One night, 35 years ago…

This is a very sad story. I first heard of this courtesy BarbarIndian and it shook me to the core. Here is a news-article from almost 8 years back, 18th Oct 2001 to be precise, headlined:

“Archana case: The longest legal battle“.

…The violent waves of the naxalite movement were gradually dying down and “special cell” of the city police were busy executing the mandate of uprooting this ultra-left movement, the chief target of state repression, by hook or by crook. But, never in their dreams, did these police officers think that one woman would gather the courage to stand up and raise her voice against police atrocities.

Date: 18 july 1974 Time: 2.00 am Place: special cell, Lalbazar.

Archana Guha, Latika Guha and Gouri Chatterjee were arrested from their north Kolkata residence and brought to Lalbazar for interrogation. The police had “prior information” that these women were actively involved in the ultra-left movement and knew about the whereabouts of Soumen Guha, a naxalite leader.

Soumen was Archana’s brother and Latika’s husband. Gouri happened to be Soumen’s relative. The police were in hot pursuit of Soumen as he had been tortured as a “prized catch” by the Lalbazar top-brass. After repeated attempts to hunt soumen down failed, the police resorted to a much known below-the-belt-tactic. Torture other family members and force the “wanted man” to surrender. But the officers pushed themselves too hard. The three women repeatedly pleaded with the interrogating officers that Soumen had not returned home for days and they didn’t know about his whereabouts. They were assured that after the “routine inquiry” they would be released. But they were in for more.

.

The police officers took a stricter line of action to “extricate” information from latika and archana—the third degree. This inhuman torture in the police custody did not last for one, two or three days… But for 27 days. Then they were sent to presidency jail and were detained there for about three years under the maintenance of internal security act (MISA).

Soumen was arrested on August 5, 1974, and was confined for about three years under the same act. The inhuman torture left Archana paralysed. The lower part of her body stopped responding to internal and external stimuli. A crippled Archana Guha was released on parole in 1976. Her brother Soumen and his wife, Latika, were released in 1977 when general amnesty was granted to almost all political prisoners when the left front government came to power in the state that year.

After their release they lost no time and filed a petition in the court against the police. Archana Guha’s case was filed on August 20, 1977, before the chief metropolitan magistrate’s (CMM) court in calcutta. After a couple of years, Archana was taken to Denmark with the help of Amnesty International where she managed to recuperate after prolonged treatment.

The historic legal battle lasted for more than 22 years, making it one of the longest trials in the state’s judiciary history. In the process, the trial court under its own responsibility allowed Soumen to argue and cross-examine on behalf of his sister Archana. This was unprecedented in legal history as soumen did not have a degree in law. The accused, former Deputy Commissioner Ranjit Guha Neogi, and Constable Santosh Dey were convicted on charges of torturing and outraging the modesty of Archana, Latika Guha and Gouri Chatterjee in 1974. The magistrate, S. Biswas sentenced the accused to simple imprisonment for one year and fined them rs 2,000 each. In case of a failure to pay up the fine, the jail term would be extended by two months. Two other accused persons died during the 19-year-long legal battle, while another accused is still at large.

The jubilation of the victory, which generated wide public support, was unfortunately temporary. The police appealed to the High Court which struck down the sentence of the lower court on “technical grounds”. It said that the court had not read out separate sentences against each specific charge. The case was sent back to the lower court where it remains pending. One of the remaining police officers of the case died in June, 2001.

*** End ***

Here is the High Court judgement, courtesy IndiaKanoon (a related judgement here).

The case also finds mention in the UNHCR’s report on Human Rights in West Bengal.

Do also read: Naxals and Pseudo-Naxals

***

UPDATED: Apologies for the typo in the title.