright of every British citizen."

Colin Campbell Ross (1892–1922) was an Australian wine-bar owner executed for the murder of a child which became known as The Gun Alley Murder, despite there being evidence that he was innocent. Following his execution, efforts were made to clear his name, and in the 1990s old evidence was re-examined with modern forensic techniques which supported the view that Ross was innocent. In 2006 an appeal for mercy was made to Victoria's Chief Justice and on 27 May 2008 the Victorian government pardoned Ross in what is believed to be an Australian legal first.[33]

U.S. mental health controversy[edit]

There has been much debate about the justification of imposing capital punishment on individuals who have been diagnosed with mental retardation. Some have argued that the execution of people with mental retardation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment as it pertains to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[34] While the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted cruel and unusual punishment to include those that fail to take into account the defendant's degree of criminal culpability,[clarification needed] it did not determine that executing the mentally retarded constitutes cruel and unusual punishment until 2002.

This issue was first addressed in the case of Penry v. Lynaugh, in which Johnny Paul Penry had filed a habeas corpus petition in federal district court that claimed his death sentence should be vacated because it violated his Eighth Amendment rights. His reasoning was that he suffered from mental retardation, and numerous psychologists had confirmed this to be factual, indicating that his IQ ranged from 50 to 63 and that he possessed the mental abilities of a six-and-a-half-year-old.[34] Penry's petition was denied by the district court, whose decision was subsequently affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Penry would later appeal to the Supreme Court, who ultimately ruled in a five-to-four decision that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution did not categorically prohibit the execution of persons with mental retardation. Following the 1989 Penry ruling, sixteen states as well as the federal government passed legislation that banned the execution of offenders with mental retardation.[34]

Penry was overruled in 2002 by Atkins v. Virginia, which held that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment precluded the execution of the mentally handicapped, but the Supreme Court left the definition of mentally handicapped as something to be determined by the states.[35]

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Hall v. Florida that states cannot rely solely on an IQ test in determining whether a borderline mentally handicapped person can be executed.[36]

 

Editorial : Safety of Jail Inmates Responsibility of Judges

The presiding judge of the case  who  issues arrest warrant against a person , who rejects the bail plea  of the accused  and  the judge who remands accused to police custody / judicial custody  is fully responsible for safety , human rights of the prison / jail inmates. Use of 3rd degree torture is rampant in jails   and in all such cases ,  respective presiding judges  must be made to  pay compensation from their pockets and judges must be charged  for  AIDING & ABETTING  THE MURDER  ATTEMPT  on prisoner  by  jail / police authorities.  Are the JUDGES & POLICE above Law ?

 

 

Review: In Jails, Illegality Is the Norm

BY MAHTAB ALAM

 

Sunetra Choudhury‘s Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous highlights how different jail experiences can be depending on who you are and what you can pay.

 

When I met Santosh Yadav, a journalist from Bastar, for an early morning breakfast in Delhi a few weeks ago, he looked happy. There was a sense of relief and freedom in his eyes. Yadav had been recently released on bail after 17 months of imprisonment. He was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police in September 2015 from his village Darbha in Bastar. At the time of his arrest, Yadav used to report for two Hindi local dailies, the Navbharat and Chhattisgarh. He was accused of being a Maoist supporter and charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and other laws pertaining to crimes ranging from rioting, criminal conspiracy, murder, criminal intimidation and with being a part of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), among the other alleged offences. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on February 26 this year, after his earlier bail petitions were rejected by the lower courts.

