Ruled by Indian National
Lok Dal, Haryana faces no internal armed conflict. However,
atrocities perpetrated by Haryana Police reflect the ills
of law enforcement in the country. In 2004, arbitrary deprivation
of the right to life, torture and other harassment by police
were common. But, the State government failed to establish
a State Human Rights Commission. This is despite the fact
that in February 2004, the Punjab and Haryana High Court
issued a notice on the establishment of a State Human Rights
Commission.
In a State where the imbalance
of sex ratio is 861 females for every 1000 males, buying of brides - the victims of trafficking,
is a common practice.
Panchayats across Haryana
have been acting as extra-constitutional authorities to
declare marriages of different gotras (clans) invalid with
virtual impunity. While judicial interventions in a few
cases provided relief to the victims, no action has been
taken against such village council members.
The National Commission
for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes ranked Haryana
as number two in 2003 for atrocities against the Dalits.
There has been little improvement of the situations of the
Dalits.
The State government of
Haryana has taken little measures to rehabilitate the persons
who were displaced by industrial projects in Panipat district.
The National Human Rights
Commission had registered 29 custodial deaths in 1999-2000,
24 in 2000-2001, 39 in 2001-2002 and 47 in 2002-2003 in
Haryana.
In 2004, there were many
reports of arbitrary deprivation of the right to life by
Haryana Police.
On the night of 25 February
2004, Kailash was taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation
Agency (CIA) personnel on suspicion of possessing charas,
marijuana, and died in the police custody in Jind town.
He was allegedly tortured till he became unconscious and
was dumped nearby his residence. He was taken to the General
Hospital of Jind where the doctors declared him dead. The
police reportedly registered a case under Section 302 of
Indian Penal Code against Assistant Sub-Inspector, Mr Heera
Lal, Head constable, Mr Jaipal and four other police officials.
On the intervening night
of 12 and 13 June 2004, Sheo Chand, a resident of village
Dulet was killed in the custody of the Bhuna police station
in Fatehabad district. He was earlier handed over to the
police after being tied with a rope by one Pawan and his
father Satish. He was also beaten up following an altercation
with the two after buying and consuming liquor from their
shop. The shop allegedly did not have a licence but liquor
was sold in connivance with the local police. The police
took him to Bhuna Police Station and later moved him to
the Community Health Centre at Bhuna at about 2 a.m. in
the night in a serious condition. At 3 am, he died. On 13
June 2004, the police arrested the two shopkeepers who were
remanded to judicial custody in Hisar jail for 14 days.
A post-mortem of the body of the victim was reportedly conducted
on 13 June 2004. On 14 June 2004, the Judicial Magistrate,
Ms Ritu Y. K. Bahl remanded Sub-Inspector Umed Singh, who
was also the Station House Officer (SHO) of Bhuna police
station to 14-day judicial custody.
In early July 2004, two
policemen, Havildar Dalip Singh and Assistant Sub-Inspector
Mahabir of Loharu police station arrested a Dalit, Hari
Singh, and allegedly tortured him to death inside the police
station. His dead body was recovered from a deserted well
on 10 July 2004 with multiple marks of torture. A medical
board, which performed a post-mortem examination, had reported
that he died due to severe beating. The police however refused
to register a murder case.
Torture is an integral part
of law enforcement in Haryana. Police resort to torture
to extract confessions or information, for extortion or
simply to settle personal enmity.
In early January 2004, a
20-year-old mentally ill destitute woman was allegedly beaten
up by the police in the Palwal police station in Faridabad
district. The activists of the Shakti Vahini, an NGO, rescued
the destitute woman hailing from Madhya Pradesh. When the
NGO activists handed over the women to the police for sending
her to the Nari Niketan, the police started beating her
in front of them without any reason.
In September 2004, Head
Constable Rajender Singh Saini was arrested for torturing
Manish Kumar of Uttam Nagar, Rewari district on 24 March
2003. Manish Kumar was arrested for an alleged abduction
of a teenaged girl. He was allegedly tortured by Head Constable
Rajender Singh Saini, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Zile Singh
and a few other policemen during detention. A medical report
of the PGIMS, Rohtak confirmed that the victim had been
grievously hurt during the “inhuman treatment”. The Punjab
and Haryana High Court issued a directive ordering IG (Crime
Branch), Haryana, to conduct a fresh investigation into
the matter, following which Rajender Singh Saini was arrested.
On 20 May 2004, Bhagwan
Singh of Joshi village and his 20-year-old son Pawan Kumar
were arrested by Assistant Sub-Inspector Mohindra Singh.
