In what has been described as an act of gross human rights violation, the police, instead of handing over the body of a man killed in a road accident in Cachar district in southern Assam last week, ‘secretly’ buried behind a hospital, until the family’s threat to take the officials to court compelled the police to exhume it out and hand it over to his family.
Badal Santal (35), a daily-wager was killed when a speeding dumper ran over him on September 30 on the East-West Corridor, about 15 km north of Silchar, headquarter of Cachar district. While Santal died on the spot, a mob soon afterward beat the dumper’s driver Sajid Ahmed Barbhuiya to death and set the vehicle on fire.
Three persons from the village who had gone to the police station to collect Santal’s body on October 1 were arrested along with 24 others on charges of lynching the dumper’s driver. Badal Santal’s father-in-law Mukul Santal was among them, and he is still in jail.
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“While the police handed over the driver’s body to his family after formalities including the post-mortem examination the very next day, Badal Santal’s wife had to wait seven days to get her husband’s body on Wednesday. That too would not have been possible until we set a deadline to the administration after an agitation launched by the villagers failed to evoke any positive response,” Sanjay Thakur, trade union leader and general secretary of the Barak Valley Chah Mazdoor Sangh (BVCMS) told The Indian Express.
But what was most surprising is that while Badal Santal’s wife Rina kept waiting in her village Boula-basti for his body, the authorities had secretly buried it in a yard behind the Silchar Medical College Hospital where they generally dispose unclaimed bodies. “The police did not bother to inform his wife and children. Instead, a posse of policemen raided the village to find out who had killed the dumper driver, ” Thakur said. Santal leaves behind three sons, the eldest being just about five years old.
“It is not just an act gross violation of human rights, but also of serious discrimination. While Badal’s body was secretly buried without the knowledge and consent of his wife, that of Ahmed, the dumper driver, was duly taken by the authorities to his village in Hailakandi and formally handed over to his family the very next day,” alleged Silchar MLA Dilip Kumar Paul.
MLA Paul, who belongs to the BJP wondered what would have happened if the accident victim was Sajid Ahmed and the dumper driver was Badal Santal. “Had Sajid Ahmed Barbhuiya been the accident victim and Badal Santal the dumper driver, the whole of India would have landed up in Silchar,” the BJP legislator said.
When contacted, Cachar deputy commissioner S Viswanathan said that Santal’s body was “received” by his father-in-law Mukul Santal who also “consented” in writing that the body be buried. “On inquiry, I was told that the body was identified and received by his father-in-law who also consented to burying it in a graveyard behind the SMC Hospital,” Cachar deputy commissioner S Viswanathan told The Indian Express. Santal was a Hindu, he added.
Interestingly, Mukul Santal was in police custody when he allegedly “received” the body and gave his “consent” to bury it. “How could officers who belong to IPS and IAS hand over the body to a man in custody? Moreover, it is Badal’s wife’s sole right to be given the body ,” said Thakur, who is also a lawyer.
Viswanathan, who described the incident as “highly unfortunate” also said that he had received a petition from Rina Santal only two days ago. “I received a petition from Badal Santal’s wife only two days ago. What has happened is highly unfortunate,” he added.
Badal Santal’s body was dug out from the SMC Hospital campus in the wee hours of Wednesday and taken to his village Boula Basti, where his wife Rina received it, but not before handing over a letter of objection to the authorities. His eldest son, a five-year-old, did the “mukhagni”, after which the highly decomposed body was buried with the consent of his wife and village elders, Thakur said.
“How could the authorities hand over the body to Badal’s father-in-law when his wife Rina is very much alive. It is only her right to receive his body. Moreover, on examining the paper on which Mukul Santal gave his so-called consent to bury the body, it was found that the illiterate man had clearly written his name in Bengali,” Thakur said.
Thakur also took a dig at local politicians and said that while Congress leaders from the district and Barak Valley flocked to the deceased driver Barbhuiya’s house in Hailakandi, none of them bothered to even find out what happened to the poor daily-wager who was run over by the dumper.
“The Congress leaders even demanded Rs 20 lakh be paid to Ahmed’s family as compensation and one member be given a government job. We too demand a similar monetary compensation to Santal’s family,” said MLA Dilip Kumar Paul who belongs to the BJP.
Meanwhile Badal Santal’s wife Rina on Wednesday not only claimed a Rs 20 lakh compensation, but also compensation for the mental agony she and her three minor sons – aged five, three and two – had to undergo for no fault of theirs. “We also seek the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission in this matter,” MLA Paul said.
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