Academics, rights activists urge Punjab CM to act against police personnel over torture of women farm activists for supporting agitating teachers

BATHINDA: Taking serious note of the police action against female teachers and women activists of farmer organisation BKU Ekta Ugrahan, mainly women wing convener Harinder Kaur Bindu and Paramjit Kaur Pitho on April 5 for raising voice in support of agitating teachers, over 700 noted academics, rights activists, artists, and dozens of peoples organisations from across the country have urged Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to take stern action against police officials responsible for alleged brutal custodial torture of both the women activists.
The academics and activists have written a letter to CM expressing outrage and deep dismay at how women farmers' leaders were subject to gross humiliation, police violence and custodial torture with an intent to cause them immense physical harm.
Noted author Arundhati Roy, rights activists Navsharan Singh, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, lawyer and women's rights activist Vrinda Grover; Kavita Srivastav President PUCL; civil rights activists Teesta Setalvad, Harsh Mander, Annie Raja, Anjali Bhardwaj, Roop Rekha Verma, Jagmohan Singh; writer and playwright Swarajbir Singh; playwright and artistic directors Kewal Dhaliwal, Sahib Singh, Atamjit; theatre artist Maya Krishna Rao; film maker Nakul Singh Sawhney; Sukhdev Singh Sirsa, All India Progressive Writers Association; All India Kisan Sabha leader Hannan Mollah; independent academics and Profs Uma Chakravarti, AR Vasavi, Kanwaljit Dhillon; Jayati Ghosh; Nandita Narain, Kalpana Kannabiran; Zoya Hasan; J Devika, Ritu Dewan, Mary John, V Geetha, Tanika Sarkar, Sagari R Ramdas, Nivedita Menon; Aditya Mukherjee; Mridula Mukherjee; Anita Rampal, Ayesha Kidwai, Atul Sood, Chaman Lal, Imrana Qadeer; senior journalists Pamela Philipose, Bhasha Singh, Neha Dixit; noted activists Medha Patekar, Ranjana Padhi, Meera Sanghmitra, Rakhi Sehgal, Amolak Singh, Maya John, Chayanika Shah, Shabnam Hashmi, Hasina Khan, Amrita Johri, Kiran Kumar Vissa, Seema Azad, Dinesh Abrol and hundreds of others have signed the letter demanding urgent action.
The activists have mentioned the high handedness of Punjab police on agitating teachers and women farmers leaders on April 5 twice in the day, initially outside Adarsh senior secondary school Chowke and then outside Rampura Sadar police station.
Teachers from the Adarsh Senior Secondary School have been sitting on dharana for more than two months, over unpaid salaries and retrenchment of staff by the school management.
A report of the three-member committee constituted by the deputy commissioner, Bathinda, detailing school malpractices was submitted to the government but was neither made public nor acted upon.
On April 5, as teachers protested at the school gate, the management called the police, who used force to disperse them. Several teachers were arrested including a woman teacher with a 13-month-old baby.
A few hours later, a delegation of BKU Ekta (Ugrahan) gathered near the Police Station in support of the teachers who were now sitting outside the police station demanding the release of their colleagues and police indulged in a lathi charge without any warning. The police specifically targeted Harinder Bindu and Pitho.
According to statements of Harinder and Paramjit Kaur, the DSP, the SHO and two women SIs, turned their ire on them. They thrashed them brutally and kept repeating that the " bones of these farm leaders should be broken so that they are never able to step up to the podium and make speeches.
Two policewomen held both her hands and the woman SI slapped her repeatedly with force, causing her eardrums to swell, resulting in a significant hearing loss. While hitting, the male officers delivered a torrent of obscenities.
They were then shoved into the police van and taken to another Police Station, Nandgarh.
On the way, the male police personnel again launched a tirade of insults. When the victims asked for water, they were refused. They were not allowed to use the washroom on the way. They were brutally beaten up again with sticks. Paramjit Kaur who told them that she suffered from a spinal issue was particularly hit on her back.
They were released on the late evening of April 10, the leaders of farmer organization took them to Civil Hospital Bathinda. No police personnel came to record their statement in the next 48 hours even after the doctors sent a note.
On April 13 Harinder Bindu and Paramjit Kaur filed a written complaint in the office of Bathinda SSP with copies to DGP Punjab, Women Commission Chairperson, and DIG Bathinda asking them to act against the police personnel involved in custodial torture and register a case against them.
The letter states that the act is a serious failure of the police department to uphold the dignity of women and protect them from violence and custodial torture , demanding justice to Harinder Bindu, Paramjit Kaur , and other victims of police torture , and demanding strict and prompt legal action, including registration of FIR against the concerned police personnel under appropriate provisions of law for the offences of grievous hurt, outraging the dignity of women , and custodial torture.
Pending criminal investigation, all police personnel should be suspended immediately. The investigation must be done by a different branch of the police, outside the districts of the incident. Any FIR against the survivors must be withdrawn.
The Punjab government must immediately address the demands of the teachers from Adarsh Senior Secondary School and act on the report of the three-member enquiry committee set up by the Deputy Commissioner Bathinda.
The government must respect the rights of farmers, teachers, and workers' unions, and engage in honest dialogue with them, the letter states.