As soon as he started narrating his jail experiences, he assumed a different persona altogether. There was a sense of intense gloom and despair in his eyes. “What I saw and went through in jail was beyond my imagination,” he said, adding that “I used to think aisa angrezon ke samay hi hota hoga (things like this could have only happened during colonial rule).” Yadav said he was severely tortured and even kept in solitary confinement during his incarceration, apart from routine beatings by the other inmates on the instructions of the jail officials. Listening to Yadav was like re-reading journalist Iftikhar Gilani’s jail memoir, My Days in Prison. Gilani had been jailed in June 2002 on the charges of possessing ‘classified documents’ and booked under the draconian Official Secrets Act. The only evidence presented was a report he had downloaded from the internet. Eventually, he was discharged. In his memoir, Gilani writes, “I was beaten up many times while inside the prison. For 41 days, I worked as a labourer…”

Not everyone goes through the trials and tribulations that Yadav and Gilani underwent. Jail can be quite a ‘haven’ for some, depending primarily on one’s socio-economic background and political influence, irrespective of how grave the charges or the crimes committed. In fact, it’s possible that the graver the nature of the alleged crime, the better the facilities you can avail. All, of course, through illegal means. Unfortunately, in jails, illegality is the norm.

Sunetra Choudhury’s book Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous tells us how all of this is possible. In so doing, she gives us a glimpse of the underground and parallel economy of jails across the country. Based on extensive secondary research and detailed interviews with people who have spent time in jail as well as those who have worked in or on jails, Choudhury presents a series of stories which are nothing short of eye-opening – dare I say, even eye-popping – in their revelations.

Choudhury profiles the incarceration of 13 people who are either in jail or were at one point of time. While the book mostly concentrates on describing famous people in prison, it does cover others as well. Among the former are politicians Amar Singh, A. Raja and Pappu Yadav, the arms dealer Abhishek Verma’s wife, Anca Verma, CEO Peter Mukherjea and Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy. Businessman Subrata Roy of Sahara also finds a brief mention in the introduction.

Narrating her meeting with Roy, Choudhury writes:

“After walking through a long corridor inside the Chandragupta suite [at the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi] that had been used by heads of state, and after passing a room that only had his shoes, I was ushered into a sitting room with Roy. He was very polite and spoke to me in Bangla, appreciating my work as I’m sure his secretary may have briefed him. Someone brought in some mishit doi and sandesh. As soon as I took out my notebook he said, ‘Listen, don’t include me in this book of yours. I’m not a criminal.’ I told him that not everyone featured in my book would be a criminal. Many would be those wrongly accused of crimes which led them to unfairly spend long years in custody. ‘But I am different. There isn’t even an FIR against me,’ he clarified.”

Roy was given VIP treatment during his jail term. In fact, as the author informs us, he paid a whopping Rs 1.23 crore for the facilities that he received in Tihar. He lived like a king even in jail.

Unbelievable and ridiculous as it may sound, the sad reality is, in the words of Anca Verma, “If you steal 1,000 rupees, the hawaldar will beat the shit out of you and lock you up in in a dungeon with no bulb or ventilation. If you steal 55,000 crore rupees then you get to stay in a 40-foot cell which has four split units, internet, fax, mobile phones and a staff of ten to clean your shoes and cook you food.” This singular quote from the book speaks volumes about the privileges and deprivation faced by people in jails, given their money power and political connections. It also tells us about the rotten nature of our criminal justice system. However, as the author notes, “special treatment in jail is, of course, not a new phenomenon.” She draws our attention towards the case of the infamous Charles Sobhraj. However, what is striking is how, over a period of time, a new normal of ‘super’ special treatment for a certain type of jail inmate has been drawn into our discourse.

Among the most tragic and lesser-known stories is the one of Rehmana. Hers is a clear case of guilt by association. Now out of jail, she is the wife of Pakistani national, Arif who is currently on death row for being an operative of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba convicted in the Red Fort attack case. Though there are several unanswered questions about Arif being an operative of the LeT and his involvement in the attack, Rehmana and her entire family suffer for the crime. “Don’t write their names,” Rehmana requested the author when she met her for an interview.

“Rehmana’s aware that she’s already created considerable problems for everyone associated with her. One of her sisters, a government school teacher in Bhopal, is afraid that Rehmana has spoilt her daughter’s chances of getting a good match. Her brother, a year younger than Rehmana, is still mentally disturbed by all that had happened. Rehmana may have married Arif but they were all hauled to the police station for one night in December. And that night’s nightmare is still too scary for them to emerge from.”

