Independent
Fact finding Team on Custodial death of Akhilesh Sahu and death of Naqeeb Ahmad
Siddiqi in unprovoked Police Firing in Singrauli
An independent Fact Finding team led by Justice PC Jain
(Retd Judge, Jaipur High Court) which investigated in the matter strongly
protests against the Inquiry led by Mr. R S Tripathi (Retd District and
Sessions Judge) into the matter of custodial torture and death of Akhilesh Sahu,
and death of Naqeeb Ahmad Siddiqui in Singrauli during 5th to 13th
Dec 2013.
The fact finding team believes that the current inquiry by
Mr. R S Tripathi will be infructuous because of the following reasons:
1.
The seat of the Commission is Rewa when the
event happened at Singrauli. This is prejudicial to the interests of truth and
justice. It will severely restrict people from making verbal and written
submission to the Commission. The Commission being seated at Rewa also
overlooks the importance of circumstantial evidence at the places of
occurrences.
2.
The Commission has no TOR or the TOR is highly
inadequate, as the Commission only looks at certain events and does not looks
at entire chain of events that led into killing of Akhilesh Shah and Naqeeb
Ahmad Siddiqui. The Commission being
appointed on 15th Dec is not looking into the matter of custodial
torture of Sanjay Shah, which is an important link into the chain of events.
3.
The Commission has failed to give the report in
three months time after its constitution. It took almost no action till late
February 2014.
The independent Fact finding team also believes that
inability of the Commission in unearthing the truth will help justify the
police atrocity and strengthen the hands of the perpetrators.
The Committee demands that the current commission should be
relieved and superceded by a High Powered Committee under a retired Judge of
the High Court, which should enquire into the chain of events leading to the
deaths of Akhilesh Sahu and Naqeeb Ahmad Siddiqui.
The team organized a Press Conference on the issue on 24th
February at Bhopal. It also met with the Chief Secretary and the Secretary,
Home to reiterate its demand.
The observation and recommendation of the fact finding team
are as follows:
Main observation of
the Fact Finding Team
The observations of the fact finding team are based on the
representation of the relatives, and representatives of community and
independent witnesses, and other available evidences and circumstantial
evidence, the fact finding committee observes:
2. The fact finding team rejected the police story that Akhilesh died due to drowning in the well. It was observed by the team that postmortem report of the deceased revealed that the death was caused due to puncture of small intestine by some hard and blunt object (which is generally caused when a person is kicked severely and mercilessly in the stomach). The post mortem report also revealed that there was very small amount of liquid in the stomach (100 ml) and the lungs were clear. Had he died due to drowning, the lungs and stomach would have had larger amounts of liquid.
3. There were marks of intravenous injection on the hands of Akhilesh suggesting that he might have been taken to the doctors when his situation went bad.
4. The post mortem report conducted on 14th December gave the duration of death as 2 to 5 days before, however, the police said that the Akhilesh died on 5th, which is in not supported by the postmortem report.
5. It is also highly unlikely that Akhilesh fell into the well on 5th and died as in such a case his body would have been discovered much earlier. The well had also rings on the inner wall and anybody could have come out without much difficulty or else could have shouted for help as there are many houses within hearing distance.
6. There was no FIR or any case registered against Akhilesh, therefore his confinement is completely illegal, custodial torture resulting in death, and efforts to remove evidences etc. point to grave violations of laws of arrest and detention by the SP and other police officers.
7. Sanjay Shah’s brutal torture in the police custody too is completely illegal. He suffered fracture in the leg and the neck, which is not explained by police. Sanjay reported that the SP wanted him to confess that Akhilesh was with him since 5th December, the day on which Akhilesh was picked up by police.
8. The order for police firing was given by Naibtehsildar, who was officiating as Tehsildar. It needs to be noted that Tehsildar is a second class magistrate and does not have power to order firing. Even if he gave the orders on the instruction of the Collector, Collector failed to exercise reasonable care and caution in using the discretion vested in him.
Main recommendations of the fact finding team are as under
1.
The case should be investigated by a high
powered Committee led by a retired Judge of the High Court.
2.
There is an atmosphere of fear in Singrauli,
which might prevent people from making verbal and written representation to the
Committee, which should be looked into.
3.
If the police officers are found guilty, they
should be charged for murder.
4.
The family of the deceased should be given
adequate compensation.
5.
The main reasons for petty theft, industrial
disputes and lack of peace in the district is lack of employment and livelihood
opportunities for people, and also domination of the big companies and lack of
respect for labour laws, and police protecting corporate interests rather than
human rights. It is recommended that the incident should be looked at in this
broader context.
Signed
Pana Chand Jain
Retd. Judge, Jaipur High Court
(Mobile: 09829252173)
SoumyaDutta
Bharat Jan VigyanJathha
(Mobile:09213763756)
Johar, Jharkhand
Aradhana Bhargav
Advocate, Jabalpur High Court
Sanjeev Kumar
Delhi Forum
Ajay K Jha
PAIRVI, Delhi
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