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Inmate’s torture and murder in Mumbai’s Byculla Women’s Prison exposes horrors
The torture team was only keeping to a standard operating procedure that is commonly followed throughout the country’s prison system.
The recitation in the murder FIR against woman jailor Manisha Pokharkar and women jail constables Bindu Naikade, Waseema Shaikh, Shital Shegaonkar, Surekha Gulve and Aarti Shingne of Mumbai’s Byculla Women’s Prison describes deeds sinisterly similar to the acts attributed to the Nirbhaya killers, who recently had their death sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court.
On June 23, 2017, they mercilessly beat convict warder Manjula Shetye with sticks, all over her body and head. She was stripped naked, then two of the accused, Bindu and Surekha, held her legs apart and Waseema shoved her lathi into Manjula’s private parts.
Jailor Pokharkar and woman police constable Surekha Gulwe taunted her and took turns to assault Shetye. The Nirbhaya Supreme Court judgment’s adjectives – “brutal, barbaric, and demoniacal” – would well apply here too.
Nirbhaya and Byculla – similarities and differences
It is, however, the differences, rather than the similarities, that make the June 23 crime all the more chilling and horrific. The Nirbhaya convicts were all poor slum dwellers, who well knew that the crime they were committing had no social sanction and that they could have the might of the State upon them and likely face its consequences.
The Byculla killers, on the other hand, were middle class employees, who had been tutored and mentored to wear such violent crimes as a badge of honour, who were assured that the whole state machinery would not only protect them from any consequences, but also likely shower them with accolades.
Events so far show that their confidence in the state apparatus has not been misplaced. The office of the topmost prison official of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region – the Special Inspector General of Police (prisons), southern region – literally overlooks the prison where the crime openly took. The murder took place under its oversight, its cover-up also would.
Beating, stripping and sexual assault
Manjula was brutalised in two installments. First, around 10.30 am, when she was called to Pokharkar’s office regarding her complaint of shortage in the supply of eggs and paav loaves and was viciously beaten and draggedby her hair, with her sari pulled round her neck, back to the barracks. The second round in the afternoon was a lengthy torture session, including stripping, sexual abuse and assault.
Sushma Ramteke, a former Byculla Prison inmate and victim of jailor brutality, recounts how the office, which is at some distance from the barracks, was the jailors’ choice locale for beating recalcitrant prisoners into submission.
While what transpired there will remain disputed, it seems the jail administration felt that a public power display was required to not only cow down Manjula further, but also to terrorise the prisoners who were objecting to the shortages and the corruption it implied.
Standard operating procedure of prison torture
Jails in Maharashtra have an afternoon bandhi lock-up period between noon and 3pm, when all inmates are locked in their cells or barracks. It is at this time the torture team opened the locked barrack where Manjula was lodged and attacked her for the second time.
The torture team was only keeping to a standard operating procedure that is commonly followed throughout the country’s prison system: ensure that all prisoners have been locked in, perform the torture in view of those you want to terrorise, prevent both victim and captive audience from opening their mouths to the outside world.
It was as per this modus operandi that Manjula was tormented for over an hour and then left bruised and bleeding in the midst of the barrack as a lesson for all. Though it must have been amply clear to all the jail staff on duty that Manjula was in dire need of hospitalisation, the rule of silence in the jail torture protocol ensured that even the most sympathetic jail employee would not lift a finger.
A prisoner injured by torture is supposed to be denied medical aid, particularly outside medical help, until the wounds and bruises subside a bit, at least to the level of plausible deniability. If the prisoner dies in the meantime, then no problem – dead men (and women) tell no tales – and there is a highly accommodative and cooperative medical and law enforcement fraternity out there, who are willing to oblige in the cover-up.
Operation Cover-up
This is just what happened on the night of June 23. It was only after the prisoners had been locked up for the night and after Manjula was clearly dead, that the jail medical officer was called to examine her lifeless body.
She was sent to the JJ Hospital, the principal government medical facility in Maharashtra, which is barely a kilometre away from the jail. She was declared brought dead. The first story given out by the jail administration was that Manjula had suffered a heart attack.
The prison medical officer, Dr Khan, is a qualified pediatrician, with around a decade of service at Byculla Prison, as well the much larger Arthur Road Central Prison. He has had a rich experience of examining jail torture victims over the years. There is no way he could have missed the severe bruises on Manjula’s body and scalp and mistakenly thought it to be a case of cardiac arrest.
