Cops 'refuse to register' complaint after BSF shot landless worker off Bangla border

By Our Representative
Kirity Roy, secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), and national convener, Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity (PACTI), in a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), referring to the incident of “firing and execution” of a poor Muslim youth, has alleged that the 26 year old was was shot at “without giving any warning” one and half kilometers inside the Indian territory from Bangladesh border by an on- duty Border Security Force (BSF) personnel.
Stating that the person, Ruhul Mondal, belonged to an Other Backward Class (OBC), and hailed from Ramnarayan Para village under Sagarpara police station in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, Roy in his representation said, the BSF person who shot at him is “attached with Singpara Border Outpost, 141 Battalion”, underlining, the BSF has now floated “self defense theory” to cover up its operation.
According to the BSF officials, the incident took place in the jute fields in the wee hours of June 5 after about 10 to 15 smugglers tried to smuggle phensedyl bottles to Bangladesh. When BSF people saw the smugglers, they fired one grenade. The grenade did not explode. At that time, the smugglers tried to attack upon the BSF personnel and for self defense BSF fired bullets, and the boy, who was among the smugglers, got killed.

However, said Roy, Osilam Bibi, wife of the victim’s brother, claimed that the victim went to the jute field at about 5 am after the BSF people allowed the villagers to enter the field to work as agricultural worker, adding, the victim was not associated with any smuggling activities.
Regretting that “BSF people failed to catch the people associated with smuggling activities” and instead “killed one innocent man”, Roy said, his fact-finding has revealed, on June 5 at about 5 am he was allowed to go the jute field to work. When he was working there, "the perpetrator BSF person attached with Singpara Border Out Post, 141 Battalion without giving any warning, fired two rounds which directly stuck at his chest and feet of the victim.”
He added, “Despite the fact that on June 5 itself the victim’s brother elder Mayejuddin lodged one a written complaint at the Sagar Para Police Station, “Till date police did not register any FIR in this regard.”

Victim's wife Osilam Bibi

Calling it an “unnatural death”, Roy Roy demanded, “The Murshidabad administration must follow the guidelines laid down by NHRC in cases of encounter deaths”, adding, “The guilty BSF personnel involved must be booked and prosecuted in open court. Stern action must be taken against those police personnel of Sagarpara Police Station who intentionally did not register the written complaint of the deceased’s brother.”
Insisting that family of the must be compensated, security, and safety of the witnesses and the family of the victim must be protected, he added, insisted, in order to “stop infiltration and to check smuggling, the BSF must be posted on the actual border and not inside the territory.”

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