Gruesome methods of torture employed by Indian police forces come to light
In our cover story this issue, INDIA TODAY exposes the diabolical dimensions of the types of torture currently being practised behind the innocuous facade of interrogation centres all over the country.
- Hirman Laxman Pagar, suspected 21-year-old Naxalite arrested on Nov. 4, 1976 by the Andhra Pradesh Police.
"Some women prisoners taken to the Lal Bazaar police station in Calcutta ... were stripped naked, burned on all parts of the body and in some cases iron rulers were inserted into the vagina and rectum ... there are also allegations that a women suspect was subjected to continuous raping by hardened criminals on the specific orders of the police inside the interrogation room."
- Allegations contained in a report compiled by the Akhil Banga Manila Samiti - a non-political voluntary organization.
"In India, claims of torture used against political prisoners have steadily increased since Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency 13 months ago. The New York-based International League of Human Rights charged last June that Indian jailers have been guilty of 'torture, brutality, starvation and other mistreatment of prisoners' ..."
- Time magazine, August 16th, 1976 which was banned in India.
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In late '69 - early '70, the Finance Department of the West Bengal government wrestled with an unusual request. The infamous Lal Bazaar Police station in Calcutta as well as the offices of the Special Branch (Intelligence wing of the police) in Lord Sinha Road had requested sanction to sound-proof some of the rooms. A continuous stream of "Naxalite suspects" were being brought in for questioning.
The piercing screams at all hours of the day and night of persons being "questioned" had made it "difficult" for the families of some of the police personnel who had quarters there. Ultimately a unique compromise was reached. Some heavy doors were put up, enough to muffle the screams of pain and terror from the outside world. The other suspects locked inside could hear the sounds, in many cases amplified by microphones.
"They should know what is in store for them ... the terror itself should reduce resistance and make them talk," the chief interrogator remarked casually.
The Indian intellectual has always discussed torture in terms of Nazism and The Gulag Archipelago. Demonstrations have been taken out protesting against the "inhuman treatment" given to Chilean supporters of the Allende regime by that country's brutal secret police, DINA. Even as reports of torture of Naxalite prisoners seeped out in '69 and '70, the drawing room opinion makers poured themselves another "chotta peg", firm in the belief that it "could never happen to us".
Today, torture is in the news. Torture, of a kind that would make the Nazi interrogators lick their lips in approval. And the methods used were within the full knowledge of a "sovereign democratic government" which had pledged itself to the dignity of the individual.
Ironically, while torture is as old as human history itself, the 20th century has seen its most widespread use. Amnesty International has estimated that torture as an instrument of maintaining state power has been, and is being used, by nearly 60 countries in the world. In 1975, the organization could list 40 nations where torture was common and widespread.
Torture has been most frequently used by people in power to quell any form of dissent. It's prevalence and the method used to inflict pain and spread terror differs not only from country to country but also from individual to individual and more consciously, from the nature and character of the opponents involved.
The basic immediate use of torture is to seek information. Yet the underlying strain is to create an atmosphere of terror - of seeking to set an example by breaking the backbone of dissidents through the sheer threat of pain.
In the Indian context, it is relevant to recall what Hannah Ardendt wrote in the last book before she died, recalling Hitler's techniques regarding the Jewish community. Initially, Hitler struck against categories who could possibly be seen as a threat to his rule - intellectuals, poets, artists, financiers, industrialists et al.
This was the random selection - which by the sheer process of arbitrariness, sent a wave of fear through all sections. The randomness helped in creating the basic culture of fear. The average man asked himself the question - "Am I safe?". With no conceivable idea as to the degree of safety coupled with reports of what would happen once arrested, the average citizen suspiciously eyed his neighbour as a possible "collaborator".
Dramatic and well publicized searches would only add to the "fear complex," lower resistance and help perpetuate tyranny. Ironically enough, those who had not been arrested and tortured became all the more subservient because of the all powerful domination of the most elemental of man's instinct - "fear".
Torture is not a new phenomenon in India. In the last decade however, it took on new dimensions which permeated almost every strata of society.
Torture in pre-independence India was mainly such routine police brutalities as a solid hammering with lathis, psychological pressures such as confiscation of property; solitary confinement and harassment of family members; the excruciatingly painful "water treatment" (being ducked in a barrel full of water or urine); not being allowed to sleep; ripping off the nails or using pins to puncture various parts of the body.