But there is also no way the heart attack story could have been given by the jail officialdom without the assured connivance of Dr Khan. Thus, the good doctor and the good jail superintendent (Shri Indurkar, a 2016 President’s Meritorious Correctional Service Medal awardee, who was in Pune on the day of the murder) and quite probably the good Special IG Prisons next door (Shri Rajvardhan Sinha, a 2014 President’s Meritorious Police Service Medal awardee) came together to make up a story of heart failure in order to cover-up the murder by jail employees.
The JJ Hospital authorities did not show any signs of contradicting this false heart attack story, nor did the police register any FIR till well after a very public agitation broke out from the prison inmates themselves.
The bruises and bleeding on the body had been disclosed in the police inquest panchnama itself, so there could be no valid reason for the hospital to delay the postmortem for almost 24 hours and for the police to delay the investigation and FIR for a still longer time. The delay can only be explained by an apparent readiness to collaborate in the cover-up conspiracy.
Inmates’ protest brings out the truth
It was only the creative means that the women prison inmates adopted the next morning to publicise the murderous truth that put paid to the criminal collusions of the state organs. The Byculla jail is situated on Clare Road, a busy Mumbai artery, swarming with traffic for over 20 hours in a day.
The next morning, women climbed up on the terrace on one of the barracks that overlooks the road and managed through screams, banging of plates and burning of papers to attract the attention of passers-by and traffic.
Videos of the protest were taken from the road and started appearing in the electronic media. Male police were brought in for lathi-charging and beating the protesters into submission. All this forced the jail, police and hospital authorities to give up their plan of a total cover-up.
Operation Cover-up Plan B
Plan B of Operation Cover-up is now in motion. The Addl DG Prisons announced the suspension of six jail employees for dereliction of duty and ordered an inquiry by the prison department led by DIG Prisons, Swati Sathe. While the macabre irony of referring to rape and murder as “dereliction of duty” was lost on the Addl DG, it was left to DIG Sathe to make clear, by her subsequent statements, that her inquiry was targeted not at tracking and tackling the violence of the murderers, but at nailing and punishing those who had brought these crimes to light.
The JJ Hospital authorities, despite having senior forensic professors available, assigned such a sensitive postmortem case to two trainees and a lecturer, who have not expressed an opinion on the sexual assault and the jail story of heart attack. The police, while being forced to register an FIR for murder, have not applied the sections pertaining to sexual assault and misuse of official position that are apparent from the complaint, nor have they shown any sign of investigating the larger conspiracy of the other staffers and seniors, who have backed the killers and covered up for them.
They even inordinately delayed the arrest of the torture squad by six days, giving them ample opportunity to fabricate a story, while even going missing to seek anticipatory bail. They have also imposed a case of rioting and criminal conspiracy on all 291 women jail inmates.
As it would be absurd to assume that each and every woman inmate, several having infants and children with them, could have conspired and participated in rioting, this move seems more as a move to silence potential witnesses.
The jail administration is also doing its bit by following Saturday’s lathi-charge with further threats of beating, mass punishments and jail transfers. As Operation Cover-up proceeds full steam ahead, the man who must be in the know, Maharashtra CM and home minister Devendra Fadnavis declares benignly, “Whatever the truth is, it will come out soon”.
Policy of condoning and rewarding perpetrators of custodial violence
Thus, despite the best efforts of the women prisoners of Byculla Prison, the likelihood of Justice for Manjula remains a distant dream. Three of the accused – Bindu, Surekha and Waseema – were named in March 2012 in a complaint of assault filed in court by political prisoners Sushma Ramteke, Angela Sontakke and Jyoti Chorge. Surekha and Waseema again figured in an assault on Ramteke and another Bangladeshi pregnant prisoner in November 2013.
After a fact-finding report by the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) and a complaint in court, an inquiry was ordered by the court, which remains pending. This “lax” approach of courts possibly encouraged them to new heights of cruelty.
Such condoning of custodial torture and violence however extends right up to the topmost levels of the judicial arm of the state. DIG Swati Sathe herself was indicted by the Bombay High Court for one of the most violent planned attacks on prisoners in Mumbai in recent times, when she was superintendent of the Arthur Road Central Prison in June 2008.
An inquiry into the attack by the principal district and sessions judge, Mumbai, had found that she had used excessive force for extraneous reasons and the high court had ordered criminal proceedings against her. However the Supreme Court, while paying lip service to the bane of custodial excesses, retracted the high court order and left it to the state government to decide whether or not to proceed against Sathe.
