A tribal rights activist in Madhya Pradesh has accused forest department staffers of unlawfully detaining and physically torturing him and two others while in custody for having opposed felling of trees in Burhanpur district. He also claimed to have been framed in false cases by the staffers, along with other tribesmen.
The activist, Kailash Jamre, who is associated with the Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS), and fellow tribals have been protesting for the past few days against administrative inaction on their complaints. They have asked the administration to either arrest them if they are in the wrong, or take action against the forest department staffers.
In the complaint, Jamre said, “Certain tribesmen were framed in a fake case by forest officials and were produced before the Burhanpur Court. I had gone to court with two colleagues on August 30.” He further complained that after the hearing, forest department staffers including range officer Abhay Singh took them to the Khaknar range office.
“The three tribals alleged that the staffers beat them the entire night and that Jamre sustained serious injuries. He was treated at the hospital for five or six days and could hardly walk,” rights activist Madhuri Ben said. The forest officials, while beating the trio, had reprimanded Jamre for “talking a lot about the law”, she added.
The complaint quoted Jamre as saying that he was taken to the hospital for a medical examination, but his injuries were not recorded. He also claimed that he fainted in the court campus when he was taken there. His colleagues also suffered minor injuries after the alleged beating.
Jamre and other local tribals claimed that they had complained to the Collector against a political and forest department nexus that has been illegally felling trees in Ghagharla and other areas. They said that the forest department was settling scores for this complaint by framing the locals in false cases and portraying them as “encroachers” on forest land.
They further claimed that people from outside have settled in the forest land and that forest rights applications filed by the locals have been rejected by the administration.
“The administration and the police are yet to act on our complaint despite the fact that we filed it on September 3,” said Madhuri Ben.
“Last year, five tribals were injured after the forest department fired at them, but police is yet to act in the case,” Ben said. “We have also complained to CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and senior officials of Tribal Welfare and Forest department based in Bhopal,” she added.
Praveen Singh, district collector of Burhanpur, said that police are probing the case on the complaint of the tribals and the administration is awaiting their report. “The statements of those accused in the complaint have been recorded and if found guilty, they will be punished,” he said.
Superintendent of Police Burhanpur, Rahul Lodha, said that the complaint was received two days ago from the tribals. “I have asked an additional SP to carry out probe into the charges from the complainants. We will act once the probe report is received,” he added.
JADS members have been protesting in Burhanpur demanding the arrest of forest staffers who assaulted the tribal men and punishment for those guilty of illegal felling of trees in the forests.
Comments
0 comment