Parth M.N.

Priti David

Editor

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When Munawwar
Khan, 65, reached the police station he could hear his son’s desperate wails
coming from inside. About 15 minutes later the cries fell silent. The father of
Israel Khan was hopeful, thinking the police had stopped beating his son. 

Earlier that day,
Israel had left Bhopal after participating in a religious congregation. He was
returning home to Guna – about 200
kilometres away where he worked as a daily wage labourer on construction sites.


He reached Guna
that evening (November 21, 2022), but didn’t get home. Around 8 p.m. a couple
of kms from his home in Gokul Singh Ka
Chak, a basti (settlement), four
police officers stopped the autorickshaw Israel was travelling in and took him
away. 

In fact, Israel
was on a call with his mother-in-law when he was detained, says Bano, 32, his
elder sister. “That is how we got to know that he is in police custody.”

He was taken to
the nearby Kushmuda police station. It was here that his father Munawwar heard
him screaming in pain as police officers mercilessly beat him up. 

About 45 minutes
later, Munawwar would realise that his son’s desperate cries had fallen silent
not because the police stopped their assault, but because he had been beaten to
death. His post mortem indicated that he died of cardiorespiratory failure and a head injury.

Later media
reports would quote the Madhya Pradesh police as saying that the 30-year-old
Muslim labourer was detained as he was part of a group that tried to save a
gambler and got into a confrontation with the police. 

But his family is
not buying it: “He was picked up because he was a Muslim,” says Israel&#39;s
mother, Munni Bai.

The fact that Israel
died in police custody is not disputed. How he died is.

Rakesh Sagar,
superintendent of police, Guna, says Israel arrived injured at the police
station after falling down on a railway track at Ashok Nagar – about 40 kms
from Guna – and died in police custody. “The four concerned constables are
currently suspended,” he says. “There’s a disciplinary action going on against
them. But it has emerged that they didn’t do anything. Our prosecution
department will decide further steps.”

On the fatal
night, the police at Kushmuda Police Station told Munawwar that Israel had been
taken to the police station at Cantt. But after getting there, they informed
him that Israel’s health had deteriorated and he was being taken to the
district hospital. “We realised something was not okay,” says Bano, “When our
father reached the hospital, Israel was dead. The bruises were all over his
body. He had been mercilessly beaten to death.”

Israel’s mother,
Munni Bai sits across their modest one-room house in the basti listening to the conversation, trying to hide her tears.
Their home is one of three to four small concrete rooms that share two common
toilets inside a gated compound. 

Munni Bai enters
the conversation with much effort. Every time she tries to speak, she breaks
down. But she wants to make her point. “It has become easy to target Muslims
these days,” she says. “The atmosphere is such that we are reduced to
second-class citizens. We can be killed and nobody will bother to speak up.”

In July 2022, the
union home ministry told the <a></a><a></a>Lok Sabha that 4,484 custodial deaths had happened in
India between April 2020 to March 2022 – that is more than six a day for two years. 

Madhya Pradesh
accounted for 364 of these custodial deaths with only Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and
West Bengal reporting more.

“Most of the
people that die in police custody belong to marginalised communities or
minorities,” says Vishnu Sharma, an activist based in Guna. “They are
struggling financially, and have no agency. It is criminal how ruthlessly we
treat them.”

Israel’s daily
wages brought home Rs. 350 a day and in a good month, he made about Rs.
4,000-5,000. The family lived on that income. He is survived by his wife,
Reena, 30, three daughters aged 12, 7 and 6, and a year-old son. “The
police should understand the consequences of their actions. They have destroyed
an entire family for no reason,” says Bano. 

When I visited
the family in the last week of September 2023, Reena and the children were at
her parents’ place on the outskirts of Guna city. “She keeps moving between
here and there,” says Bano. “She has been through a lot. We try to be as
supportive of her as possible. She can come and go as she pleases. This is also
her home. That is also her home.”

Reena’s family is
not well off and cannot support her and her family. Her daughters have been out
of school ever since their father’s death. “We can’t pay for the school
uniform, bags and notebooks anymore,” says their aunt, Bano. “The children are
in depression, especially Mehek, who is 12 years old. She was a talkative one
but now she barely speaks.”

India has been a
signatory to <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/convention-against-torture-and-other-cruel-inhuman-or-degrading-treatment-or-punishment/">UN Convention against torture</a> since 1997. But the country has failed to
legislate against it. In April 2010, the then Congress-led union government had
tabled an anti-torture bill in the Lok Sabha but it never materialized into
legislation. Custodial torture of undertrials remains a norm in India, and
marginalised communities such as Muslims, Dalits and Adivasi are its worst
sufferers.

Take the case of
Bisan, 35, a small Adivasi farmer and a labourer from the village of Khair Kundi in Khargone district who was picked
up by the police in August 2021 and brutally tortured over suspicion that he
stole Rs. 29,000. 

