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Politician    Police Partnership &  
International Women’s Day

Like all other annual ritual is this IWD or International Women’s Day. 8th March comes and goes into amnesia like remaining days round the year. It’s the same sun and same moon. Except that, the fairer sex – you mean men are unfairer sex! – take the centre stage at least on that day, to tell the world that they exist, that they too have an identity, so please do not take us for granted, that men, rather the world of homo sapiens, cannot exist without we women, as a mother, as a daughter, as a sister or as a wife or even just as a friend. Yes come to think of it, if women are not there, nothing can happen in this world of men and matters. The whole world recognises, whether its on IWD or any other of the 364 days of the year, that women are indeed an integral part of this earthly life. Yet we have witnessed for all these hundreds of years that man being more masculine has always been aggressive and assertive to the lady, in all her worldly roles. May be that is why, man is an unfair sex and by default woman is a fairer sex.

In recent days we have witnessed in the media, horrendous details of how women of all ages, especially young ones, have been subjected to violent and atrocious attacks by men and police. There are any number of stories, if you go back only one calendar year from 2012, March 8th to 2013, March 8th. Not even one day, the print media has missed a story, in some part of our mother India, that someone, somewhere from the opposite sex has been brutally attacked and physically violated. It could be a child as small as 6 months, brutes among men were worse than wolf or hyena in assaulting her persona.

The recent attack on a para-medical student in New Delhi, by six men, all in their youths with one being juvenile, some months less for 18 years, has brought into sharp focus, the issue of vulnerability of women and cruelty of men. The media attention and the coverage given to the episode by the 24x7 electronic media, did manage to galvanize public opinion across the country. Cutting across the age divide, both men and women remonstrated all over India, especially on the streets of New Delhi, which is not only the administrative capital of the country, but also has been branded with the sobriquet “Rape capital of India”. 

Its not for nothing that New Delhi has earned this notoriety. There are enough and more to justify this adjective.

However, the disease of four lettered attack on the feminine persona is an all India phenomena. Just about all states are in the dock when it comes to this heinous occurrence.  And these occurrences are not confined to only cities, but also a regular feature of semi urban and rural areas. 

In cities they are at least reported, but in rural areas, due to lack of media coverage and varieties of factors like the helplessness of victims these crimes do not become public knowledge or media reportage. What is also a matter of deep concern is the increased attack on small children. On 8th Feb., a Mumbai based paper reported “6 month old baby sexually assaulted”, another report from Goa informed “7 yr old raped in Goa School”. There were other reports from the recent past months, like “Play School owner’s husband drugs and rapes 3 year old”, “School student raped”, “5 year old sexually abused in school”, “Man rapes 6 year old, smashes her face with bricks”, “Cops accused of raping woman in custody”, “7 year old raped in Delhi civic school”, under the caption CAPITAL SHAME, “4 rapes a day in Delhi in 2013” are some of the reports appeared in the print media during Feb/March this year.

These stories of atrocities against women have been there in the public space since the recorded history, all over the world. According to some informed sources, quoting United Nations, one in every three woman is raped or beaten somewhere in the world every day. Thus violation of woman’s body has a long and a global history, not just India alone. However in India, what is a matter of deep concern and seriousness, is the failure of the police machinery across the country, to adequately provide protection to the vulnerable women folks. This phenomenon is unfortunately compounded by the nexus between police and politicians.

Take for instance the Suryanelli rape case involving Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P.J. Kurien. It is a case of, as far back as, 1996. And we are in 2013. A girl of 16, from Suryanelli in Idukki district was abducted by a bus conductor and taken to Kumily Panchayat Guest House, also in Idukki district. Allegedly, she was kept there for 40 days and was raped by 42 men. Although the names of all those rapists are not available in the public domain, P.J. Kurien, who was an union minister in the Narasimha Rao government in 1996 when incident occurred, was an accused then. He managed, allegedly, to remain without being accused, allegedly with the help of police. He is being accused again after 17 years, by the victim who is now 33 years of age, and is a 4th grade state govt. employee at present.