The story of the transgender bar dancer Khushi Sheikh as well as that of the school teacher and a once terror accused Wahid Sheikh are nothing short of horrifying. In both these cases, the perpetrators are those who are entrusted by law to protect the lives and liberties of the people – the police. Referring to Wahid’s case, the author confesses that “Even after two decades of reporting, his account gave me sleepless nights. I realised how in daily journalism we err in relying too much on what authorities say, in not questioning the prosecution agency.”

“Wahid stands acquitted after a decade in jail yet there is no compensation for the time he has lost, for the wounds that he bore from prison. Wahid has given real names of his tormentors, not just to me, but to courts and judges. All of them are decorated police officers—A. N. Roy, K. P. Raghuvanshi, Vijay Salaskar. You can’t dismiss his words because he (Wahid was not convicted) and the others who have been convicted can show you a Mumbai High Court judgement which upholds how they were beaten in jail, their rights violated and then denied medical treatment.”

Though the author regrets not having been able to include the stories of politician M.K. Kanimozhi, IPS officer R. K. Sharma and actress Monica Bedi, one feels that she could have tried including some of the most important stories of those who are either still lodged in jail or have spent years in the prisons of central Indian states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. Stories of people like Soni Sori, Linga Kodopi and Jiten Marandi would have enriched the book. Nevertheless, it is a well-researched book and should be read widely and translated into Indian languages.

 

Jailed for Over a Year, Chhattisgarh Journalist Santosh Yadav Granted Bail

BY THE WIRE STAFF

 

Bastar-based Santosh Yadav had been jailed in September 2015 by the Chhattisgarh police who accused him of having links with Naxals and of involvement in operations against the security forces.

 

Chhattisgarh journalist Santosh Yadav was granted bail by the Supreme Court, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced in a tweet. Yadav was arrested in September 2015 by the state police under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act for “associating with a terrorist organisation” and “supporting and aiding terrorist groups”.

Yadav, a Bastar-based freelance journalist, was arrested on September 29, 2015, after Chhattisgarh Police Special Task Force Commander Mahant Singh had said he saw him standing behind a Maoist fighter during an ambush in Darbha in August of that year. The district police echoed Singh’s claims, accusing Yadav of being a Maoist sympathiser; the superintendent also announced that Yadav was suspected of having links with Shankar, a Maoist leader in the area. However, Singh later “expressed inability to identify the accused with certainty”, according to an identification parade memo dated January 1, 2016.

Described as a fearless writer by fellow journalists, Yadav has contributed stories to various Hindi dailies including Dainik Navbharat, Patrika and Dainik Chhattisgarh, reporting on human rights violations in Bastar. Yadav often introduced the family members of those arrested by state police forces to the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, a lawyers’ collective that offered free legal services to victims of police excesses. Journalists and activists across the country protested following Yadav’s arrest.

Yadav had served as a point of contact and verification for other reporters writing Bastar, which has been described as a media blackhole, with journalists subjected to routine threats, intimidation, and harassment by both Maoists and the police.

In the chargesheet filed by the Chhattisgarh Police on February 17, 2016, Yadav was charged under various sections of the Arms Act 1959 and the Explosive Substances Act 1908. He was also charged under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA) and the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA), both of which are anti-terrorism legislations.

Sudha Bharadwaj, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, told Scroll.in that the UAPA and the CSPSA are “widely held as draconian as the ‘unlawful activity’ laid down in these Acts are vague and so broad as to be highly amenable to gross abuse and arbitrary and unreasonable action by the state police and administration”.

Yadav’s case points to the broader issue of dwindling press freedom in India, coupled with increasing rates of violence against journalists. In its report published in December 2016, the CPJ had said Yadav was the only Indian journalist to be imprisoned because of his work. According to the 2016 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India ranks abysmally low at 133 among 180 countries, The Hindu reported.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems indifferent to these threats and problems, and there is no mechanism for protecting journalists,” the RSF report asserted.

