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From 'Combat Law' Magazine
(click here
for Hindi version)
Vol. 7, Issue 2, March - April, 2008
The
'Naxal threat' has suddenly surfaced in
Uttarakhand. It is a state government’s ploy to
demand crores of rupees from the Centre. To
bolster this claim an innocent journalist,
Prashant Rahi, is arrested. His daughter Shikha
Rahi writes
:
I
do not remember
coming across a news report on any kind of
naxalite activity in the state of Uttarakhand
till the Chief Minister's conference on internal
security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh was held on December 20, 2007. Addressing
the Chief Ministers, the Prime Minister said, "I
have said in the past that Left Wing extremism
is probably the single biggest security
challenge to the Indian state. It continues to
be so and we cannot rest in peace until we have
eliminated this virus." Giving assurance of
providing support to the states for improving
internal security he said, "We need to cripple
the hold of Naxalite forces with all the means
at our command."
This conference brought to my notice that
Uttarakhand is also now one of the states which
faces the red threat, as the Chief Minister of
the State BC Khanduri spoke of armed men,
suspected to be Maoists, who were seen in the
Kumaun region of Uttarakhand. According to
Khanduri, since Uttarakhand lies on the Nepal
border it faces greater threat of Maoists
filtering in from the border. In order to beef
up internal security, and ward off the menace of
these “Maoist monsters,” Khanduri demanded Rs
208 crores from the centre.
Curiously, an article on December 21, 2007, in
the newspaper Amar Ujala corroborated Khanduri's
information. It reported that a dozen armed men,
suspected to be Maoists, were seen in the
forests of Hanspur Khatta, Senapani and
Chorgaliya in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.
This was followed by reports about the arrest of
the so-called zonal commander of the CPI
(Maoists), Prashant Rahi, from the forest of
Hanspur Khatta, which appeared in the local
newspapers of Nainital district, justifying the
need of funds for internal security. According
to the newspaper reports, Rahi was sitting with
five other men by a riverside when he was
arrested on December 22, 2007, while the others
managed to escape. One must give credit to the
state and its police force for the high level of
planning and co-ordination that they achieved.
It is difficult to believe the speed at which
all these events unfolded. There is a difference
of hardly two days between the time the
suspected Maoists were seen for the first time
in Uttarakhand and the day their zonal commander
was arrested. Moreover, the order in which all
these events took place immediately after the
conference on internal security seems so
perfect.
However, the real story, which Prashant Rahi, my
father, revealed to me when I met him at Nanak
Matta Police Station in Uddham Singh Nagar
district on December 25, 2007, is very different
from the version that appeared in the press. I
had decided not to cry when visiting him, so I
just hugged him and said, "Everything will be
alright. Do not worry.'' Though I could see the
tiredness in his eyes, my father gave me a broad
smile. When I sat down to talk with him, he
narrated to me a completely different version of
his arrest. "On December 17, 2007 in Dehradun, I
was walking to a friend's house at around 9 am,
when I was suddenly attacked by four or five men
(not in uniform). They pushed me into a car,
blindfolded me and went on beating me all along
the way. After a journey that lasted about an
hour-and-a-half they pulled me out of the car in
a forested area, where they started beating me
again. They hit me everywhere," said my father.
I listened to him patiently without letting
myself get affected by the brutality he
underwent. My father continued, "On the evening
of December 18, 2007 these people took me to
Haridwar, where the Provincial Armed
Constabulary (PAC) conference was being held.
Here, they continued to torture me. They
brutally hit me all over my body, including my
private parts. The officials also threatened to
pump kerosene up my anus and tie me to slabs of
ice." What is worse, the police also threatened
my father to bring me from Mumbai (where I
reside and work) and force him to rape me in
their presence.
On December 20, 2007, the officials brought my
father to Nanak Matta Police Station in Udham
Singh Nagar district. He was in pain and
disoriented due to the sustained beatings and
interrogation of the earlier three days. Though
the interrogation continued, the police waited
for him to recover somewhat and then, after two
days, on December 22, 2007 they made his arrest
records, which are absolutely baseless and
fictitious. According to my father, the
officials who tortured him did not disclose
their identity to him, nor were they seen again
after those five days of in illegal detention.
In violation of constitutional norms, Prashant
Rahi was not produced before a magistrate within
24 hours of arrest. He was produced before the
magistrate only on December 23, 2007. He was not
allowed to contact a lawyer, relative or a
friend after his arrest. After torturing him
mentally as well as physically for five days, he
has falsely been implicated under sections 120
B, 121, 121A, 124A, 153B of the Indian Penal
Code and sections 10 and 20 of the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act.
Originally from Maharashtra, my father did an M
Tech from Banaras Hindu University but opted to
become a journalist. A former correspondent of
The Statesman (Delhi), he has been working in
Uttarakhand for the last many years as a
journalist and social activist. The fundamental
rights and constitutional safeguards that the
Police have so blatantly violated in case of
Prashant Rahi are guaranteed to all citizens of
India, regardless of what political or
ideological views they may hold or what crime
they may have been charged with. Such gross
violation of rights by the police should not be
condoned. If such a thing could happen to
Prashant Rahi who is a highly educated and
reasonably well connected person, I shudder to
think of the fate of the less fortunate at the
hands of the police.
(click here
for Hindi version)
----------------------------------------------------------
Shikha Rahi, the writer, is the daughter of
Prashant Rahi
She is an Assistant Director in Mumbai's Film
Industry
----------------------------------------------------------
click here for another story in
'Combat Law' March
- April '08
issue
click here for a story in
'The Sunday Indian' 6th April '08
issue
click here for a story in
'Tehelka' dtd. 22nd March'08
click here
for a story in DNA India, 27th May '08
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