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No money for bail, 15-yr-old girls languish in POTA net PANDRANI (JHARKHAND): Etwa Oraon, mercifully, doesn't know this. The whims of Jayalalithaa have suddenly got BJP chief M. Venkaiah Naidu talking about the misuse of POTA. For more than a year, the father of 14-year-old Mayanti Raj Kumari, held under the draconian Act while on her way back from school, has talked of nothing else. But all his pleas have fallen on deaf ears of Jharkhand's BJP Government as it goes around hauling people under POTA. Including Mayanti, the state holds 15 women in the age group of 14 to 25 under the Act, itself a record. Otherwise too Jharkhand has shown a special liking for the Prevention of Terrorism Act since its inception. With 16 of its districts declared "terrorist infested" and 130 of its policemen dead since November 15, 2000, in MCC or PWG attacks, the state has been indiscriminately arresting people under POTA, holding among the highest number of detainees. "I feel like dying," says 45-year-old Etwa, who lives in Pandrani village of Gumla district, talking of the day his second daughter was taken into custody. It was July 9, 2002. Mayanti had left home in the morning for school. As evening fell to night and the Class VII student still did not return, Etwa, his 40-year-old wife Etwain and their children _ sons Lalit and Pradeep, daughters Rukmani and Gola _ started getting worried. It was only the next morning that police informed them that Mayanti had spent the night in jail after Sub-Inspector R P Gupta of Sisai Police Station arrested 24 people, including her, under Sections 121 A and 122 of the Indian Penal Code and POTA. The FIR says Mayanti was part of a group of "17-18" MCC ultras planning to launch an attack at a roadside dhaba, 18 km from her Government school near Pandrani village. Police, who are yet to file a chargesheet in the case, claim they had got a tip-off about the meeting. "As soon as they saw the police, the ultras began to flee," says the FIR. Etwa finds the charge preposterous. "Mayanti had gone after school to her grandparents' house in Sisai. While she was about to board the bus at Sisai to return home, police nabbed her," he says. A tribal farmer with five acres of non-irrigated land, Etwa supplements his income by selling milk but doesn't have the money to move for bail. "To file a petition Rs 200-300 is needed. I tried to borrow from many people, but nobody gave me the money," he adds. Laluwa Oraon of Kokatoli village in Gumla district can understand Etwa's pain. His daughter Seema Kumari was recently convicted by the Ranchi court. "We sold off two cows to fight her case. Now I will have to mortgage my land to get money to apply for her bail in the high court," says Laluwa. Owner of four acres of non-irrigated land, he has to do menial work to make ends meet. Three other girls _ Silu Devi (21), Urmila Kumari (18) and Savita Kumari (19) _ from Piparwar police station area in Ranchi district remain in jail despite bail granted to them by the Jharkhand High Court on May 7. "Their parents were to furnish the bail bonds. But since they are extremely poor, they couldn't manage money to board the bus and come here. So they continue to languish in jail," says Ranchi Public Prosecutor Urbanus Toppo. Twenty-two-year-old Poonam Devi, whose case falls under Manatu police station in Palamau district, has been in jail since March 22 last year. Police have accused her of being a terrorist who was arrested along with 10 MCC ultras. No one has moved for her bail _ Poonam's widowed mother is registered missing and her elder sister is ailing _ and her trial hasn't even begun as the prosecution is still to provide the court the requisite sanction for it. "The court had directed the prosecution to submit the sanction order twice. But it is yet to come," says Toppo. Unluckily for Poonam and others, the State's numerous free legal aid agencies are yet to take up their cases. While police had set up a cell headed by Additional Director General of Police J Mahapatra to review the POTA cases periodically, the process hasn't even begun. Asked about it, Mahapatra told this website's newspaper: "Give us the case numbers. We will review them immediately." Etwa doesn't think so. He has seen Mayanti only thrice in the past 15 months, every time in jail. "We all miss her very badly," he pleads. POTA cases in Jharkhand: 130 Women prisoners: 15 http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEO20031004123116&Title=This+is+India&rLink=230 |
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| << October05, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net]Weed out corrupt judicial officers, SC tells HCs |
October06, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net] Request for Comments -suklasen >> |
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