---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: adv sudha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Dear friends,
After two attempts, in which we were refused for some technical reason or
other, finally myself and Advocate Sadiq Ali managed to meet with the two
women undertrials K Shanti Priya @ Malti Reddy and Meena Chaudhari presently
lodged in Central Jail Raipur in connection with cases of waging war,
sedition and offences under the Arms Act.
Both these women were on a protest hunger strike between 27th August and 8th
September (both inclusive). Though they are not on hunger strike now, Meena
Chaudhari is still rather weak, is having low blood pressure and is
complaining of giddiness.
The details of the events, as told to us during our jail interview with
Meena and Malti are briefly as follows:
1. It had been amply clear for some time that the jail authorities were
looking for some excuse to lodge these "Naxalite" women prisoners in the
newly constructed solitary cells of the women's wing of the Central
Jail Raipur.
2. On 23rd August during the Collectors visit, Meena and Malti had raised
some of the common grievances of all the women prisoners in an application,
On 25th they were taken to their hearing as usual.
3. On 26th August at about 7 pm, 8 women jail staff, 4 women convicts and
1 woman gatekeeper took hold of Meena and said that it has been ordered that
she must be taken to the "gunha khana" (convicted cell). Meena and Malti
repeatedly asked to see the order for this and protested. Upon which these
people dragged Meena by her hair, kicked her into a flower bed and then
dragged her kicking and beating her and locked her up in a solitary cell.
She had bruises and scratches on her thighs, wrists etc. but has to date not
been medically examined. Meena protested vociferously and and nearly lost
consciousness from the exertion of her protest by 10pm. This might have
panicked the jail authorities who then took her out of the single cell and
brought her back to her regular barrack.
4. From the next day, i.e. 27th August, the two women squatted on the
"chabutra" (platform) in the main courtyard of the womens jail and demanded
that they be shown the order by which the action of forcibly putting Meena
in the solitary cell had been carried out. They refused to take their food
and had to be forcibly brought back to the lock up each night.
5. These women prisoners wrote letters to the DIG Jail, IG Jail, and the
Collector. It is pertinent that even earlier the women had a 3 day hunger
strike in April to ensure that the Deputy Collector carried out his regular
inspections.
6. The Jail Superintendent Mr. SS Tigga came on the 28th. For 2-3 days
the women refused even water which forced the DIG to visit them on 4th. He
said that all their grievances to the Collector were being investigated, and
advised them to eat their food. He claimed he had received their letter only
on that very day. However despite repeated iteration no order was shown to
them and has still not been shown to them to the present day. They were not
medically examined even once despite the fact that they were on hunger
strike for 14 days.
7. Even the story of the contents of the mysterious 'order' have
continuously changed. First the jail authorities said it was on the basis of
the argument they had with the lady jailor on the 26th when Malti had
requested to be given "rakhi"and the jailor had passed the order. Later they
said it was an order of the court, which is not true. Finally they said the
Superintendent had passed an order on the basis of some charges against them
whereas Mr Tigga had denied this on the 28th. Clearly some back dated cover
up process is going on and possibly some 'order' might have been
manufactured by now. In fact the prisoners complained that they have come to
know that 15-20 women inmates have been forced to write false complaints
against them by threatening them with enhanced penalties of 2-3 years!
Whereas in reality they were having very cordial relations with all the
other inmates. Also though Meena was so badly beaten, it is being falsely
made out as if she had attacked the jail staff which is a sheer
impossibility.
8. The most shocking thing was the attitude of the State Human Rights
Commission. A team of the commission visited the jail while the women
prisoners were on hunger strike. At that time Malti was so weak, she could
barely write an application as asked. But the team refused to take their
letter and rather admonished them that "they should listen to the Madam
Superintendent". Clearly the commission has no independence vis a vis the
jail or police authorities. When a citizen is in the custody of the State,
then it is extremely important that he/she is at least given a fair hearing
by some independent agency, otherwise there can be no hope of justice for
them in the period of their incarceration.
9. It is pertinent that ever since Meena and Malti had been incarcerated,
owing to their protests, the beating of women inmates had completely ceased.
But now the other prisoners are threatened if they even dare to speak to
these two, so they are being isolated even while being kept in the common
barack.This has led to the women prisoners being given more workload and
worse quality food, and for this the jail staff tell them that all this is
the result of the protests of the "Naxalite" women.
10. Since this incident the two women are not permitted to do the usual
activities of computers or stitching as they were doing earlier. They are
being harassed by diluting their dal and vegetable to make it even more
unpalatable and non-nutritious. Even the list of items that they request to
be purchased at their own expense is not given to them.
The above are the bare facts. Please forward these to all concerned
individuals and organisations. We seek the co-operation of all of you in
ensuring that prisoners in Chhattisgarh are treated lawfully and with
dignity and that undertrials are not persecuted for alleged political
offences.
Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj
Address: EWS 90, Nehru Nagar, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.
Mobile No.: 09926603877.
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