The entire attitude towards torture however depended on the nature of the prisoner and the challenge posed to the system of government. In the initial years of the freedom struggle when the Congress non-cooperation was seen as a "dangerous seditious element" widespread torture was an accepted phenomenon. By the late 70's and early '30's, however, new "radical elements" had emerged on the political scene - the terrorists and the communists being the two most important.
In terms of the ruling elite, the Congress agitators gained a new respectability vis-a-vis the extremists. While the radicals were subjected to the more extreme forms of torture, the Congress "non-violent agitators" managed to escape with a few painful slaps.
The advent of independence saw a change in government but not in basic social attitudes. The inherent categorization of prisoners according to their socio-economic background and danger to established society was the main criterion for determining the nature and extent of torture to be practised.
The first examples of ruthless inhuman torture which led to the maiming of suspects followed the abortive "armed revolution" attempted in Telengana in 1948. An extremist movement launched by the Communist Party of India under the leadership of B.T. Ranadive.
It was ruthlessly crushed by using methods which would not be tolerated by any civilized society. Where suspects could not be traced the authorities tortured family members and even children. Villages, suspected of harbouring the rebels were often burnt down and standing crops destroyed.
To blame the attitude towards torture only on individual morbidity would be overlooking the basic element determining the nature of torture - social attitudes. In the strictly hierarchial Indian society, the position of the prisoner depends on his socio-economic standing.
Even in the so-called democratic structure existing in India 30 years after independence the type of facilities available (listed as A, B and C) depend on the income, social standing and education (also directly linked to wealth) rather than the nature of the crime.
In effect it would mean that if there were two accused charged with the same crime, the richer man would be entitled to comforts such as reading material, newspapers and even a personal valet while his poorer co-accused would not get even one-third of the privileges.
The difference in attitudes and methods were consistently manifest in local agrarian disputes involving either the landless or poor peasant against the landlord or money-lender. The assumption was that the oppressed were automatically guilty until proved otherwise.
The village poor when arrested still are and were subjected to the worst form of physical torture while the rich would be treated with "courtesy and due deference". Examples of police officials maiming the poorer suspects in village disputes would fill up the New York telephone directory.
The social reason for this is apparent from the class background (socio-economic) of the police and other law enforcement agencies. The entire constabulary as well as the subordinate police officers belong to the upper caste and consequently middle and upper peasant hierarchy. According to their value system, they consider the lower caste poorer sections less human.
Instinctively and by social conditioning, therefore, what appears to the uninvolved individual as police third degree methods is to the individual policemen in these categories a "normal behaviour" - the socially lower suspects were "born to be kicked and beaten".
This aspect of police behaviour is most marked in the dominantly agrarian states like Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh from which reports of police brutality are almost an hourly incident. The case of West Bengal where the dominant element were sadistic educated torturers is a class by itself.
Planned torture and bestiality as an instrument of state policy became apparent from late 1967 and soon developed into an integral part of the system. It was almost a corollary to the Naxalite movement but the reasons were not initially apparent. The Naxalite movement represented a challenge to the system and the deeply entrenched power elites.
Individual murders or criminal activity were entirely restricted to individuals and the basic motive for torturing them was to make them confess their crimes. The Naxalite system however generated a corporate fear which in turn generated some of the worst forms of tortures. The system was threatened and frightened. It had to defend itself by all means - fair or foul. The fight against Naxalites became somewhat of a moral crusade.
It is a measure of our social hypocrisy that from the year 1967 to 1977, the very same elite who are today quoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights made little or no effort to inquire into and launch a movement against the inhuman tortures perpetuated on young boys and girls who were branded Naxalites. Even Janata party leaders who are now willing to announce an inquiry commission at the drop of a hat were strangely muted during the period of torture of Naxalite suspects.
The sudden concern with torture stems from the fact that the post-Emergency period saw the same instruments of torture being used by the super-elite caucus to maintain itself in power and against the elitist who till recently had been accustomed to sharing it.
When the trader, the financier, the university don used to his ivory tower exercises, the Member of Parliament and Maharanis accustomed to 'A' class comforts, found themselves in handcuffs and solitary confinement, they suddenly realized that the octopus which had till now only "strangled" the Naxalites who were considered "outside the system", had now spread its tentacles to include them too.
