Open Letter from Bapi Mahato on Jnaneshwari Train Tragedy

‘We were angry. We wanted to do damage. Someone in the crowd said, leave it to us…’

BY PARTHA DASGUPTA, Tehelka

THE COLLISION of the Jnaneshwari Express with a goods train just after midnight on 28 May near Jhargram killed 148 passengers and dealt a severe blow to the public image of the Maoists. The West Bengal CID named Monoj alias Bapi Mahato and Umakanto Mahato, members of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), as the prime accused. Sections of the media claimed that Bapi had confessed to masterminding the incident.

TEHELKA has now obtained exclusive possession of handwritten notes which Mahato has written from Midnapore Central Jail, in which he denies the CBI charges. To establish his innocence, his ‘Open Letter’ gives a blowby- blow account of what unfolded on 28 May.

In a second letter titled ‘Plea to the Inhabitants of Jangalmahal’ Bapi denies having given any testimony to the CBI, which lauded the West Bengal police for arresting him. TEHELKA cannot independently verify the authenticity of the letters, signed in both English and Bangla. But the contents of the letter may lead investigators to an entirely different narrative. Here are the translations in full.

AN OPEN LETTER FROM A PRISONER TO THE PEOPLE OF WEST BENGAL

Prison blues Bapi Mahato at the time of his arrest soon after the 28 May tragedy and (below) facsimiles of the handwritten notes in which he gives blow-by-blow accounts of his movements

Prison blues Bapi Mahato at the time of his arrest soon after the 28 May tragedy and (below) facsimiles of the handwritten notes in which he gives blow-by-blow accounts of his movements

In our village, the PCAPA was formed on 25 December 2009. Around March this year, I was made responsible for 20 villages. The primary objectives of this committee were [establishment of people’s] rights, non-cooperation with the fraudulent-murdererrapist- liar (West Bengal) government and an all-round development of the rural society with mass support and mass involvement. It is this development work that irked the local Harmads (armed CPM cadres) and powerful CPM leaders and they planned to harm the committee.

As our committee grew in strength and number, the atrocities perpetrated by the Joint Forces increased proportionately. I was exasperated at the regular complaints by villagers against Joint Forces’ atrocities and could not take it anymore after the torture became unbearable around three days before the train tragedy. So, I took stock of the situation in the villages of Guimara, Sitabhuna, Shalpatra, Murabani, Amrashol, Baimanabandh, Indrabani and Barbigha with 8-10 of my comrades from the PCAPA. We found that around 3,000 members of the Joint Forces and 117 Harmads, who came from Chandra, unleashed horrible torture on the villagers. Angry at this, I organised a meeting with my comrades at Murabani [on 27 May, the eve of the Jnaneshwari tragedy]. From there I telephoned my leader (Umakanto) and conveyed the problems that we were facing. Umakanto suggested (on my phone, which was on loudspeaker mode) a bandh or road-blockade or damaging of government property.

On hearing this, the local leadership, comprising Samir, Manik (from Murabani), Tapan (from Amrashol) and Altaf (from Shalpatra) gathered the villagers and asked me for direction. The meeting was mainly conducted by Manik, Samir, Tapan and others. An estimated 1,500 villagers attended the meeting. I suggested felling of logs with hacksaws [to put up a rail blockade with those]. Hacksaws were collected. But a little later, the plan was rejected. Then the villagers suggested that the CPM party office at Sardiha and the local committee office be ransacked. This was also rejected.

Mander’s aide held for Maoist ‘links,’ wife told to quit her govt house

New Delhi Can the wife of an alleged Maoist be “punished” for the activities of her husband? The Ministry of Communications & IT is seized with the question with human rights activists protesting against the eviction notice issued by the Department of Posts to Anju Shakeel, wife of Abdul Shakeel Basha, an alleged Maoist arrested last June. Reportedly on the wanted list of the Gujarat Police, Basha was picked up from his house which happens to be a government house allotted to his wife five years ago.

Basha, who is in a Surat jail now, worked for the homeless and ran an NGO called Haq in Delhi. He worked closely in Gujarat with Harsh Mander, member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC).

His wife is said to have petitioned Minister of State Sachin Pilot against his department’s eviction order last week. When contacted, Pilot declined to comment.

But a Ministry official said: “Accommodation was given to her on temporary basis and it was extended every six months. This time, the extension was not given. The fact is no unlawful activities can be allowed from government accommodation and Basha had been arrested from her official residence.”

In the eviction notice dated August 10, Anju Shakeel was given 10 days to vacate her house. She declined to answer any questions, but sources said she has asked Ministry officials for a reprieve citing her “lower backbone disorder” and “acute diabetes.” Her mother lives with her.

We won’t give our land

Land Nor Freedom

August 23, 2010

‘Nahi denge zameen!’ (we won’t give our land) – said one villager of Lohandiguda, as over 150 villagers – Sarpanches and ward members with their families, stood up, and walked out of the meeting with government officials on the 12th of May of this year. In 2005, the villagers in Lohandiguda didn’t even know their land was up for acquisition by Tata Steel – they learnt about it after they read the newspapers.

