Police torture upon poor villagers
It is revealed during our fact finding upon information received that on 31 January 2010 at about 11:30 PM Mr. Samir Mondal and forty two other villagers were arrested (at least five among them were women) and were brutally tortured throughout the night on a launch after arresting them from Chhotomollakhali, Puinjali and Amtali villages by Officer-in-Charge and other police personnel of Sunderban Coastal Police Station. They were not even brought to the police station. All these victims were taken to the Chhotomollakhali primary health centre just to carry out a formal, inappropriate check-up before taking them to the magistrate next day. The doctor issued medical report without examining even a single arrestee. It was clearly an act of vengeance by the Sunderban Coastal police station personnel following a public attack on the same police station on 26 January 2010 allegedly by members of Trinamool Congress party.
It is to be noted that no ‘Memo of Arrest’ was issued while taking the victims into their custody. Though at least five arrested persons were female and that too at midnight, no female police person was present at the venue of arrest. This is a naked violation of Criminal Procedure Code’s section 41-A and 41-B with legal mandate for not torturing a person by any physical and psychological means.
Even after arresting them, they were not taken to any police station. Instead, all these poor villagers were brutally tortured on a launch throughout the wintry night.