The nature and method differs from categories of political detenus within a broad framework of policy which has its own rationale and logic. Given the fact that torture has a twofold purpose - to gain information and to spread terror and fear - the classifications of political prisoners to be tortured and the kind of torture to be used have gained the credence of a code by instinct rather than by fiat.
The first cardinal rule is that well-known leaders of accepted political parties are rarely subjected to physical torture. The actual torture takes place at the middle level of political leadership, including lecturers and intellectuals. The purpose of terrorizing the basic unit is to destroy a political organization at its roots.
Even in this, distinctions were made between different categories of "suspects, prisoners and undertrials". The conservative ex-Swatantra, BLD and Cong(O) rank and file were subjected to torture but not to the degree which their other "Janata partners" had to face. While they were slapped or physically beaten, the Socialists, RSS and other factions were subjected to variations of physical pain which had been perfected on the Naxalites.
The process of torture can be broadly divided into two broad planes - torture while in police custody and torture in jail.
The most violent forms of torture are usually done while in "police custody". The common practice is to arrest a suspect and torture him for a few days before producing him before the magistrate as required by the law. From Lawrence Fernandes to the thousands of little known prisoners, almost 80 per cent had spent time being tortured in police custody.
The first phase of the torture usually starts in the police lock-up during interrogation. Physical pain in terms of lathi blows and a general beating up is considered a normality. In randomly selected "special individuals", the other "treatments" (details given in accompanying story) are resorted to.
It is in police custody that the infamous continuous rape, insertion of rulers into the vagina and rectum, the "aeroplane" and other tortures designed to create physical pain in an effort to break resistance are practised. The use of lit cigarettes or candles to scar the body and permanently mutilate suspects were a common occurrence.
The report of Amnesty International on conditions in Indian prisons talked of "severe beatings ... prisoners being hung upside down ... iron nails being inserted into their nails and other sensitive organs ... prisoners being burnt with lit cigarettes... and electric shocks".
Ironically, the electric shock treatment, usually given to the mentally deranged, was given a legal justification in a statement by G. S. Sohanpal, the then West Bengal Minister for jails. He had stated that "Naxalites were psychopaths and in need of psychotherapy to get rid of the extremity of the mind".
One of the psychotherapeutic treatments used was electric shocks through various body apertures including the nostrils, the anus, the vagina and the mouth. Details of some of the actual practises have been given in various reports by voluntary organizations including Amnesty International and various state bodies. There are over 100 cases of deaths or permanent injury due to police torture in a period of six months from the states of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh alone.
Physical torture aimed at breaking resistance and getting information (see interviews) is the most widely used form of torture. What has escaped public attention is the more sophisticated forms of psychological torture practised by the intelligence agencies including the Intelligence Bureau of the Central government, the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) and the Special Branch of the state police. Apart from the sadistic physical tortures a wide range of modern torture techniques are used. RAW perfected the technique of the "truth serum", imported through front organizations from West Germany and Japan, and the "addict technique".
Highly prized political prisoners were handed over to RAW after they refused to divulge information after the normal "physical torture" routine. In Calcutta's special interrogation room in Fort William and in Delhi's Red Fort and offices at R.K. Puram, arrangements had been made for the latest torture equipment. They included helmets which magnified the screams of the victim, psychedelic lights which tended to hypnotize a person and drugs that tended to lower resistance.
The techniques used by some of the foreign trained interrogators was to turn brilliant university students into heroin and opium addicts. They would then be released and continuously trailed and the only way they could get their "fix" was from the police - in return for information.
Having been subjected to the worst form of inhuman tortures, the suspects were sent to jail on various charges, most of them non-bailable. In cases where it was felt that the magistrate tended to give bail, new charges were added so that the government could call them "undertrials".
Some of the best accounts of conditions in jail have been recounted by Mary Tyler, the British school-teacher who was kept as an undertrial for five years without trial, in her bookMy Years in an Indian Prison. In prison itself, political detenus were subjected to the greatest humiliation and had no access to information or contact with the outside world.
This tended to increase their sense of being "let down by their colleagues". The prisoners were subjected to "solitary confinement" for as long as two years. Ashim Chatterjee the Naxalite leader and 51 other Naxalites were kept in bars and fetters for a period of two years; the punishment was that an iron ring was fixed on each ankle, each of which was attached to an iron bar 20 inches long, the bar being connected to another bar attached to the waist, movement of the limbs being totally restricted.