This was done by the apex court knowing full well where the State’s sympathies lay. The government had, during the pendency of the appeal against the high court indictment, already rewarded her with one of the earliest promotions of a prison cadre official from superintendent to DIG. With Sathe now in the lead of Operation Cover-up, the likelihood of the Byculla killers being applauded with similar career advances is firmly on the cards.
By Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira
Brazil: Long Live the 50th anniversary of Naxalbari uprising!
Viva la Guerra Popular en la India
Freedom for Ajith! – ICSPWI
Assure Human and Constitutional Rights to K Muraleedharan (Ajith).
ʹAs we understand from the coordinators of the Kochi-based Council for Advancement and Protection of Constitutional Rights in India (CAPCRI) the world-wide plea raised for medical care and release of K Muraleedharan has not met with a positive response from the government and the courts. We stand with CAPCRI in its renewed and more intensified attempt to secure the release of Muraleedharan and join with Gayatri Chakravarthy Spivak, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, Partha Chatterjee, Amiya Kumar Bagchi and several others, who have already affirmed their support for the cause.
Muraleedharan, radical scholar and social activist, was arrested by Maharashtra Police on May 9, 2015, charged under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and lodged in the Yerawada Jail, Pune. The security agencies are purposively delaying the trial of Mr. Muraleedharan by failing to produce him in court, thereby denying him even an opportunity for bail. He is detained in solitary confinement in the infamous high-security prison block, the Anda Cell and is being denied free access to reading material. His friends and intellectual associates are denied the opportunity to visit him. The health condition of the 62-year old Mr. Muraleedharan, a cardiac patient who had already undergone a bypass surgery, has been a matter of deep concern to his friends, relatives and well wishers. Even against the severity of confinement and failing health, Muraleedharan has been striving to pursue intellectual activity; he has newly acquired a level of proficiency in the Marathi Language even to write scholarly articles. He has already authored a few manuscripts but publishing these poses many hurdles in the form of scrutiny by the jail authorities and grant of permission.
The action of the jail authorities is against the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Indian constitution, the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention against Torture. The inordinate delay to commence trial in the case is a deliberate attempt to deny justice and against the very fundamentals of modern jurisprudence. His present mode of confinement prevents the society from benefiting from his labour as an organic intellectual. We therefore demand that immediate steps should be taken for producing Muraleedharan in court, assuring him a transparent trial, and granting him bail. In the meantime, he should be allowed to seek medical treatment in a specialist hospital, all restrictions imposed on him to access reading materials and to publish his manuscripts should be lifted and should be allowed to receive in jail friends and intellectual associates as visitors.”
-Sethu Nath, senior journalist, deccan chronicle
Report from the International Committee in Support of People’s War in India – english, french and spanish languages
The International Committee in Support of People’s War in India held a Celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Naxalbari uprising, with the participation of comrades from different countries in Europe and Tunisia, and messages and support from Canada and US.
The meeting began with the song of the International followed by the reading of the document for the celebration of the 50th anniversary issued by the CC of the CPI (Maoist), after a brief presentation that greeted all the ongoing celebrations in India and around the world and clarified the purpose of the current celebration – the only one internationally, so far – that is to study such historical event and actualize it.
The meeting has continued deepening the documents by the CPI (Maoist) and others from India, addressing the different aspects and the general significance of the Naxalbari’s uprising, the theoretical, political and practical contributions of comrade Charu Mazumdar in the struggle against revisionism, in the application of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the opening of a long epic, up to the foundation of the CPI (Maoist) and the people’s war today.
The study of such documents filled with the revolutionary interest and enthusiasm the attending comrades who, this way, have better understood the history of Maoists in India as part of the history of the International Communist Movement and part of their own heritage. A history that is very meaningful today for its lessons on the construction of the Maoist Communist Parties in the different countries of the world, and for being inspiring and stimulating further developments of the people’s war in India.
Then we had the messages and speeches by the participating comrades and the messages received from the organizations and comrades who could not take part.
In the second part of the meeting, the committees and organizations attending explained the initiatives they had carried out, also in in self-critical terms, when the initiatives for the 50th anniversary have not had the necessary strength and extent or have not taken place yet.
Anyway, the committees have reiterated that the mass work to deepen the support to the people’s war in India among the proletarian and people’s ranks is the central axis of the current and future work of the ICSPWI.
Various possible initiatives in the different parts of the world have been considered, as base of the plan for forthcoming campaigns and initial proposals were made, on which the decisions to be made will be the result of an international consultation.
