Madhya Pradesh: Report on Human Rights violations near Dewas - India Together

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The adivasi communities in Dewas district, MP are living in fear. Recently newspapers and TV media in India reported that the police of Dewas district, central Madhya Pradesh, had fired on tribals in the village of Mehndi Kheda, killing four persons. Reports also mentioned that the police and civil administration including the forest authorities, have charged the adivasis will illegal wood cutting in the forests.

Jamasindh: A house being constructed under the Indira Awas Yojana was completely destroyed.

On April 12, a fact-finding and support team went from Rajasthan to look into the matter and found differently. The police and administration in Dewas had unleashed a reign of terror causing thousands of adivasis to flee their villages for the forests, while the police-administration ransacked their villages, destroyed houses and arrested some of them. This article is based on the findings of the team. The names of many tribals have been omitted for protection.

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  The fact-finding team that has authored this report comprised of four persons:

  • Ms. Srilata Swaminathan - General Secretary, Rajasthan Kisan Sangathan
  • Mr. Mahendra Chaudhary - Rajasthan State Secretary, CPI-ML
  • Mr. Khemraj Chowdhary - A senior member of the voluntary organisation PRAYAS, Chittorgarh Dt.
  • Dr. Narendra Gupta - A senior member of the voluntary organisation PRAYAS, Chittorgarh Dt.

  The four-member team left for Indore on 12th April where it met Shri Anil Trivedi, Advocate, who is familiar with the affected area, has represented many tribals in legal matters and is also Rahul Bannerjee’s lawyer in the present case. He confirmed the reports that police had killed four persons of whom three were tribals, broken innumerable houses and had let loose a reign of terror in the area.

  The team, accompanied by some tribals, visited villages on the night of 12th in Khargone District and spent the night at village Akya of Vadva subdivision. This area borders Dewas District and is only a few kilometres from the village where the police firing and repression took place.

  Late on the night of the 12th and into the early morning of the 13 April, around ninety adivasi men and women from six nearby villages came to meet the team members and showed them notices that had been served to them by the Forest Department of Khargone division to evict them from the forest land supposedly encroached by these families. Fear and terror was clearly visible on the face of every single man and woman present in the meetings. Careful examination of the notices showed that all these families had been served notice under the Section 80 of the Forest Act. However there was no mention of the size of land and the revenue number of the land. All these families have been asked to appear on 16th April at Vadva to file replies or else to face immediate eviction. The gathered adivasis said that the forest officials when serving these notices to them said that this was a very clear and stern warning that they would also be harshly dealt with as has been done in the villages of Bagli Tehsil of Dewas District.

  

  The floor of a village home is littered with broken tiles of the roof

  On the morning of 13th April the team first went to village Kanad of Bagli tehsil in Dewas District and met the family of Jerma an adivasi whose son Balram, a 25 year-old youth, was shot down and killed by the more than 400 police and forest department combined team in village Mehndi Kheda on 2nd April 2001. Balram was a second-year college student and was also working for a local NGO called Samaj Pragiti Sahyog. He was married a year ago and his wife Parvati is expecting a baby. Jerma and many others narrated the entire episode. The team also met the Chhotu Singh, father of Patthan, aged 30, and father of four children, who was also killed in the firing. In Kanad we spoke to around thirty people.

  In Kanad there is a Christian missionary institution that runs a school and self-help programmes. The team was able to talk to Fr. Anthony who was in charge.

  From here the team went to Jamasindh village and saw the destruction and then proceeded to Mehndi Kheda where the main attack on the adivasis on 2nd. April by around 400 armed police and forest guards had taken place along with the loot and destruction of the homes. The team next went to Patpadi village where fourteen houses including the house of the sarpanch, Shri Gangaram, had been destroyed and he has been arrested and was still in jail. Lastly, the team went to village Katukia where the most houses had been destroyed.

  In all, the team was able to visit seven villages and talk to hundreds of tribals who were still in a state of intense shock and fear. But when they saw that we were accompanied by trusted tribal leaders they rapidly crowded around us and poured out their stories.

  The team then went to the tehsil headquarter town of Bagli and proceeded to the jail where Rahul Banerjee, a local activist, sarpanch Gangaram and a youth called Binoo were being held. Unfortunately, the team were unable to see any of them.

  The team also met Shri Mihir Shah of the Samaj Pragiti Sahyog who has also written a report of the whole operation with detailed lists of villages, houses destroyed, material looted or broken.

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