By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
New Delhi: In another brazen act further consolidating brutal highhandedness of security forces in the country, a 17-year-old boy Noor Hossain has been tortured to death allegedly by the jawans of Border Security Force in a village located near Indo-Bangladesh border in the district of Murshidabad. Making their act more heinous the jawans pumped two bullets in the dead body of the minor and declared him a smuggler killed in an encounter.
According to his family members Hossain on September 1, 2009 at 10.30 p.m. went to attend nature’s call on the banks of River Padma near his village. Some BSF jawans present there alleged him as a smuggler and started battering him mercilessly. The boy was groaning and tried his best to convince the BSF jawans and pleaded for his life. But they did not pay any heed to his prayer and continued their ruthless act. As a result the boy was profusely bleeding and fell on the ground. The eyewitnesses reported that the boy died on the spot. After his death the BSF personnel allegedly fired 2 rounds of bullets on his corpse. One bullet hit the left rib of his body. These details have been provided in a fact-finding report prepared by NGOs Masum and Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity.
Noor Hossain, son of Jerman Sekh, was resident of village Brahmaottar under Lalgola Police Station in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. He worked as a construction laborer.
According to the report, in the morning on September 2 (next day of the incident) police from Lalgola Police Station recovered the body and sent it to Lalbagh Sub Divisional Hospital for post mortem examination. During this time no doctor was called by anybody to ascertain his death and impart medical treatment.
Kirity Roy, Secretary of Masum and National Convenor, Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity, conducted the fact finding and sent the report to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights seeking their intervention in the case so that culprit jawans could be brought to book.
Roy said few villagers witnessed the whole incident. They also saw that those BSF jawans kept 6 hensos (a very common tool for farming; commonly found to every farmers), 6 sticks and 2 cows on the spot beside the dead body so that the incident could be shown as a cow smuggling case. Company Commandant of DMC, BSF, BOP, 105 Battalion, BSF ‘E’ Company Mr. P. Bodhra lodged a complaint against the victim Noor Hosain to the said police station and some associated people on 02/09/2009. On the basis of this complaint a case was initiated against deceased victim at Lalgola police station vide Case No: 499/09 Dated 02/09/2009 u/s 147/149/353/186/307.
But ironically no case has been started against the BSF jawans. In addition to that, Mr. Dulal Biswas, the Officer in Charge of the Lalgola Police station inhumanely behaved with the victim family, Roy said adding that the right to life of the victim has been grossly violated by BSF as guaranteed under Art.21 of the Indian Constitution.
Roy has demanded that the killing must be investigated by an independent body, neither by BSF nor Lalgola police. The criminal case under section 302/34 of Indian Penal Code for murder should be initiated against the accused BSF jawans at local police station and must be investigated impartially in absence of any undue interference and influence by the accused persons and the accused must be arrested forthwith. The accused BSF jawans must also be booked under sections 24(a), 28, 34, 35, & 46 of BSF Act and punished accordingly. A judicial magistrate enquiry should be held under section 176(1-A) of Criminal Procedure Code without further delay; the deceased died while in BSF custody. Action must be taken in compliance of the guidelines issued by NHRC in case of encounter death as the perpetrator BSF alleged that the victim was killed in an encounter. The victim’s family members must be given adequate compensation and protection.