The meeting began with the song of the International followed by the reading of the document for the celebration of the 50th anniversary issued by the CC of the CPI (Maoist), after a brief presentation that greeted all the ongoing celebrations in India and around the world and clarified the purpose of the current celebration – the only one internationally, so far – that is to study such historical event and actualize it.
The meeting has continued deepening the documents by the CPI (Maoist) and others from India, addressing the different aspects and the general significance of the Naxalbari’s uprising, the theoretical, political and practical contributions of comrade Charu Mazumdar in the struggle against revisionism, in the application of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the opening of a long epic, up to the foundation of the CPI (Maoist) and the people’s war today.
The study of such documents filled with the revolutionary interest and enthusiasm the attending comrades who, this way, have better understood the history of Maoists in India as part of the history of the International Communist Movement and part of their own heritage. A history that is very meaningful today for its lessons on the construction of the Maoist Communist Parties in the different countries of the world, and for being inspiring and stimulating further developments of the people’s war in India.
Then we had the messages and speeches by the participating comrades and the messages received from the organizations and comrades who could not take part.
In the second part of the meeting, the committees and organizations attending explained the initiatives they had carried out, also in in self-critical terms, when the initiatives for the 50th anniversary have not had the necessary strength and extent or have not taken place yet.
Anyway, the committees have reiterated that the mass work to deepen the support to the people’s war in India among the proletarian and people’s ranks is the central axis of the current and future work of the ICSPWI.
Various possible initiatives in the different parts of the world have been considered, as base of the plan for forthcoming campaigns and initial proposals were made, on which the decisions to be made will be the result of an international consultation.
- In any case, three proposals have been launched and are being planned:a new International Day for the freedom of GN Saibaba and Maoist political prisoners and all political prisoners at international level. The date will be set according to the developments of the trial against GN Saibaba;
- The union and the women’s organizations participating proposed and emphasized the liaison between the general campaign and the call to the working class contained in the document of the CC, CPI (Maoist) against the life-sentences on Maruti/Suzuki workers, and for a mobilization of the proletarian, revolutionary, feminists women against the rapes on the fighters, prisoners and masses women by the army, police, paramilitaries, Hindu fascists, covered by the Modi government;
- The main proposal is the launch of a big Spring Thunder March, for the spring of 2018, that will reach many countries in Europe, North America, South America, Arab World and Asia.
ICSPWI
csgpindia@gmail.com
September 2017
Communiquè Comité international d’appui à la guerre populaire en Inde
Le Comité international d’appui à la guerre populaire en Inde a organisé une célébration du 50e anniversaire de l’insurrection de Naxalbari, avec la participation de camarades de différents pays en Europe et en Tunisie, ainsi que des messages et du soutien du Canada et des États-Unis.
La réunion a commencé avec la chanson de l’Internationale suivie de la lecture du document pour la célébration du 50ème anniversaire du CC du PCI (Maoïste), après une brève présentation qui a salué toutes les célébrations en cours en Inde et dans le monde et a clarifié le but de la célébration actuelle – le seul à l’échelle internationale, jusqu’à présent – c’est étudier un tel événement historique et l’actualiser.
La réunion a continué à approfondir les documents du PCI (Maoïste) et d’autres d’Inde, en abordant les différents aspects et l’importance générale de l’insurrection de Naxalbari, les contributions théoriques, politiques et pratiques du camarade Charu Mazumdar dans la lutte contre le révisionnisme l’application de la Grande Révolution Culturelle Prolétarienne et l’ouverture d’une longue épopée, jusqu’à la fondation du PCI (maoïste) et de la guerre populaire aujourd’hui.
L’étude de ces documents a suscité l’intérêt révolutionnaire et l’enthousiasme des camarades présents qui, de cette façon, ont mieux compris l’histoire des maoïstes en Inde dans le cadre de l’histoire du Mouvement Communiste International et une partie de leur patrimoine. Une histoire qui est très significative aujourd’hui pour ses leçons sur la construction des partis communistes maoïstes dans les différents pays du monde et pour inspirer et stimuler les développements de la guerre populaire en Inde.
Ensuite, nous avons eu les messages et les discours des camarades participants et les messages reçus des organisations et des camarades qui ne pouvaient pas participer.
Au cours de la deuxième partie de la réunion, les comités et les organismes concernés ont expliqué les initiatives qu’ils avaient menées, aussi en termes d’autocritique, lorsque les initiatives pour le 50e anniversaire n’ont pas eu la force et l’étendue nécessaires ou n’ont pas encore eu lieu .