They were allegedly tortured inhumanly during their illegal
captivity in Matloda police station in Panipat district
by Station House Officer Baali Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector
Mohindra Singh and four other Criminal Investigation Agency
(CIA) staff. After torture, Bhagwan Singh was released on
21 May 2004 but his son was kept in illegal captivity. The
SHO Baali Singh and ASI Mohindra Singh allegedly demanded
a bribe of Rs 20,000 for the release of his son. Pawan Kumar
was taken to CIA staff near Panipat Devi Temple on 25 May
2004 where four police personnel allegedly did not spare
even his private parts during torture. The NHRC directed
to take actions against the guilty cops.
On 14 May 2004, Rakesh,
an army personnel from 65 Engineering Unit (Army) at Roorkee
allegedly raped a woman in Sargathal village under Gohana
Sadar police station of Sonepat district. He was arrested
in July 2004.
On 25 September 2004, a
youth named Tarun of Jamalpur Mohalla was allegedly beaten
up by the police in the Civil Lines police station in Sonepat
because of a personal enmity with a policeman. He was picked
up from the Ashok Nagar bazaar and taken to the Civil Lines
police station where he was beaten up mercilessly without
any crime.
The imbalance in sex ratio
because of female infanticide has been having disastrous
effects and a cause of major crimes. The sex ratio in Haryana
is 861 females for every 1000 males. To meet the demands
of marriage, women from Bihar and Jharkhand are trafficked
and bought or sold as “brides” in many parts of Haryana.
They are abused and often pushed into the flesh trade.
Police sources reported
in December 2003 that at least 5,000 girls from Assam and
West Bengal were “purchased” and confined in various households
in Haryana’s Mewat region consisting of Faridabad, Gurgaon
and Rewari. However, due to lack of awareness and unwillingness
of authorities to coordinate, strengthen inter-state links,
lack of proper collection of information and inefficient
handling of cases, little action was taken to combat trafficking.
On the night of 26 January
2004, one Sandhya (name changed) reportedly lodged a complaint
with the Chandni Chowk police station in New Delhi alleging
that a woman from the Old Delhi Railway station abducted
her in July 2003 and sold her to one Wazir at Sivan village
in Karnal district. An agriculturist of Ror community, Wazir
reportedly bought her for Rs 35,000 as a bride for his unmarried
nephew, Joginder. Before she was sold Sandhya was reportedly
kept in Sivan village for over a month, while her abductors
tried to strike a deal. She was rescued by STOP, an NGO,
with the help of the Gurgaon police after she had written
a letter to her family giving details of her whereabouts.
On 29 December 2003, a 15-year-old
dalit girl, who was living with her cousin at Hardwar in
Uttaranchal, was reportedly brought to Ambala by a woman,
a native of Ambala, and allegedly sold her to one Satish
and his brothers in Hassanpur village, near Karnal on 31
December 2003 without the knowledge of the girl. It was
only when the village women commented at her saying “Bahu
to suthri sai” (bride is beautiful) that she came to realise
that she had been married.
She was repeatedly raped by relatives of Satish till
evening of 13 January 2004 when she managed to escape from
Satish’s house at Hassanpur and reported the matter to the
police station at Madhuban. A medical examination reportedly
confirmed the rape. On 14 January 2004, the police arrested
Satish.
In July 2004, a minor girl
from Assam, identified as Padmavati, daughter of one Sahil,
alias Raghu, a resident of Tongla village in the Kamrup
district of Assam was rescued by NGO, Shakti Vahini. She
was kept in captivity near sector-6 of Faridabad. She was
brought along with five other girls on pretext of providing
employment by a woman from Ranchi where she had gone to
attend a family function.
While buying of brides is
a common practice in many parts of Haryana, the village
councils have been perpetrating atrocities in the name of
gotra.
On 11 October 2004, Rampal
and Sonia of Assanda village in Jhajjar district who have
been married for two years were issued order to dissolve
their marriage by the Assanda village Panchayat and declare
themselves brother and sister as they belonged to the same
`gotra’ (caste). The panchayat had even decided that Sonia,
who is pregnant with Rampal’s child, would have to abort
her child as it was “illegitimate”. The NHRC intervened
in the matter. On 28 October 2004, the village Panchayat decided
to validate Sonia’s marriage to Rampal and accept her back
in the village after Sonia’s father swore that he belonged
to the Hooda gotra.
In October 2004, Jakholi
village Panchayat reportedly directed the breakup of proposed
marriage of Satyajeet Kadiyan, son of Dr. Randhir Singh
of Jakholi in Kaithal district, with Pinki, daughter of
Pratap Singh Lohan of Ramra Bhain in Jind. The caste Panchayat
held that no Lohan girl could be married into a village
where some Lohan families are settled. The Panchayat also
announced social boycott of Lohan families of Jakholi village
and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on anyone found to be keeping
relationship with these families. The social boycott hit
the Lohan’s livelihood. Nobody would buy from their shops
nor shopkeepers from other communities were ready to sell
goods to them. Even the chemists refused to sell them medicines.
Labourers refused to harvest their crops fearing action
by the panchayat.