 

 

Covert op on Dawood compromised by some Mumbai cops: RK Singh

 

Noting that Dawood and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed were protected by Pakistani forces, Singh said a secret operation must be carried out in the manner the United States did to kill terrorists Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

 

India had planned a covert operation to take down underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, but the operation was compromised by some Mumbai Police officials. These are the explosive revelations made by former Home Secretary and now BJP leader RK Singh in an interview to Seedhi Baat on Aaj Tak.

RK Singh revealed details of how corrupt elements of the Mumbai Police foiled a secret operation to take down Dawood. The operation was launched when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and current NSA Ajit Doval was at the IB. Indian government had roped in some elements from the Chota Rajan gang and they were being trained at a secret location outside Maharashtra. But Mumbai Police officials who were in touch with D-company landed up at the training camp with arrest warrants for the covert operatives who had been engaged by India. The entire operation to take down Dawood failed due to these rogue elements in Mumbai police. This is the first time that there is confirmation of a botched covert operation to take down Dawood by someone who has held a position of authority.

Noting that Dawood and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed were protected by Pakistani forces, Singh said a secret operation must be carried out in the manner the United States did to kill terrorists Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. He added that Pakistan will never admit that Dawood is in Pakistan. Similarly, it will shamelessly deny the presence of other terrorists despite funding and training these terror groups on its soil. "India must repeat the Myanmar operation in Pakistan," he maintained. He added if one operation fails, the government shouldn't be disheartened but launch another operation right away.

Singh said Modi's advisors are not giving him the right advice on this issue. "Nothing will be achieved by handing over dossiers to Pakistan. It is globally recognised as a snake pit. We can't depend on the US to fight India's battles. India has to fight its own enemies," Singh added.

Singh also said the neighbouring country needs to be wise and avert a possible war by not shielding a terrorist. "Pakistan has to calculate the cost of a war. I don't think Pakistan is such a big fool that it would engage in a war with India," he said. "If America sees any threat from Pakistan, it will act. Similarly, Israel can kill its enemies. We need to develop this mentality," he added. The retired bureaucrat revealed that specially-trained private security men comprising mostly ex-army men protect Dawood in Pakistan under the supervision of the ISI. Singh exuded confidence that Modi's visit to the UAE would yield desirable results. He did acknowledge though that Dawood still has significant influence in Dubai.

Coming down heavily on Pakistan, Singh said India must stop dialogue with its neighbor and instead deal with the situation in a strategic manner. "India must hit back in a way that hurts Pakistan the most," he said while suggesting that the dialogue process only helps Pakistan restore credibility which it has lost all over the world. "Pakistan believes in a constant war with India. We have the capability to hit back hard. Any dialogue with Pakistan is futile. For a discredited country like Pakistan, dialogue process is an opportunity to regain its credibility and strike parity with India," Singh said. He said the elected government in the neighbouring country had no control over its military force and the ISI.

Singh lauded the central government's firm stand on separatists in Kashmir. He said the Pakistani government was using separatists to claim in international platform that it has the support of a section of people in Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government has done the right thing by not talking to separatists, he said.

 

Criminal justice system victimises poor and vulnerable: CJI

 

New Delhi: The criminal justice system largely victimises the poor and vulnerable sections of society and there is an urgent need for reform on multiple fronts, Chief Justice of India HL Dattu said today as he called for the scrapping of laws which criminalise begging and sex work.

 

"Not only does the criminal justice system largely victimise the poor and vulnerable sections of society, very often, laws themselves criminalise poverty and destitution," Dattu said on the occasion of Law Day function on the Supreme Court lawns.

"In India, laws criminalising beggary, sex work and certain occupations of the tribal community are often largely seen by the scholars and human rights activists as widening the net of criminality by punishing destitution.

