India - tortures against maoists and people

 Kin of suspected Maoists allege torture by police
COIMBATORE: Families of the three suspected Maoists arrested by rural police under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and booked under NSA lodged a complaint with the district revenue officer alleging torture by police. The officer T Christu Raj forwarded the petition to senior police officials for investigation. The families said the trio had been taken for interrogation in connection with a ‘man missing’ case but police detained them under the Unlawful Activities Act.
The family members also alleged that the arrested men were tortured under the pretence of investigation. P Ganapathy, 39, from Pollachi, D Sigamani, 26, from Angalakurichi and Selvaraj, 55, from Sulthanpet, all members of Jaathi Olippu Viduthalai Munnetra Iyakkam, were arrested under the UAPA act on June 12 for recruiting a tribal youth, A Santhosh Kumar, 23, into the Maoist movement last year. The families of the arrested, however, claim police had foisted the cases on them. “Sigamani had completed BSc BEd and was looking for employment.
A police team from the Aliyar station came to our house and took custody of him, accusing him of being a Maoist. Following his arrest, the rural police often came home to interrogate us,” said D Priyanka, Sigamani’s younger sister. A senior police officer, seeking anonymity, said it was based on the confession of S Kannan, arrested earlier along with four other Maoist leaders, that Santhosh Kumar, now said to be missing, had joined the movement. Sigamani, Ganapathy and Selvaraj had helped recruit him and so had been arrested under UAPA. On May 4, in a combined operation of the Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu police had arrested Maoists R Roopesh, his wife Shyna and his three associates, Anoop Mathew Geroge, Kannan and C Veeramani in Coimbatore. Indira, 29, Ganapathy’s wife, said her husband worked towards eradicating caste bias and was part of a progressive movement.
“At 3am on July 12, a police team said they wanted to interrogate Ganapathy in connection with a ‘man missing’ case. I had asked if they had the summons for interrogation. The inspector gave a written statement that he had taken my husband for interrogation. But the same evening he was detained under the Unlawful Activities Act,” she said. She further said six months ago, police kept her husband under illegal custody for 12 days. He was eventually released and asked to sign at the Aliyar police station every day for one month. Six months later he was arrested for being a suspected Maoist.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/Kin-of-suspected-Maoists-allege-torture-by-police/articleshow/48152434.cms
Ranchi: A group of 200 commandos trained in jungle warfare have been deployed at Rajabagh on Koderma-Nawada inter-junction for the last month to secure the Jharkhand-Bihar border ahead of the upcoming assembly election in the neighbouring state. A porous border between the two Left Wing Extremism-affected states would allow free movement of rebels, giving them an opportunity to launch an attack during the polls. Rajabagh, one of the last villages in Koderma on the way to Bihar’s Nawada district, stretches right into the middle of Nawada, a Maoist breeding ground in Bihar. According to intelligence inputs, Maoists could use unpatrolled territories in Jharkhand to launch attacks in Bihar.
The deployment is part of a pre-poll security exercise to open a forward camp on the Bihar border before the assembly polls. As of now, two companies have been deployed in make-shift camps. “Two companies of CRPF at Rajabagh are patrolling the areas where the work on establishing a permanent base camp on the border is in progress. The need for the camp arose out of security concerns for the polls. We will not allow Maoists to use territories in Jharkhand to launch attacks in Bihar,” CRPF IG (Jharkhand sector) Rakesh Kumar Mishra said. The schedule for Bihar election has not been announced yet, but sources said it is likely to be held in October-November.

“Taking control of an area as vast and challenging as Rajabagh, especially on the inter-state border, requires a substantial amount of time. The forces were deployed in the area last month and they have since carried out several long range patrolling, area domination exercises, intelligence gathering, familiarization exercises and made many friends in the villages,” a CRPF official said. Rajabagh is situated at the foothills of Kawakol Hills, stretching across the border into Bihar. The Jharkhand police has its presence only in Satgawan, 20 km from Rajabagh. The area’s toug terrains does not allow security forces to undertake frequent patrolling. CPI (Maoist) zonal commander Chirag Da’s influence spreads up to Nawada and Jamui in Bihar and Koderma and Giridih in Jharkhand. He leads the Maoist squads in several parts of these districts for which Rajabagh serves as an inter-junction and a hideout.