Manipur police you too

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'Manipur police you too...!'
— A tale of torture- heard with shock and anguish —

By: Oinam Anand *

Maibam Naobi Chanu of Leirongthel Pitra, a private school teacher by profession on the 21st of the last month came to witness or to take part in the funeral of one of the RPF cadres, Bikash who got killed in the suicide ambush of OC of the Thoubal Police the previous day.

On that day she might not have the slightest suspicion - in her mind that she might be arrested (if, so, she might not have turned up at the spot at that hour) and detained for nine days in police custody and have to bear physical and mental trauma as a part of interrogation for extracting information from her.

The tragedy that she had to endure was due to suspicion of the police personnel that she was not a member of the family of the deceased cadre as well as for being an individual from another locality.

If there is a law under the Constitution of Democratic India that restricts friends, relatives and well-wishers to attend funerals of those wanted militants, then Naobi might not have got herself there on that fateful day. Her fault was that she joined the funeral and got herself on the focus of the suspicious eyes of the police commandos which were already red with rage.

But one lesson which seems to have been forgotten by the law-enforcers is that liberty of a person is sacrosanct. He/she cannot be arrested unless there is some charge against him/her or he/she is supposed to be involved in anti-social acts or is likely to do such acts. The police arrested Naobi on suspicion.

But here the law enforcing authorities have forgotten a crucial fact while booking a person on suspicion. That is a person may be arrested under a procedure established by law. It is an elementary rule of law that when a person is arrested, he or she must be supplied with grounds of his or her arrest and charges against him or her. Has this procedure been followed in the case of Naobi? Everyone knows (no need to waste ink on it).

Now the court has released her without any condition as the charges cannot be substantiated against her at all. But here one question is that will the court restore and give back the dignity, modesty and chastity of womanhood in Naobi which she had preciously guarded before February 21, 2006. If this is not gross violation of human rights then what is the definition of violation of human rights?

Let us remember the guidelines of the Apex Court of the country in this regard. The supreme court in DK Basu case (1997) drafted guidelines to be followed by the police for arrest and interrogation, with a view to giving little scope for illegal detention or improper interrogation.

The court even directed State Human Right Commissions to ensure that the guidelines were adhered to. Yet complaints of violation of norms are increasing day by day.

We have become more and more conscious of Human Rights. There are State Human Right Commissions monitoring violation of Human Rights. On the other hand deprivation of Human Rights and human values by the State machinery (force) had also increased.

The State Human Right Commission has nothing to do but to remain mute as a toothless tiger. This excesses on the part of the security forces nullify the universal acceptance that democracy is the guarantee for observance of human rights.

The law states that - 'be you ever so high, the law is above you - Yes, there is law in our State. No one can deny it. But when the law itself fears the law enforcers, then our law is just like that of a spider web where small insects get stuck and dies while larger ones force their way tearing apart the web.

The whole of Manipur is yet to recover from the trauma of the arrest and murder of Th Manorama Devi by the AR. The case of Maibam Naobi brings the memories of those days back again.

This is a revised updated version of the case of Th Manorama. There are only two differences. The first, Manorama did not return to tell the world her suffering at the hands of the security force. Manorama was killed. It might be perhaps a strategy to avoid the disclosure for the torture done to her.

The second, Manorama was tortured and killed in the hands of the Central para-military force, while Naobi was disrobed of her chastity, mo-desty and dignity by non other but her own blood, her brothers - the State force.

Life does not mean more physical and animal existence. Life means to live with dignity. Human worth and dignity and more specially the modesty of womanhood should not be robbed even in the hands of guardians of law.

The police commandos of the Manipur police with the tag of 'Commando' have been emboldened very much and they have no fear in indulging in such activities which may be termed as inhumane and pervasive.

State functionaries accused of such offences should be summarily dismissed irrespective of judicial proceedings. At the same time victims of torture should be rehabilitated and compensated to the gravity of damage done to them.

Oinam Anand wrote this article for The Sangai Express.
This article was webcasted on March 06th, 2006

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