"Along with legal aid, there must be an intense process to redo the acts that are criminalised towards decriminalisation of acts that has a disproportionate impact on the poor," he said at the function where Union Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, too, was present.

On the issue of protection of women against sexual violence, Dattu said, "We seem to be having a growing affinity for ensuring physical safety of women by curbing their freedom.

"As far as I am concerned, I would like to emphatically state in no uncertain terms that the security of women is not achieved by curbing their freedom and liberty and it is no security at all. We have to evolve some systematic reforms," he said.

The Law Minister, who spoke before the Chief Justice, dwelt upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Make in India' project, saying that the country is being converted into a major global player through the creation of a business- friendly environment.

Efforts should be undertaken to make India an international arbitration hub, he added.

He said, "The government is pushing the concept of 'Make in India' and converting the country into a major global player, for which we need to have a business-friendly environment.

 

 

In ‘safe’ custody

 

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, throws light on custodial torture

In-custody torture, though illegal under law, is often resorted too, worldwide, making it one of worst forms of human rights violations. Meenakshi Ganguly, former Time journalist and now, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, takes up a few questions here to address the subject. Excerpts:

Do you think India should also come out with an official report documenting in-custody torture as the U.S. Senate recently did on CIA's secret torture program?

Torture and other ill-treatment are absolutely forbidden under universally applicable international laws. Most that defend torture argue, as was done by the CIA, that harsh methods are necessary when there is great danger to public security. They speak of the ‘ticking bomb.’ In fact, any experienced interrogator would agree that using torture is not effective because it can produce inaccurate intelligence or generate false leads. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program shows that not only was the CIA torture far more brutal and harsh than previously admitted, it was not an effective means of producing valuable or useful intelligence. Repeated claims that the program was necessary to protect Americans turned out to be false.

India has prepared a draft bill seeking to prohibit torture. But as long as there is a culture of impunity, where public officials are protected from prosecution, the law will fail.

Some argue that our judiciary already has enough checks and balances to protect prisoners from abuse. Do you agree with it?

Indian law does not allow confessions to the police as evidence because there is concern that such confessions might be coerced. Under POTA, confessions to the police were permitted, and eventually the law was repealed because it was abused.

Although most police will argue that “third degree” is generally discouraged, in our discussions with the police we also found that it is the most used instrument in their non-existent toolkit. Overworked, where good work is seldom rewarded, junior level staff is expected to produce prompt results — and they do so by rounding up suspects and beating them, hoping to solve the case. Inevitably, they end up with false leads, often make wrong arrests and are unable to secure convictions due to lack of evidence. Poor witness protection and harassment to witnesses also means that they do not want to get involved in a long drawn out trial.

The senior officer level police complain of undue pressure from politicians and powerful figures, who can act as patrons to criminals, demanding they be protected from arrest and prosecution. Instead of upholding the law, it is the police that end up breaking it. The Supreme Court has ruled that the government must engage in police reform. This is crucial to ensure that police in India becomes an effective and accountable force. The judiciary rightly acquits people for lack of evidence. But if police does not receive the training to gather proper evidence, it also means that criminals can get away, while innocents suffer wrongful Muslim, calling me a traitor arrests, torture, and lengthy under trial detention. It also leads to an even more frightening outcome — where the police do not have evidence to convict, they decide to be both judge and executioner, doling out punishment that can range from slaps to extrajudicial killings, or fake encounters.

What vital points does HRW’s in-custody torture report of 2011 throw up?

We found that there is urgent need to implement reforms to the criminal justice system. The police in India operates as it did under colonial rule. We found that fear of police is a barrier to seeking justice. Women and children, victims of sexual attacks, said they feared further abuse if they did venture into a police station. Dalits complain that if they muster the courage to complain, they often find that the victims are made to sit on the floor outside while the upper caste perpetrators are served tea by the officer. Muslims complain of being held in suspicion.

