I suggest that all members of this Peoples Tribunal themselves court arrest
and request the ATS to arrest them as like Kirity Roy they also have to be
investigated , if they at all were running a parallel Judicial system
!!!!!!!!.No one should be victimized for ascertaining the truth, no matter how
harsh the truth and even it conflicts with our pre-judged notions of what the
truth should be .Truth is never convenient but it assists a democratic society
in understanding the rights and wrongs of the process of governance which
must always be by the people and for the people.
I remember being asked by a senior military delegation from China in the early
nineties , on what did I consider to be a major achievement of India after
Independence . I replied that we had avoided large scale famines in the years
immediately after Indian Independence . When they inquired how we were able to
do so in the fifties and sixties when the food situation in India was still
precarious and that China even post 1949 has suffered from famine in the
fifties and sixties . My answer was that we had a democratic system of
governance which resulted in honest reporting and coverage of distress wherever
it occurred and no one desired to benefit from concealment as at the relevant
time there was mutual trust between the government and the people , that even
if there were errors they would be bona fide .They reflected on this analysis
. When questioned on the track record of Communist governments in India , I
replied if they do good work they are elected and if they neglect the peoples
interest they are democratically removed from office , which is as it should be
.No government can claim political impunity .
They laughed when I said : " You see Communists are also good and bad in India
, as much as any other political formation . However everyone has to act
within the framework of the Constitution of India enacted by revolutionary
democrats who fought for India's freedom , the government and the people '.
What we have seen in Latin America let us not repeat in India , violence and
more violence and the disruption of entire societies and the misuse of the word
terrorism .The Supreme Court has said that we cannot be at war with our own
people , whether these people are those desiring the security of their village
settlements in their own habitat or the Security Forces and the Police , both
are own people . We have seen the reality of the wars for resource seizures in
Asia , they have financially bankrupted whole societies .
When Gandhi told us to boycott foreign cloth we did so , the answer was not
that we refuse to do so as this was against development, eveb as he explained
that lack of livelihood , unemployment and hunger are violence on our society
perpetrated by colonial control . The reality is that there is a system which
converts everything into a commodity for endless process of production and sale
. The real dialogue of the 21st Century is about what is sustainable
development for each society and how to achieve it along with restoring human
dignity .
Niloufer Bhagwat
----- Original Message -----
From: Niloufer Bhagwat
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 1:28 PM
Subject: Re: [humanrights-movement:2437] condemn the arrest of
humanrightsactivist, Kirity Roy
The charge of organizing a parallel judicial system is absurd and a Court in
West Bengal rejecting a Writ Petition saying that this has to be investigated
by the ATS ,does not stand the test of past precedence on the issue
,including the practice of senior members of the Judiciary after retirement
themselves participating in fact finding Peoples Tribunals . Have the former
Judges of the Supreme Court and High Court been arrested by the Anti-Terrorist
Squads for being members of a parallel judicial system ?????This is absurd
For many years Peoples Tribunals have been constituted including into the
Mumbai pogroms of 1992 , Gujarat Pogroms of 2002 and into various issues
including relating to hunger deaths when collective groups of people have
been affected and including when the issue of civil liberties have been in
issue . Eminent members of the Judiciary have been members of such Tribunals
including former Judges of the Supreme Court Justices Krishna Iyer , Justice
B.P. Sawant among many others .
It appears prima facie that there is an attempt to prevent citizens from
ascertaining the truth , taking advantage of the fact that cases take years to
dipose off and people rot in jail, as there is no time bound program for
disposal of cases even in the Special Courts constituted . On the one hand the
Law Minister himself says that law reforms are over due and that informal
disposal of cases must take place outside the formal judicial system , and at
the same time a Judge dismisses the Writ Petition saying that it has to be
investigated by the ATS whether Peoples Tribunals constitute a parallel
jurdiciary .In many instances the Crime Branch and the ATS have been
disputing who the real accused are .
The Salwa Judum was a parallel and illegal militia actually attacking ,
killing and raping declared illegal by the Supreme Court, have any arrests been
made of those who organized and funded these militias who were terroriizing
the people , by the Anti-Terrorist Squads ?????
If a fact finding team were to inquire into the death in the brutal ambush
of 75 personnel of the CRPF in Dantewada and the Eastern Rifles in Bengal ,
including by government agencies and at the instance of their families , would
this be considered a parralel Judicial system ????Or an attempt to know the
truth .
I do not know whether this will reach you and in what form or whether some
inconvenient aspects will be deleted .
Niloufer Bhagwat
----- Original Message -----
From: Rights Support Centre
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 10:20 PM
Subject: [humanrights-movement:2437] condemn the arrest of
humanrightsactivist, Kirity Roy
Mr Kirity Roy, Secretary of Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) is
arrested by the
Anti Terrorist Cell of Kolkata Police this morning
Mr Roy was arrested from his residence at
Serampore, Hooghly in Kolkata at around 9 AM today in connection with
Taltala Police Station case no. 134/2008 dated 9 June 2008 under Section
170 (Personating a public officer), Section 179 (refusing to answer
public servant authorized to question), Section 229 (Personation of a
juror or assessor) and Section 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian
Penal Code against Mr. Kirity Roy and others of MASUM. This case was
registered for organizing a People’s Tribunal on Torture on 9-10 June
2008 at Kolkata.
Mr Kirity Roy was only one of the organizers of
the People’s Tribunal on Torture. The panelists included Ms. Pamela
Philipose, Executive Director, Women Feature Service, Mr. Ashok
Chakravarti, former Senior Director, NHRC, Justice Malay Sengupta, Ex-
Chief Justice Sikkim High Court, Dr. Mohini Giri, former Chairperson,
National Commission for Women, Mr. Ashutosh Mukherjee, ex-District &
Sessions Judge, Dr. Tapas Bhattacharjya, Dr. Satyajit Ash, M.D.,
Psychiatrist, MON Foundation, Dr. Sreemantee Chaudhuri, Psychiatrist,
Dr. A. K. Gupta, Head of Forensic Medicine, Calcutta Medical College,
among others.
Mr Roy challenged the validity of FIR No. 134/2008
before the Calcutta High Court (Kirity Roy versus State of West Bengal
& others vide WP No. 25022(W) of 2008) but on 26 August 2009 Justice Sanjib
Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court dismissed the writ petition
on the ground that police investigation is necessary to find out whether
the petitioner organized a parallel judiciary. Mr Roy filed an appeal
(MAT 1219/2009) along with a Stay Application (C.A.N. 10511/2009) in the
Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohit Ranjan Shah and Justice Pinaki
Chandra Ghosh. The Division Bench of Calcutta High Court is scheduled to
hear the case tomorrow i.e. 8 April 2010.
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