On 7 December 2004, Supreme
Court directed the Haryana Police to provide adequate protection
to Hari Om from a lower caste of Badshahpur village and
Manju belonging to an upper caste from Gurgaon. They belong
to different castes and got married in a temple at Muzaffarnagar
in Uttar Pradesh on 21 July 2004. However, the village Panchayat
declared their marriage illegal. Both of them had left their
homes as they were sure that their parents and village panchayat
would not approve of their marriage. Manju’s parents filed
a case of abduction against Hari Om and the police brought
the girl back and restored to her parents. Her parents forced
her into second marriage on 18 August 2004. But she fled
the house of her second husband and returned to Hari Om
at Muzaffarnagar. Meanwhile, the village panchayats at Badshahpur
(Gurgaon) and Ladhpur (Jhajjar) refused to recognize the
marriage and ordered that the girl should be produced before
them and sent back to her second husband Pradeep of Ladhpur.
Feeling threatened by the diktats of panchayats, Manju and
Hari Om moved the Supreme Court.
On 14 December 2004, Chander
Singh Mann’s son Birpal of Hadodi village under Badhra subdivision
of Bhiwani district married the daughter of Chhatar Singh
Bhambhu of Basdi village despite objections from villagers,
as the bride was allegedly the maternal niece of Sheoran
gotra. A panchayat was convened late on the night where
former Sarpanch Jawahar Singh, who presided over the Panchayat,
authorized a 21-member committee to decide about on the
matter. The committee recommended social boycott and expulsion
of the family of Chander Singh. The Panchayat directed the
couple to break up by 20 December 2004. Following the defiance,
the village Panchayat ordered social boycott and expulsion
of the Maan family from the village. The Panchayat further
warned that anybody ploughing the fields of Chander Singh
Maan or co-operating with his family in any way would invite
rigorous punishment.
The Dalits face many atrocities
ranging from lynching to murder, sexual assault on women,
public humiliation, stripping, shaving off of the head etc.
On the night of 9 July 2004,
about 12 persons barged into the house of a Dalit at Nahri
village, Sonepat and allegedly manhandled the members of
the family and raped a minor girl. The girl was taken to
the civil hospital in Sonepat for medical examination.
A Dalit woman accused five
members, including two women, of the upper caste family
of Mohinder Singh of Dodhipur village of molesting her and
using abusive language against Dalits on 12 October 2004.
The victim, an Anganwari worker stated she had gone to administer
polio drops to children in that area as part of her duty
when the incident happened. Although she reported the matter
to the police on that day, the police allegedly refused
to lodge her complaint. An FIR was registered on 3 December 2004 after several days of dharna
outside the office of the Samalkha Deputy Superintendent
of Police. A case was filed against five members of the
upper caste family under relevant sections of the 1989 Prevention
of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Act. But at the same time the police also registered a counter-FIR
allegedly lodged by a woman of Mohinder Singh’s family accusing
Karan Singh, husband of the Dalit woman, of raping her on
11 October 2004. No medical examination of the alleged rape
victim was conducted nor a case was registered against Karan
Singh on that day. These were allegedly part of the strategy
to reach compromise.
Risal Singh Rathee, a disabled
Dalit employee of the postal department, has allegedly been
victimised by his department. He was able to get the order
of his pre-mature retirement in February 2004 reversed and
was re-instated in June 2004. However, the postal department
officials reportedly stopped his salary for the intervening
period between his “retirement” and re-instatement. They
also delayed his wages for about three months after he had
joined the duty again.
The State government of
Haryana has taken little measures to rehabilitate the persons
who were displaced by industrial projects in Panipat district.
Pollution caused by the
Tau Devi Lal Thermal Power Station in Panipat
reportedly displaced over 10,000 residents of the
five villages of Khukhrana, Sutana, Jatal, Aasnkala and
Asankhurd in the vicinity of the plant. The release of the
huge quantity of fly ash waste by the thermal plant has
been polluting air, groundwater, agricultural land and atmosphere.
It has resulted in serious health hazards like asthma, skin
and eye diseases. After 20 years of the plant’s functioning,
hundreds of tonnes of ash waste up to 30 feet high have
been collected in the dumping ground. Many villagers have
migrated to other places without any compensation. The situation
will further worsen as two more units of 250 MW capacity
each will start functioning.
In September 2004, the displaced
families of Bohli village in Panipat district, whose thousands
of acres of land was acquired by Indian Oil Corporation
Limited to set up a refinery about a decade ago requested
the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to
constitute a committee to look into their rehabilitation.
Over one-fourth of the 483 displaced
families of Bohli village were yet to be rehabilitated
in New Bohili village, especially carved out for them. The
basic facilities have not been provided to even those families
in New Bohli. The then Chief Secretary of Haryana had reportedly
assured the displaced persons on 12 November 1992 that at
least one person of each displaced family would be provided
job in the refinery but it has not been implemented. The
PIL filed before the High Court three years ago has been
pending determination.