Three days later,
when Bisan, a Bhil Adivasi, was produced in front of the judicial magistrate,
he was visibly in pain and couldn’t even stand straight without physical
support, say activists who are fighting the case. Yet, he was remanded to
police custody. The jail authorities refused to admit him because of his
injuries. 

Four hours later,
he had to be rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Post mortem report records the cause of death as septicaemic shock due to
extensive infected wounds. 

Bisan is survived
by his wife and five kids – youngest of whom is seven years old.

An NGO working in the state – Jagrit Adivasi Dalit
Sangathan (JADS) – has taken up Bisan’s case. A PIL has been filed in the High
Court of Madhya Pradesh. 

“You torture him
over suspicion of Rs. 29,000 to the extent that he dies?” asks Madhuri
Krishnaswamy, leader of JADS.
“Bisan’s family has been under pressure to withdraw the case but we have
decided to fight it on our own. The police have not followed the guidelines
laid down by the NHRC.”

According to the guidelines stated by National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC), “All
reports including post-mortem, videograph and magisterial inquiry report must
be sent within two months of the incident. In every case of custodial death,
Magisterial Inquiry has also to be done as directed by the Commission and it
should be completed as soon as possible but in such a way that within the two
months’ deadline this report is also made available.” 

When Israel died,
the police were pressuring the family for a burial without handing them a post
mortem report. It has been nearly a year since then but his family is still
unaware of the Magisterial Inquiry result.

They have also
not received any monetary help from the state. The District Collector rudely
dismissed them when Israel’s family sought to meet him, says Bano. “Everybody
has forgotten about us. We have also given up hope of getting justice.”

With the main
breadwinner of the family gone, the old parents have had to chip in.

Munni Bai has
taken up a job of milking the neighbour’s buffaloes. She brings in the
livestock in the verandah of her small home and milks the animals one by one.
At the end of it, she returns the livestock, along with the milk, to the
employer, for which she gets Rs. 100 per day. “That’s all I can do at my age,”
she says.

Munawwar is in
his sixties and despite the fact that he is frail, weak and suffers from joint
pains, he has had to go back to labour work. He starts panting at construction
sites, which makes others around him concerned for his health. He doesn’t
travel too far away from his basti,
and looks for work within a five or 10 km radius so that his family can rush to
help if there is an emergency. 

The family has been
struggling to make ends meet, which makes it difficult for them to pursue the
case. “The lawyers ask for money,” says Bano. “We can’t feed ourselves. From
where will we pay the lawyer? Yahan insaaf ke paise lagte
hai. [Justice is expensive in India].”

In MP, the silenced cries of custodial deaths

زیر حراست موت کے بعد اہل خانہ کی بے بسی

మధ్యప్రదేశ్‌లో కస్టడీ మరణాల నిశబ్ద రోదనలు

அமைதியாக்கப்பட்ட காவல் நிலைய மரணங்கள்

ਮੱਧ ਪ੍ਰਦੇਸ਼: ਪੁਲਿਸ ਹਿਰਾਸਤ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੁੰਦੀਆਂ ਮੌਤਾਂ ਤੇ ਅੰਕੜਿਆਂ ਦੀ ਖੇਡ

ମଧ୍ୟ ପ୍ରଦେଶରେ ହାଜତ ମୃତ୍ୟୁର ପ୍ରତିଧ୍ୱନି

मध्य प्रदेशात कोठडीतल्या मृत्यूंचं दाहक वास्तव

നിശ്ശബ്ദമാക്കപ്പെട്ട വിലാപങ്ങൾ: മധ്യ പ്രദേശിലെ കസ്റ്റഡി മരണങ്ങൾ

ಮಧ್ಯಪ್ರದೇಶ: ಕಸ್ಟಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಉಡುಗುತ್ತಿರುವ ದುರ್ಬಲ ದನಿಗಳು

મધ્ય પ્રદેશની પોલીસ કોટડીઓમાં ગૂંગળાતી મોતની ચીસો

मप्र मं पुलिस हिरासत मं कलपत मऊत के आंकड़ा

मध्य प्रदेस: पुलिसिया हिरासत बा कि कालकोठरी?

মধ্যপ্রদেশ পুলিশি হেফাজতে মৃত্যুমিছিল

মধ্যপ্ৰদেশত আৰক্ষীৰ জিম্মাত মৃত্যুৰ কিৰিলি!

मध्य प्रदेश: पुलिसिया हिरासत में मौत के चीख़ते आंकड़े

Gokul Singh Ka Chak

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In MP, the silenced cries of custodial deaths

In the last few years, deaths in police custody from brutal torture and beatings has shot up in this state. On the receiving end are, no guesses, marginalised and impoverished communities who cannot fight back

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