Justice for soldier at sea

“The last he spoke to me was when the police came to our house that night five years ago to arrest him. He asked me to fetch his medici...

“The last he spoke to me was when the police came to our house that night five years ago to arrest him. He asked me to fetch his medicines and then the police took him away,’’ says Sunita Save, wife of late Lt Col (retd) Pratap Raghunath Save.

As president of the Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (KBSS), Save had been protesting construction of a port at Maroli, Umargaon, on the southern coast of Gujarat — termed by the state government as India’s largest port. On April 8, 2000, he was arrested at one of his rallies on charges of breaking public order. He went into coma the same day.

He died two weeks later at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai while being treated for multiple brain haemmorage and injuries.

‘‘That morning (April 8, 2000) I went to the police station with his medicines but the police didn’t allow me to even see him. Later in the day I learnt that he had been admitted to a hospital,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s a pity that a soldier who served his nation for more than fourty years and fought the 1965 and 1971 wars had to die at the hands of police,’’ says Sunita.

Two days after her husband’s death, she registered a FIR in which she named Deputy Superintendent of Police (Valsad) Dr Narendra Amin and Police Sub-Inspector J K Jhala of Umargaon police station among those responsible for beating up her husband brutally in custody.

THE KBSS was founded by the fishermen of Umargaon and surrounding villages on the southern coast of Gujarat to fight against construction of the mega port by US-based Natelco-Unocal Ltd as it would cause irreparable damage to human life and the region’s fragile marine ecology.

‘‘A few days before he was taken away by police, he had returned from Ahmedabad where he was assured by the government that no work would be started on the port until a proper hearing was given to all those were to be affected. Maybe we trusted the government too much,’’ says Sunita.

‘‘After his retirement my husband didn’t want to settle only in Umergaon. A year or two years later the government declared its plan to construct a major port here which threatened to displace thousands of fishermen. And they approached him (Save) for guidance,’’ remembers Sunita. He did more than just guiding, leading the campaign from the front till he died.

	CASE FILE
Fishermen’s anchor • President of the Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (KBSS), Lt Col Save was arrested om April 8, 2000, for protesting the construction of a port on the southern coast of Gujarat • He went into coma the same day and died two weeks later • His wife Sunita Save moved the High Court in 2004 Story continues below this ad

FIVE years after a round of litigation, no action has been taken against the accused. While, Amin has gone on to become assistant commissioner of police at the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, PSI Jhala has since been promoted as police inspector.

After the KBSS moved the High Court on May 8, 2000, the Justice J P Desai Inquiry Commission was constituted. It completed its inquiry and submitted its findings to the government more than an year later. Neither were the findings made public nor has the government acted on them.

In 2004, Sunita moved the High Court through noted human rights lawyer Girish Patel, giving justice another try.