The Kukanar SHO and the Sukma SP are refusing to register an FIR against the security forces for brutally beating up and torturing many villagers from Chhote Tongpal and Jangampal on 26.11.2014. We urge you to call them up and remind them of their legal duty to register the FIR on behalf of the villagers. Phone numbers below.

Background: 

Police and security forces had entered these villages on 26.11.2014, beat up several villagers including elderly women, and dragged away 26 men to the police station in Kukanar, without giving any reasons for their detention.  The next day, 11 men were released but the remaining 15, including several who are possibly underage, were charged with participation in Naxalite crimes. Three of these men also reported to the magistrate that they had been beaten with lathis by police in custody.
Twelve of the 15 men who were picked up from Chhote Tongpal and Jangampal on 26.11.2014 and charged with participation in Naxalite crimes, sitting in the court in Sukma.

 

When the villagers went to register an FIR against police brutality on 27.11.2014, the SHO refused to do so – saying that he first needed to conduct a preliminary inquiry.  In spite of severally badly injured women who had come all the way to the thana, the SHO deliberately delayed the process of ordering MLCs – well-aware that swellings, discolorations resulting from beatings usually subside in 48 hours.  Despite this deliberate delay, the MLCs conducted the next day in the Sukma District Hospital on 10 women and 2 men from these villages clearly show that they have sustained injuries caused by a “hard and blunt object,” 36-48 hours earlier to their examination.

 

 

Jimme Sukka 2
Sanni Kawasi Nanda
Jimme w/o Sukka showing the bruise (contusion) on her upper thighSanni Kawasi w/o Nanda showing injury marks on her shoulder
 

Swollen hands of Bhime

Villagers waiting to file the FIR on 27.11.14-2
Swollen hands of Bhime Kawasi, who has been unable to move her hands and feed herself ever since this assault.Villagers waiting to file their FIR in the Kukanar police station on 27.11.2014.

 

In spite of repeated pleas, the SHO and SP are still refusing to register the FIR, claiming that a preliminary inquiry into the incident needs to be completed first.  However, with 12 MLCs and 2 statements of villagers recorded by the Kukanar SHO detailing how the security forces, which had come to arrest the menfolk, rained blows and lathis on their family members – there is enough information disclosing the commission of a cognizable crime by the security forces.

We must support the brave villagers who have come out to oppose this brutality. Please call the following –

SHO Kukanar, Prakash Rathore  – 09406090976

SP Sukma, D. Shrawan Kumar –  09479190085

 

Thank you,

Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group

Phone – 09993378384