Speed Post News Network
New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report on how in Chennai, Tamil Nadu police illegally detained a 17 year old boy and his two family members of Kuravar community in connection with a burglary and tortured them in the most inhuman way, purportedly on the ground that they belonged to a tribe dubbed by the British as criminals under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871. The law is extinct now but presumably the mindset remain unchanged.
The NHRC has issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government through its Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, calling for a detailed report, including the action, if any, taken against the erring police personnel, within 4 weeks. It has observed that no human being should be subjected to discrimination merely on the fact that he belongs to a particular caste, creed or community. The contents of the news report are a matter of concern, it said. The incident, alleging illegal detention of a young boy, physical torture of the family members and atrocities committed by the police personnel, indicates violation of human right to life, liberty and dignity of the victims, the commission said.
The media report, carried on August 7, 2016, under the heading “Ms. Bedi, I am a Kurava, and I’am not a thief”, narrates the story of the continued discrimination and torture of persons from ex-criminal tribe Kuravar. The story gives an account of the feelings of a Kurava boy in the backdrop of a tweet, reportedly made by Ms Kiran Bedi, Governor of Puducherry that “ex-criminal tribes” are very cruel professionals in committing crimes and rarely caught or convicted.
Even as, reportedly, the debate over the tweet continued, a boy was learning what it meant to be born a Kurava by giving an account of the torture, pain and discrimination his father suffered into the hands of police in the name of investigations without any case being registered three years back, and how he also became a victim of the same fate alongwith one of his cousins and uncles. On the 31st July, 2016 some police personnel from the Ambattur Police Station, in Chennai, picked them up from his hut in Cholavandipuram, Villupuram district, for questioning about an incident of burglary about which he had no idea. The juvenile was reportedly, released when his family intervened to convince the police that he was just 17 years of age .
The Joint Commissioner of Police (West), Chennai, reportedly stated that they were arrested for burglary and 18 sovereigns of jewellery had been recovered from one of them. He, however, also stated that he was not aware of detention of any juvenile by police.