This article appears in The New Indian Express on the 22nd of August, 2010.

Villagers from Lohandiguda walk out of a meeting held with government officials on the 12th of May, 2010.

It is a known fact that the Adivasis have existed long before there was any idea of India. And there are estimates that there has been more displacement by development projects in India than by the Partition, and a majority of the displaced have been Adivasis.

The Elusive truth of an encounter

On August 4, for several hours, national television beamed news of a gunfight in the forest near Kutrem, 50km from the town of Dantewada. Chhattisgarh police claimed its men were engaged in a ‘fierce encounter’ with the Maoists. By evening, the policemen – local adivasi special recruits called ‘Koya Commandos’ – returned to base, unharmed, carrying a victory trophy. The body of a young man. They said he was a Maoist. His name was Kunjami Joga.

But Joga was not one of us, and the encounter was fake, now claim the Maoists. Exactly a fortnight later, they have left behind hand-written pamphlets in Kutrem, not stealthily, but with loud impact, blasting and breaking down government buildings. A school, an anganwadi and the panchayat office.

“When we arrived next morning, we found tables, chairs, books, and cupboards lying outside. They first emptied out the building and then brought it down,” said M R Tandiya, the school headmaster.

Just a day before the blasts, TOI had visited Kutrem, green with paddy and maize, nestling in an undulating forest.

Joga’s old fragile parents could barely speak. A small crowd gathered. A young man narrated in broken Hindi: “Joga had gone to his didi’s house in the next para (hamlet) for food, when the force (koya commandos) arrived. They found him on the way and shot him dead. Two days later, they came back and distributed biscuits and namkeen. They also gave the family money.”

At this point, Joga’s father became alert. He looked up with moist eyes, nodded, and said, “Do Hazaar”. Two thousand rupees for a dead son.

Villagers said Joga’s cousin Urra was also beaten up by the police. “They beat him so badly, he could not bear the pain, wo phaansi lagaa liya”. Urra’s wife gestured agitatedly. She pointed out the homestead where her husband was beaten, held her spine to indicate the nature of his injuries, and finally led inside to show where he eventually hung himself.

Another young man said similar killings had taken place in the next village Madkamiras. He offered to show the way. But on arrival there, villagers said `force’ had arrived in Kutrem.

Back in Kutrem, within minutes, the village had transformed. Homes were locked up. Armed men in green camouflage and black bandanas swarmed the place.

This was a party of Koya Commandos. "No, this is not the same party that engaged in the encounter a few days ago, although some fighters were common," said one of them. When asked what had brought them back, another answered, "churching," in the common mispronounciation for `searching’.

Soon, their leader, police inspector Nagavanshi arrived. “The encounter took place seven kilometres from here inside the forests,” he said, pointing towards a distant hill. “That’s where we recovered the body of a uniformed Maoist, a boy from this village, Kunjami Joga.”

Later, in a private conversation, one of the Koya fighters admitted the body was not in uniform. “But he was a Maoist and we found a black uniform in his kit”. So why did they distribute biscuits and money in the village? "We wanted to convince people not to help the Naxals. And we gave Joga’s family money because the dokra (old parents) were so poor, we felt pity. After all, Joga was from the same caste. He was adivasi like us.”

Next morning, in the debris of the school building in Kutrem, sribbled in red and green sketch pen ink, signed by the CPI Maoist Darbha Divisional Committee, a pamphlet said: "Like Kunjami Joga, 18 other innocent villagers have been killed by the security forces and Koya commandos, all in the name of eliminating Maoists, as part of Operation Green Hunt. We will give them a fitting response". TOI

Preliminary Report of the All India Fact Finding Team on the Killing of Azad and H. C Pandey

Preliminary Report of the All India Fact Finding Team on the Killing of Azad and H. C Pandey Released to the media at Hyderabad on 22 August, 2010

by COORDINATION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

CDRO put together a team of concerned citizens consisting of Prof. Emeritus Amit Bahaduri, J.N.U., Delhi, Senior Counsel of Supreme Court Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Kavita Srivatsava, Human Rights worker from Rajasthan, Gautam Navlakha writer & from PUDR, Delhi, Kranthi Chaitanya, Advocate and General Secretary of APCLC, D. Suresh Kumar, Advocate, APCLC, Ch. Sudhakar Rao, President of OPDR, D. Venkateswarlu, OPDR. The team visited Wankadi Mandal, Adilabad District on 20th & 21st of August, 2010 where the alleged encounter of Mr. Azad @ Cherukuri Rajkumar who was spokesperson of CPI Maoist Central Committee Member and Journalist Hemachandra Pandey took place on the intervening night of 1st and 2nd July, 2010. Three fact findings had earlier already carried out spot investigations. The team met the local villagers, local police, and local media personal and perused FIR, inquest and postmortem report. The FIR No.(Crime ) 40/2010 registered at the Wankadi P.S. of Adilabad District by the Station House Officer, Mr. Mansoor Ahmed at 9.30 am of 2nd July, 2010 in the English Language gives the following account.

1. The Spl. Intelligence police provided the information that a group of 20 CPI Maoist had crossed into A.P. from Maharastra and moving about the forest.