The victim is insisting in her accusation that he was certainly one of the 42 men who abused her. Reportedly she recognized him when she saw his photograph in the news paper, condemning the rape, and had told the police investigating team about PJK being one of the 42 men. However, when PJK’s name was not found in the list of the accused, her family filed a private complaint in the Peermade Magistrate’s court, which found Kurien prima facie guilty. Kerala High Court, however, discharged him saying that case was hoisted against him since police contradicted the evidence of the victim. But the LDF government of EK Nayanar strangely did not proceed against Kurien, after the then DGP Siby Mathews, and Advocate General, M K Damodaran reported that there was no evidence against Kurien despite special prosecutor Janarardhan Kurup pressuring EKN to include Kurien in the list of accused.

What is more strange is when the LDF govt headed by V S Achutanandan challenged the High Court acquittal of Kurien, in the Supreme Court, the appeal was dismissed on technical ground, observing, that in a private complaint, state had no role! Is Supreme Court  the ultimate arbiter of justice or looking for alibis to save the accused? At least it could have gone into the details. But that was not to be. The victim was poor and therefore powerless and moneyless, and hence can be dispensed with. Yes indeed, it is a sin to be a poor and a woman in India.

At the end of it all, the authorities could nail only one accused, advocate Dharmarajan. He was given a jail term of 5 years’ rigorous imprisonment. Out on parole, he absconded to reappear recently to tell a TV channel that Kurien is indeed an accused in the serial-rape case. It was on 19 Feb, 1996, he claimed, that he took Kurien in his car from Vendiperiyar to the Kumili Guest House, where the victim was lodged. According to the convict Dharmarajan, “Kurien went straight into the room where the girl was lodged. He spent half-an-hour with her in the room”.

Women’s Rights Activists fighting for justice for the Suryanelli victim, accuse the former DGP Siby Mathews, of concocting facts to twist the evidence. According to them “DSP K K Joshwa, who probed the case, has revealed that the then DGP Siby Mathews, who headed the SIT that probed the case, had twisted facts to save Kurien and concocted the story of Kurien being at Tiruvalla, some 160kms from Kumily, at the time of rape”. No wonder Siby Mathews was rewarded with the position of State Chief Information Commissioner.

On the face of it, there need not be any particular reason to pointedly refer to Kurien by the victim. She appears to be telling the truth. But this politician-police nexus got the better of the system and a hapless victim is being bandied about as a child prostitute and therefore is of low morals and thus cannot be trusted. But the way PJ Kurien is reacting, the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha is clearly nervous. Strangely Congress President inexplicably not coming to the defence of the victim, despite appeal by the victim’s mother. May be party interest is greater. And can you believe, in the height of this controversy this Kurien and his family are going to Vatican to represent India at the papal anointment. Isn’t it a cruel joke by both the government and the church!

The nexus between Politician & Police has been seen in other cases as well in Kerala. The infamous Ice cream parlour case involving Kunhalikutti, a former Kerala minister is another example of this nefarious association between Police and Politician.

It was way back in 1997, the infamous “Ice Cream Parlour Case” that burst into public scrutiny, after Anweshi, an NGO complained to the police about the goings on in the parlour. According to reports, more than Ice cream vending it was a brothel and meeting place of high and mighty. Some even suggested it was owned by politicians.

It was also alleged that police and members of Kerala legislature combined to stall the investigation to protect themselves and their relatives and friends.

The bigger fish that allegedly escaped the net, due to this PPP, was P.K Kunhalikutty (PKK) of Indian Union of Muslim League, a coalition partner in the then government. It was only due to the persistence of V.S. Achuthanandan (VSA), the then opposition leader, that case was kept alive. However, it was one K.A Rauf, co-brother of Kunhalikutty who turned hostile. On Jan. 28, 2011, he disclosed at a press conference that the minister PKK had in fact influenced several key witnesses in the sex scandal to turn hostile, for money. Kerala police was constrained to register a fresh case on the insistence of VSA, who, in the meanwhile, was the LDF Chief Minister. But the change of government in May 2011, brought back PKK as minister again in the UDF ruled state government. Govt sat over it, with no further progress, just like what they did to Suryanelli rape victim, by rejecting her complaint against PJ Kurien outright.

Thus the PPP continues to play havoc with women, IWD or no IWD.