Quoi qu’il en soit, les comités ont réitéré que le travail de masse pour approfondir le soutien à la guerre populaire en Inde parmi les rangs prolétariens et populaires est l’axe central du travail actuel et futur de l’ICSPWI.
Diverses initiatives possibles dans les différentes parties du monde ont été considérées, comme base du plan pour les prochaines campagnes et des propositions initiales, sur lesquelles les décisions à prendre seront le résultat d’une consultation internationale.
En tout cas, trois propositions ont été lancées et sont prévues:
– une nouvelle Journée internationale pour la liberté de GN Saibaba et les prisonniers politiques maoïstes et tous les prisonniers politiques au niveau international. La date sera fixée en fonction de l’évolution du procès contre GN Saibaba;
– Le syndicat et les organisations de femmes participantes ont proposé et ont souligné la liaison entre la campagne générale et l’appel à la classe ouvrière contenue dans le document du CC, PCI (Maoist) contre les condamnations à vie sur les travailleurs de Maruti / Suzuki et pour un la mobilisation des femmes prolétariennes, révolutionnaires, féministes contre les viols contre les combattants, les prisonniers et les masses féminines par l’armée, la police, les paramilitaires, les fascistes hindous, couverts par le gouvernement Modi;
La proposition principale est le lancement d’un grand mois de printemps, pour le printemps 2018, qui atteindra de nombreux pays en Europe, en Amérique du Nord, en Amérique du Sud, dans le monde arabe et en Asie.
ICSPWI
septembre 2017
Celebración de los 50 años del levantamiento del Naxalbari por el Comité Internacional de Apoyo a la Guerra Popular en la India
Comunicado del Comité Internacional de Apoyo a la Guerra Popular en la India
Septiembre 2017
El Comité Internacional de Apoyo a la Guerra Popular en la India llevó a cabo una celebración de los 50 años del levantamiento del Naxalbari, con compañeros de algunos países de Europa y Túnez, y los mensajes y apoyo de Canadá y Estados Unidos.
La reunión se inició con el canto de la Internacional, a la que seguí la lectura del documento para el 50 aniversario del CC del PCI (Maoísta), después de una breve introducción de saludo a todas las celebraciones en curso en la India y en todo el mundo y explicación del propósito de profundización histórica y actual que tuvo esta celebración, la única hasta el momento a nivel internacional.
Luego se continuó con la profundización de documentos del PCI (Maoísta) y otros de la India que abordan todos los aspectos y el significado general del levantamiento de Naxalbari, las contribuciones teóricas, políticas y prácticas del camarada Charu Mazumdar en la lucha contra el revisionismo, en la aplicación de la gran revolución cultural proletaria y en el inicio de una larga saga, hasta la fundación del PCI (maoísta) y la guerra populare de hoy.
La profundización de los documentos ha llenado de interés y entusiasmo revolucionarios los compañeros quienes, a través de ellos, se han apropiado de la historia de los maoístas en la India como historia del MCI y parte de su propia historia y el patrimonio; una historia hoy mas que nunca actual por su lecciones sobre la construcción de partidos comunistas maoístas en los diferentes países del mundo y inspiradoras y estímulo para el desarrollo de la guerra popular en la India.
Han seguido los mensajes e intervenciones de los compañeros presentes y los saludos recibidos de las organizaciones y compañeros que no pudieron participar.
La segunda parte de la reunión vio a los Comités y organizaciones exponer las iniciativas llevadas a cabo, incluso en términos de auto-crítica dónde estas iniciativas para lo 50 años no han tenido la fuerza y amplitud necesaria o aún no han tomado lugar.
En todo caso, los comités han planteado que el trabajo de para arraigar entre la masas proletarias el apoyo a la guerra popular en la India es el eje central del trabajo actual y futuro del Comité Internacional. Se han tenido en cuenta las diversas iniciativas posibles en diferentes partes del mundo sobre las cuales basar el plan para futuras campañas. Y se hicieron las primeras propuestas sobre las cuales las decisiones que se tomarán serán el resultado de una consultación internacional.