The constabulary and the police station is often the only State presence available to the public, and it is not a pleasant experience. Many policemen agreed that they are often rude and harsh, but they also point to their own frustration, having to deal with a range of issues from domestic violence to communal riots, often because the civil administration simply fails to do its part inimplementing policy. We found police stations with desktop computers, but no electricity or even a trained operator, forget access to data and information. At some places, the residential quarters were shocking. Policemen said they are accused of demanding money when they have to travel a distance in rural areas to investigate a complaint, but said there was a shortage of vehicles or funds to pay for fuel. On the other hand, we found that many State governments are yet to establish independent and effective human rights commissions or set up a complaints authority to investigate police abuse.

Don’t we have guidelines to prevent custodial torture?

The Supreme Court and the NHRC have laid down guidelines. Unfortunately, they are routinely ignored. That is why there is such a strong demand to seek the repeal of AFSPA to be replaced by one that has stronger human rights protections. The law provides widespread powers, but protects soldiers when those powers are abused.

In the investigation of terror attacks, police have made mistakes, often due to the use of torture. The Andhra Pradesh Minorities Rights Commission, for instance, found the wrongful use of torture and recommended compensations. In one case in Orissa, we had a man tell us that he was beaten by the police so severely, his leg was fractured. In agony, when the police continued to hit his injured leg, he blurted out the names of his office colleagues, who were then arrested and tortured. All of them were charged under the counter terror laws as members of the banned Maoist groups. Eventually, they were found to be innocent by the courts.

India is yet to sign the UN Convention Against Torture. Will it help?

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had even permitted UN special rapporteurs on torture to visit their countries but reports of in-custody torture continue to pour in from such countries. Police often say that human rights impose restrictions when tough measures are needed for tough challenges. Unfortunately, any compromise is only going to lead to bad outcomes.When the State allows, even rewards, its security forces to violate the fundamental principles of the Constitution, it rarely turns out well. It leads to corruption at the very least. It can also turn policemen into killers for hire, or as a military court discovered recently, lead soldiers to kill innocents for profit.

In Sri Lanka, we have documented torture including sexual abuse of suspected LTTE supporters and sympathisers. In Bangladesh, the Rapid Action Battalion was created as a counter-terror force, but instead has repeatedly been accused of extrajudicial executions. People want to feel safe. However, we often find that denial of rights can cause security challenges, but the continued violation of human rights aggravates the situation, leading to a cycle of violence and placing innocents at risk.

 

Muslims, dalits and tribals make up 53% of all prisoners in India

 

     Muslims, dalits and adivasis — three of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society — make up more than half of India's prison population, according to an official report on prisons released this month. Although the proportion of these three communities in India adds up to about 39%, their share amongst prisoners is considerably higher at 53%.

    

India had 4.2 lakh people in prison in 2013. Nearly 20% of them were Muslims although the share of Muslims in India's population is about 13% according to Census 2001. Religion-wise data from Census 2011 is yet to be released but it is unlikely to be much different. Dalits make up 22% of prisoners, almost one in four. Their proportion in population is about 17% according to Census 2011. While adivasis make up 11% of prisoners, their share in the general population is 9%.

 

Most experts say that this disturbing trend is not because these communities commit more crimes. Rather, it arises because they are economically and socially under-privileged, unable to fight costly cases or often even pay for bail. Some say that these communities are targeted with false cases.

       Former chief justice of Delhi high court Rajinder Sachar, who headed the committee that brought out a report on the condition of Muslim community in India in 2006, pointed out that there had been several cases of Muslim youths being acquitted after years in prison.

 

"Poverty is more prevalent among these three communities and that becomes an obstacle in dealing with the legal system," said Colin Gonsalves, human rights activist and lawyer.

 

"Our system has an ingrained communal and casteist bias. Also, the proportion of these communities in the police officers and even judiciary is less. These are key factors behind this shocking imbalance," he added.

 

Pointing out that nearly 68% of the prisoners are undertrials, Abusaleh Sharif, who was member-secretary of the Sachar Committee and later brought out an updated report on the conditions of Muslims, said that they had to remain behind bars  because of inability to negotiate the hostile system.