In addition to these totally illegal forms of punishment, recourse was taken to "solitary confinement". The Jail Manuals of most states prescribe "solitary confinement" for a maximum of five days for grave offences. For political prisoners the average minimum was 21 days with a maximum of as much as two years (Ashim Chatterjee's case).
Apart from this, periodical beatings were arranged on the grounds of an "alarm" which was given by the jail authorities. When the alarm was sounded, hardened criminals armed with lathis would stand outside the political detenus' cell and indiscriminately beat up those who emerged. While this was a common occurrence in the jails in West Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, with regard to Naxalite prisoners, the "democratic opposition" detenus also got a bitter taste of this medicine in Delhi jail on October 2,1975.
An antiquated Jail Manual based on rules made in 1894 which was heavily prejudiced against political prisoners, also helped the jail authorities in perpetuating their barbaric rules. The political prisoner was considered more "dangerous" than the criminal and forbidden any contact with "outside world".
The irony of the whole situation is that the authorities refused to provide a copy of the Jail Manual (in many cases they did not possess one) when asked for it by educated prisoners. In fact, when one Naxalite undertrial released on bail tried to get a copy of the Jail Manual from the various states, he found that neither the Supreme Court Bar Library nor the Judges Library had copy.
When talking of torture, many people assume that the torturers are mentally deranged persons who torture for the sake of sadistic pleasure. That however is an oversimplified version by which social elites tend to dismiss an embarrassing aberration.
When asked by Time Magazine, Anthony Storr, Oxford University Clinical Lecturer in Psychiatry, said that the torturer is motivated not by malice or sadism but by an overpowering will to obey. "Torturers... are hierarchical people in that they accept and seek authority structures. They are people who obey orders without question."
A cursory investigation into the torturers however show that in the Indian situation, the torturers belong to two different levels: (1) the grass root level ranging from the constable to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, and (2) The covenanted police officers some of whom were university lecturers and the like before appearing for the covenanted services examination.
An interesting phenomenon is that in many cases where torture was employed at the level of the sub-inspector, and Deputy Superintendent of Police, case histories show that they had been promoted from the ranks and had a strong attachment to hierarchy and believed in "exercising their power" through the "infliction of pain". This psychologically enabled them to ensure that the victim could actually and physically feel their power and in essence overcome their sense of inferiority.
In the class of brutal and sadistic torturers (mainly in West Bengal) the situation is slightly more complex. One of the most infamous torturers, an Inspector posted at the Lal Bazaar Police Station, had a special knack with women political suspects. After a few puffs at his cigar he would make the women strip and tell them: "You are married to the Naxalite cause and therefore possibly will not get married ... let me then trace out a garland for you ..."
His garland would be his lit cigar traced over the shoulders, small of the back and the breasts. The gentleman is still in service and is a known connoisseur of classical music and the fine arts. The classic example is that of a Deputy Commissioner of the Calcutta Police who headed the Naxalite interrogation cell. In the late '60's he had wanted to give up the police service and become a university lecturer. Soon, however, he became the most dreaded name in torture techniques.
Throughout these educated torturers ran an undercurrent of insecurity and perhaps shame. Repeatedly, brilliant young students from the university who were hauled up as Naxalite suspects were taunted with their "so called idealism" standing the test of torture. In many cases, they were asked why they had chosen to take to politics and not murder or dacoity. They could understand the common crimes but not the political idealism which the young prisoners possessed.
Often, people have asked and torturers defended themselves on the grounds that most of the suspects had been "produced before magistrates and not complained of torture". The real case however has cast serious doubts on the impartiality of certain sections of the magistracy. Evidence produced, including that by Lawrence Fernandes and Mary Tyler has shown that prisoners after torture were in a state of semi-consciousness when brought before the magistrates.
Some of the magistrates, blindly accepted police demands for a remand without questioning the accused. In incidents (see accompanying story), the accused often was kept well behind so that he was unaware of what was happening in the proceedings. The rule of torture was thus perpetuated by sections of the upholders of the rule of law turning the Nelson's eye.
In the ultimate analysis, Indians have come to the shocking realization that torture in their country has existed and still exists. That bestiality and inhumanity pervades the echelons of the democratic process committed to ensure justice. What remains to be seen is that, will the policy makers of the present government - most of whom spent the dark days of the emergency in jail cells - be able to bring about a change in the gruesome situation.