Recent arrest of Bittihotra Mohanty or Bitti is another case in point. Bitty Mohanty is the son of former Director General of Police of Orissa, was arrested sometime in early 2006, for raping a German National in a hostel in Alwar, Rajasthan. He was convicted, and jailed in March 2006, for 7 years, but was released on parole in Nov. the same year. He vanished from public view with the help of his police father and other political contacts.  He was arrested early this month, after almost 7 years. During this intervening years, he completely forged his recorded identity to masquerade as Raghav Rajan and fooled all and sundry. From changing school certificate, to getting admission to MBA and then working as a Probationary Officer in SBT (State Bank of Travancore) all on the basis of forged documents, is a saga of incredible dimensions. This is what Police Politician Partnership (PPP) can really do, given the opportunity to do. Of course, autonomous dynamics of nature has its own way of expressing itself. One can’t cheat all the people all the time, PPP or no PPP. 

Recently Supreme Court has taken a suo-moto note of media reports on the thrashing of a Dalit woman and her father by the Punjab Police, so also lathi charging of teachers by Bihar police in Patna. They have issued notice to the Chief Secretary of both states. The case of Dalit woman and her father is bizarre. All that she has done was to go to the police to complaint about a truck driver who harassed her sexually. Instead of booking the driver, the police beat up the woman and her father. Similar was the case of teachers in Patna, who were peacefully agitating for regularisation of their services, but instead they got police lathies. Although it is not a case of PPP, it was the police atrocity for no rhyme or reason and political class did nothing to rectify the wrong. Hopefully the Apex Court intervention should lead to some quick and positive development for these suffering women.

Of course there have been cases of women standing up to both police, and politicians, besides thugs. One such case is that of Usha Narayane of Nagpur’s Kasturba Nagar slum.

Reportedly one Akku Yadav with his band of killers, rapists and extortionists was operating his gang’s activities in and around the Nagpur slums, including Kasturba Nagar. Slum was the habitat for Dalits. For almost 15 years he was reportedly lording it over the destinies of these slum dwellers. With Police and help from petty politicians, he managed to keep the slum dwellers suffer in silence. Until one day, he warned a young and educated lady in the slum, who was neighbour to one of his victims, not to complain to the police. It was end of July 2004 and Akku Yadav had no idea what he had bargained. On complaining to the police, the goon came calling to settle the score, with some 40 men, and surrounded Usha’s house. Undaunted, Usha turned the table completely on Akku and his men, by threatening to explode a gas cylinder which would kill her anyway, but cripple all of them too. The gang retreated. The word of Usha’s heroics went around. They took up cudgels under her leadership, and on 6th Aug. 2004, hundreds of slum dwellers marched to this Akku Yadav’s house and burnt it. Sensing the mood of the slum dwellers, Akku surrendered to police, more as an arrangement with police for protection. On 13th Aug. when police brought him to the court, some 200 slum dwellers had already gathered in the court premises, with all kinds of missiles, kitchen knife, chilli powder and stones. As his wont, AkkuYadav showed his non-challance to gathered women folk by saying to one of them, that 'as soon as he is out, he will do it again to her'. Enraged, as if she was waiting for it, she pounced on the goon, with a shriek “its me or you, now or never”. It was like a war cry for the beleaguered womenfolk of Kasturba Nagar. Akku Yadav was attacked from all sides, right inside the court premises. Two terrified police men, guarding him, ran away. In 15 minutes flat, it was all over. The notorious goonda dropped dead on the floor of Nagpur district court.

Usha Narayane, could have had a role in galvanising and organising women of Kasturba Nagar. She was not part of the mob that lynched the goon. But police always looked for a easy way out. They arrested her. Reportedly, case never came up for trial. Here again, despite PPP, how an individual with courage and initiative got the better of the difficult situation to emerge victorious.

Yes, these are the stories that IWD has to publicise and celebrate to send the message that Hum Bhi Kuch Kam Nahee.

As we wind-up, it is pertinent to note that, this PPP is not limited to only those relating to abuse of women, but on multiple areas, where both politicians and police are benefited socially, politically and financially. They are too numerous to detail. May be even a book can be written about. Indian cinemas in all languages have chronicled them for larger audience. In the interest of all this nexus should break. Will it happen?

J.Shriyan