    

"Among those in prison under preventive detention laws, nearly half are Muslims. This is the kind of thing that the government needs to speedily investigate and resolve," Sharif said.

 

Ramesh Nathan of the National Dalit Movement for Justice alleged that false cases are filed against dalits in order to intimidate them, causing this disturbingly high number of prisoners among vulnerable sections.

 

 

"In my experience as a lawyer, whenever a dalit person files a case under the Atrocities Act, a false countercase under some penal code provision is filed by the culprits," he said.

 

 

Prison statistics are published annually by the National Crime Records Bureau since 1995, although caste breakup is available since 1999. The proportions of Muslims, dalits and adivasis have remained virtually unchanged over the past 15 years indicating that this is a systemic problem.

 

NCRB data: Almost 68 percent inmates undertrials, 70 per cent of convicts illiterate

 

Almost 68 per cent of all inmates in the 1,387 jails in the country are undertrials, according to the latest figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2014. Over 40 per cent of all undertrials remain in jail for more than six months before being released on bail.

The percentage of undertrial prisoners who remain in jail for more than three months has also gone up from 62 per cent in 2013 to 65 per cent in 2014. The data looks worse when compared to previous years which showed a declining trend. In 2012, the figure stood at 62.3 per cent.

 

According to the NCRB data, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Punjab are the worst performing states, with over 75 per cent of undertrials remaining in jail for over three months. On the other hand, Kerala and Tripura recorded the lowest such cases — 35 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

A large number of undertrials remain in jails due to their inability to secure bail. The highest percentage (27.3 per cent or 63,225 of the total 2,31,962) of undertrials under IPC crimes were charged with murder. Uttar Pradesh reported 17.9 per cent of such undertrials, followed by Bihar at 8.8 per cent. A total of 6,274 convicts were habitual offenders.

The NCRB data shows that there were 4,18,536 inmates in various jails against a capacity of 3,56,561. Chhattisgarh (259 per cent) and Delhi (222 per cent) were among those which reported high overcrowding. Muslims continue to form a large share of the undertrial population, with their numbers being disproportionate to their overall population.

According to the 2011 census, Muslims constitute 14.2 per cent of India’s population. But the community accounts for 21.1 per cent of all undertrials. Among the convicted inmates, however, the Muslim share is just over 16 per cent.

 

An analysis of the caste-based classification of undertrials reveals that 37.4 per cent are from general category, 31.3 per cent OBCs, 20 per cent Scheduled Castes and 11 per cent Scheduled Tribes.

A total of 318 convicts, including eight women, lodged in different jails were facing capital punishment at the end of 2014. Of these, 95 were awarded death sentences in 2014 alone. As many as 112 inmates had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment last year.

The data also show that 1,702 imates died in jails due to various reasons, of which 1,507 were recorded as natural deaths.

 

Health  Care  for  Prisoners

 

People believe that prisoners are sent to prison as punishment, and not for punishment. This implies that the loss of an individuals right to liberty is enforced by containment in a closed environment. Thus keeping the individual in the custody of the state, should not, however, have a deleterious effect on him. But this is, unfortunately, the case to some degree or another in many of the worlds prisons. Is it possible then to define what is healthy environment in a prison? Let alone, talking about a prisoners right to health services that are to be provided to him by the prison authorities?

 

The answer to this question is that prisoners have unalienable rights conferred upon them by international treaties and covenants, they have a right to health care, and most certainly have a right not to contract diseases in prison. Prison jurisprudence recognizes that prisoners should not lose all their rights because of imprisonment. Yet, there is a loss of rights within custodial institutions, which continue to occur. Public health policies are meant to ensure the best possible living conditions for all members of society, so that everyone can be healthy. Prisoners are often forgotten in this equation. They are in constant contact with all kinds of people who come in and out of prison every day. This constant movement in and out of prison makes it all the more important to control any contagious disease within the prison so that it does not spread into the outside community.

