Release Arun Ferreira, Ashok Reddy (Murali), Dhanendra Bhurle and Naresh Bansod and stop narco-analysis and other forms of torture

Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh,
Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Telephone: (022) 2202-5151,5222
Email: chiefminister@maharashtra[email protected]

Shri R R Patil
Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister of Maharashtra
Telephone: 22022401,22025014
Email: [email protected]

CC: The Chairperson, Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission,
Ph No : 91 22 2207 1155, 91 22 2207 3434 Fax : 91 22 2207 3434

Subject: Release Arun Ferreira, Ashok Reddy (Murali), Dhanendra Bhurle and Naresh Bansod and stop narco-analysis and other forms of torture

Respected Sirs,
The abovementioned four social activists were arrested on 8th May, 2007 under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004 and have been kept in detention till date. As we all know, UAPA is a successor to notorious earlier laws like TADA and POTA. The reason for their detention? They are supposedly `naxalites out to create trouble on a host of issues. The police have told the media that theyve found incriminating evidence on them and that they were supposedly in possession of anti-government material on SEZs, Ramabai Nagar, Khairlanji, farmer suicides, that they were planning to blow up Dikshabhoomi in Nagpur and so on.

Arun Ferreira and the 3 others have been incriminated in an unknown number of crimes covering about half a dozen police stations in different and far-flung districts of Vidarbha. For more than 3 months they were taken from one police station to another covering long distances and made to undergo prolonged periods of custody accompanied by inhuman methods of torture under each police station. From day one, the detainees have complained to their advocates and the courts before whom they were produced, about the third-degree treatment they have been subjected to. The brutal methods have included:
hanging them from the beams of the lock-up;
degrading treatment on their genitals including having ice packed on them;
pumping petrol up the anus of one of the detainees.
During their period of detention of almost four months, two of the detainees, Arun Ferreira and Murali have had to face narco-analysis tests - the most dangerous method which is least recognized as torture. After undergoing one round of tests, a remote police station in Bhandara has procured permission for conducting it once more on the same two detainees.

The U N Convention against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment specifically prohibits the use of third degree methods by investigating agencies in order to extract confessions from detainees. India is a signatory to the Convention (though yet to ratify it) and it terms itself the worlds largest democracy too. The Indian police are bound by the Indian Constitution which certainly does not bestow any legality on police torture or methods such as narco-analysis.

Despite the use of such condemnable unconstitutional and inhuman methods of torture, the Nagpur police have not been able to establish any credible evidence against Arun Ferreira and others of their involvement in illegal and anti-national activities as earlier claimed.

The families of the detainees have also been submitted to repeated interrogations and house searches which is clearly a form of unwarranted harassment.
We, the undersigned therefore appeal to you to:

1. Immediately release Arun Ferreira, Ashok Reddy, Dhanendra Bhurle and Naresh Bansod and withdraw the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004 imposed on them.
2. Withdraw the use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004 which has been repeatedly misused to illegitimately detain innocent persons.
3. Order an inquiry into the widespread use of narco-analysis and other forms of torture, stop the use of narco-analysis and take suitable action against those police officers responsible for the use of torture on detainees.
4. Stop the unwarranted harassment of the families of the detainees.