Arrested student ‘handcuffed’ to hospital bed,cops get notice

The notice was issued after Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) — a human rights body — lodged a complaint with the commission saying that Kamalesh Mahato (23) of Gopinathpur village in Lalgarh attempted suicide in Jhargram sub-divisional correctional home on May 8 by consuming phenyl. General secretary of the Jharkhand Student Federation,Mahato was arrested from Dohijuri on April 27 on charges of having contacts with Maoists. The police claimed that a gun was recovered from him.

After the arrest was reported by the media,APDR sent a fact-finding team to West Midnapore. The rights body found that Mahato was “attacked and threatened several times in the past one year by Trinamool-sponsored armed militia — Bhairab Bahini — after he was elected as secretary of JSF” at a local college. A history honors student,Kamalesh’s house was allegedly ransacked by the police and Trinamool.

In custody,“Mahato was severally tortured in police custody on 27/28 April before being produced before the court”,it was alleged. He was sent to jail by a magistrate.

APDR complained that in jail custody Kamalesh was allegedly “threatened”. On May 8,he consumed phenyl and was admitted to Jhargram hospital where “he was handcuffed with the hospital bed”. The fact-finding team members were illegally detained by the police for six hours at Jhargram,APDR functionary Ranjit Sur said.

The APDR has demanded probe into the complaint of torture on Mahato,handcuffing him to the bed and detention of activists.