 

In India, overcrowding has aggravated the problem of hygiene. In many jails, conditions are appalling. At the tehsil level jails, even rudimentary conveniences are not provided. Prisoners in India are not even tested for specific infectious diseases, although all prisoners undergo a medical examination when they begin serving their sentence. No studies of the prevalence of viral infections among prison inmates have been done at a national level. India's prison manuals provide for

segregation of prisoners suspected of having contagious diseases. A few jails have established informal contacts with medical and social organizations for counseling of inmates to prevent the spread of infections.

 

Violence in prison settings has many causes. Clashes may have ethnic causes, or rivalries between clans or gangs. The closed, often vastly overcrowded, living conditions also lead to hostilities between inmates. The tedious prison environment, lack of occupation of mind and body and just plain boredom, lead to accumulated frustration and tension. This environment leads the way to high-risk activities, such as use of drugs and sex between men. Some indulge in these activities to combat boredom. Others, however, are forced to engage in them, in a coercive play for power or monetary gain. Risky lifestyles can lead to the transmission of diseases from one prisoner to other prisoners, and pose a serious public health risk if unchecked. Contracting any disease in prison is not part of a prisoners sentence. This fact becomes even more significant when the disease is potentially fatal, as is the case with HIV/AIDS.

 

The Supreme Court of India in its landmark judgment in Parmanand Katara vs Union of India (1989)and others ruled that the state has an obligation to preserve life whether he is an innocent person or a criminal liable to punishment under the law. With specific reference to health, the right to conditions, adequate for the health and well-being of all was already recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ( ICESR) furthermore states that prisoners have a right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

 

The minimum standard rules for prisoners regulate the provision of health care for them. Apart from the civil and political rights, the so-called second generation economic and social human rights, as set down in the ICESCR, also apply to prisoners. The right to the highest attainable standard of health should also apply to prison health conditions and health care. This right to health care and a healthy environment is clearly linked, particularly in the case of HIV, to other first generation rights, such as non-discrimination, privacy and confidentiality. Prisoners cannot fend for themselves in their situation of detention, and it is the responsibility of the state to provide for health services and a healthy environment.

 

Human rights instruments call for prisoners to receive health care at least equivalent to that available for the outside population. On one hand, equivalence rather than equity has been called for because a prison is a closed institution with a custodial role that does not always allow for the same provision of care available outside. Prisoners are more likely to already be in a bad state of health when they enter prison, and the unfavorable conditions therein worsen the health situation. Hence the need for health care and treatments will often be greater in a prison than in an outside community. However, providing even basic health care to prisoners has proved extremely difficult in India, as the health system is chronically insufficient.

 

In prisons, the human environment is often one of violence and high-risk lifestyles, either engaged in voluntarily by those prisoners with positions of power, or forced upon the weaker prisoners. Prisoners have a right to live in conditions where their individual safety is guaranteed. It is paramount for the prison administration to have a thorough knowledge of how HIV is likely to be transmitted in a given prison. If sexual coercion and/or violence are the main issue, better surveillance and timely intervention to protect targeted prisoners must be enforced. HIV-positive inmates should not be denied access to recreation, education or access to the outside world.

 

From a strictly medical point of view, there is no justification for segregation as long as the prisoner is healthy. Solitary confinement of HIV-positive inmates should be forbidden. Any restrictions should be exceptional, such as mandatory testing for particularly risky situations, such as prisoners working as medical orderlies in hospitals or dental clinics. There may also be considerations of personal security where, for example, prisoners known to be HIV-positive request to be kept in a secure unit as they fear for their own safety.

 

Both prison reform and penal reform are crucial elements if the many problems affecting the Indian prisons are to be resolved. Diminishing the overall prison population will allow improvements of the physical and working conditions of the prisons, and help to ensure the security of all individuals in custody. Obviously, financial resources will have to be allotted to the prison systems as well. One effective way to curb the rise in prison populations would be to offer alternatives to imprisonment for non-violent and civil offenders.

 

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