En todo caso, se lanzaron y planificaron tres propuestas:
– una nueva día internacional para la libertad de GN Saibaba y los prisioneros políticos maoístas y todos los presos políticos en todo el mundo, la fecha de que será fijada en función de la evolución del proceso contra Saibaba;
– las organizaciones sindicales y de mujeres presentes proponen y lanzan el enlace entre la campaña general y el llamamiento a la clase obrera contenido en el documento CC PCI (Maoísta) a movilizarse contra las condenas perpetuas a los trabajadores de Maruti/Suzuki, y la movilización de las mujeres proletarias, feministas y revolucionarias contra las violaciones de las combatientes, las presas y mujeres de las masas por el ejército, la policía, los paramilitares fascistas hindúes, bajo la cobertura del gobierno Modi;
– la propuesta central es una gran “marcha del trueno de primavera”, en la primavera de 2018, que afecte a muchos países de Europa, América del Norte, América del Sur, Asia y mundo árabe.
ICSPWI
Maoists condemn Gauri Lankesh murder, ask people to hit streets for ‘determined fight’
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has rejected the “propaganda by Hindu fascist forces” that Kannada journalist Gauri Lankesh was killed by Maoists. It said that the “Sangh Parivar” killed Lankesh to muzzle the voice of pro-people forces.
In a release issued by Abhay, spokesman for Central Committee of CPI (Maoist), said, “The party strongly condemns the murder of Leftist, pro-people, progressive and democratic journalist Gauri Lankesh by Brahminical fascist goons of the Sangh Parivar protected by the BJP government at the Centre. The party appeals to all like-minded forces to hit the streets for a determined fight against the forces that killed Lankesh.”
Observing that Lankesh fearlessly campaigned for the downtrodden and the marginalised, against atrocities on minorities by Hindutva forces and corrupt governments, the party has said, “Lankesh had become an eyesore for the Hindutva forces ever since she had translated the book ‘Gujarat Files’ by Gujarat journalist Rana Ayyub exposing the involvement of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the Muslim carnage in 2002. She had printed the matter in her publication in Kannada language. The fascist Hindutva hand was evident from the fact that BJP leader D N Yuvraj had said that she would have been alive had she not celebrated the death of RSS people.”
The CPI (Maoist) also targeted PM Modi for his silence on her murder which it says was “indicative of the Hindutva hand in her murder”. “It is their lowly and dirty act to pressure and get her brother to hint at the possibility of Maoist hand in her murder,” the release further says.
The party has rubbished the probe ordered into Lankesh’s murder saying, “when the rulers themselves are complicit in it, everybody knows what is going to be the outcome of such a probe. That is the reason, till now, there has been no headway in the probe in the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Leftist thinker Govind Pansare and progressive writer M M Kalburgi.”
The party called for intensifying struggle against “fascist Hindutva forces” by all progressive and democratic forces beyond “symbolic protests” with “now or never” urgency.
In a release issued by Abhay, spokesman for Central Committee of CPI (Maoist), said, “The party strongly condemns the murder of Leftist, pro-people, progressive and democratic journalist Gauri Lankesh by Brahminical fascist goons of the Sangh Parivar protected by the BJP government at the Centre. The party appeals to all like-minded forces to hit the streets for a determined fight against the forces that killed Lankesh.”
Observing that Lankesh fearlessly campaigned for the downtrodden and the marginalised, against atrocities on minorities by Hindutva forces and corrupt governments, the party has said, “Lankesh had become an eyesore for the Hindutva forces ever since she had translated the book ‘Gujarat Files’ by Gujarat journalist Rana Ayyub exposing the involvement of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the Muslim carnage in 2002. She had printed the matter in her publication in Kannada language. The fascist Hindutva hand was evident from the fact that BJP leader D N Yuvraj had said that she would have been alive had she not celebrated the death of RSS people.”
The CPI (Maoist) also targeted PM Modi for his silence on her murder which it says was “indicative of the Hindutva hand in her murder”. “It is their lowly and dirty act to pressure and get her brother to hint at the possibility of Maoist hand in her murder,” the release further says.
The party has rubbished the probe ordered into Lankesh’s murder saying, “when the rulers themselves are complicit in it, everybody knows what is going to be the outcome of such a probe. That is the reason, till now, there has been no headway in the probe in the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Leftist thinker Govind Pansare and progressive writer M M Kalburgi.”
The party called for intensifying struggle against “fascist Hindutva forces” by all progressive and democratic forces beyond “symbolic protests” with “now or never” urgency.
Commemoration in memory of comrade Jatindas Vardhan
Thursday the 14th of September in Khamman, during the week for the defense of political prisoners organized by CRPP
Virasam presents 50 Years of Naxalbari at Hyderabad
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