[IMC-Editorial] [India Thinkers Net] POTA used against minor girls

[India Thinkers Net at Zinester.com]

No money for bail, 15-yr-old girls languish in POTA net

PANDRANI (JHARKHAND): Etwa Oraon, mercifully, doesn't 
know this. The whims of Jayalalithaa have suddenly got 
BJP chief M. Venkaiah Naidu talking about the misuse of 
POTA.

For more than a year, the father of 14-year-old Mayanti 
Raj Kumari, held under the draconian Act while on her 
way back from school, has talked of nothing else.

But all his pleas have fallen on deaf ears of Jharkhand's 
BJP Government as it goes around hauling people under POTA.

Including Mayanti, the state holds 15 women in the age 
group of 14 to 25 under the Act, itself a record.

Otherwise too Jharkhand has shown a special liking for 
the Prevention of Terrorism Act since its inception.

With 16 of its districts declared "terrorist infested" 
and 130 of its policemen dead since November 15, 2000, 
in MCC or PWG attacks, the state has been 
indiscriminately arresting people under POTA, holding 
among the highest number of detainees.

"I feel like dying," says 45-year-old Etwa, who lives 
in Pandrani village of Gumla district, talking of the 
day his second daughter was taken into custody. It 
was July 9, 2002. Mayanti had left home in the morning 
for school.

As evening fell to night and the Class VII student 
still did not return, Etwa, his 40-year-old wife Etwain 
and their children _ sons Lalit and Pradeep, daughters 
Rukmani and Gola _ started getting worried.

It was only the next morning that police informed 
them that Mayanti had spent the night in jail after 
Sub-Inspector R P Gupta of Sisai Police Station 
arrested 24 people, including her, under 
Sections 121 A and 122 of the Indian Penal Code and 
POTA.

The FIR says Mayanti was part of a group of "17-18" 
MCC ultras planning to launch an attack at a roadside 
dhaba, 18 km from her Government school near Pandrani 
village.

Police, who are yet to file a chargesheet in the case, 
claim they had got a tip-off about the meeting. "As 
soon as they saw the police, the ultras began to flee," 
says the FIR.

Etwa finds the charge preposterous. "Mayanti had gone 
after school to her grandparents' house in Sisai. 
While she was about to board the bus at Sisai to 
return home, police nabbed her," he says.

A tribal farmer with five acres of non-irrigated land, 
Etwa supplements his income by selling milk but doesn't 
have the money to move for bail. "To file a petition 
Rs 200-300 is needed. I tried to borrow from many 
people, but nobody gave me the money," he adds.

Laluwa Oraon of Kokatoli village in Gumla district 
can understand Etwa's pain. His daughter Seema Kumari 
was recently convicted by the Ranchi court. 

"We sold off two cows to fight her case. Now I will 
have to mortgage my land to get money to apply for 
her bail in the high court," says Laluwa. Owner of 
four acres of non-irrigated land, he has to do menial 
work to make ends meet.

Three other girls _ Silu Devi (21), Urmila Kumari (18) 
and Savita Kumari (19) _ from Piparwar police station 
area in Ranchi district remain in jail despite bail 
granted to them by the Jharkhand High Court on May 7.

"Their parents were to furnish the bail bonds. But 
since they are extremely poor, they couldn't manage 
money to board the bus and come here. So they continue 
to languish in jail," says Ranchi Public Prosecutor 
Urbanus Toppo.

Twenty-two-year-old Poonam Devi, whose case falls 
under Manatu police station in Palamau district, has 
been in jail since March 22 last year. 

Police have accused her of being a terrorist who was 
arrested along with 10 MCC ultras.

No one has moved for her bail _ Poonam's widowed 
mother is registered missing and her elder sister is 
ailing _ and her trial hasn't even begun as the 
prosecution is still to provide the court the 
requisite sanction for it. 

"The court had directed the prosecution to submit 
the sanction order twice. But it is yet to come," 
says Toppo.

Unluckily for Poonam and others, the State's 
numerous free legal aid agencies are yet to take up 
their cases.

While police had set up a cell headed by Additional 
Director General of Police J Mahapatra to review the 
POTA cases periodically, the process hasn't even begun.

Asked about it, Mahapatra told this website's 
newspaper: "Give us the case numbers. We will review them immediately."

Etwa doesn't think so. He has seen Mayanti only thrice 
in the past 15 months, every time in jail. "We all miss 
her very badly," he pleads.

POTA cases in Jharkhand: 130
Women prisoners: 15
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEO20031004123116&Title=This+is+India&rLink=230


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