Death in a funeral pyre

ON August 6, in an incident claimed to be a case of "sati", a 65-year-old woman of the Nai (barber) caste was burnt to death in Tamoli Patna village in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh in the presence of a 1,000-strong crowd. The district police, which received information about the event, were physically prevented from rescuing Guttu Bai from the funeral pyre of her husband, 70-year-old Mallu Nai. The circumstances surrounding her death have raised suspicion as there has been no conclusive evidence that she committed the act voluntarily. In fact, much of what has been learnt from State government officials and independent groups hints that Guttu Bai may have been forced into the pyre for reasons other than religious. The police have arrested 15 people under various sections of the Indian Penal Code(IPC).

According to available information, Guttu Bai, who owned five acres (two heactares) of land, which had been bequeathed to her by her father, had separated from her husband more than a decade ago after relations soured between them. They had two sons; each of them lived separately with a son. According to Sandhya Shaily, an activist of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) from Bhopal, it appeared that Guttu Bai may have been made a scapegoat. Shaily said that it was unusual for a woman to be present in a funeral procession and there was reason to believe that she may have been forced to visit her husband's pyre. Giving some preliminary details of the findings of an AIDWA team that visited the village, Shaily said that none of the sons tried to stop Guttu Bai.

While the two sons have been charged under Sections 302 (murder), 120-B (conspiracy) and 201 of the IPC, 13 other residents of the village have been charged under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (illegal gathering) and 332 (obstructing government work) for thwarting the efforts of a sub-inspector to rescue Guttu Bai.

The district administration has not called the incident "sati". A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into it. However, Shaily says that action should be taken against the policemen, who could have fired in the air to disperse the crowd and saved the hapless woman. The woman sarpanch of the village, Vimla Chaurasia, informed the police about the incident even as it was taking place. The nearest police station is about 8 kilometres away. The village had witnessed a similar incident 50 years ago and some kind of a samadhi or a burial place existed.

When Charan Shah, a 55-year-old widow immolated herself in Satpurva, in southern Uttar Pradesh on November 11, 1999, the then Minister of State for Women and Child Welfare, Sumitra Mahajan, had said that "sati" had to be viewed in the larger perspective of the general plight faced by widows. The police had concluded then that Charan Shah had not committed sati and the findings were corroborated by AIDWA as well (Frontline, December 10, 1999). Prior to that took place the much-publicised murder, in the name of sati, of Roop Kanwar in Deorala in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan in 1987.

T. K . Rajalakshmi

WHEN the Delhi Police arrested the tehelka.com journalist Aniruddha Bahal on August 7, it was resorting to a pressure tactic the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had used earlier. On June 26, the CBI raided tehelka's Soami Nagar office in New Delhi hours before its chief executive officer (CEO) Tarun Tejpal was to depose before the Venkataswami Commission inquiring into the expose relating to defence deals that the news and features portal ran last year. On August 7, the chief investigator of 'Operation Westend', Mathew Samuel, was to depose before the Commission. The Delhi Police chose the same day to arrest Bahal on charges of assaulting and threatening a CBI official. Once again, the message for tehelka was clear: do not meddle with those in power.

The complaint against Bahal, registered by CBI Deputy Superintendent of Police N.S. Kharayat, said that the accused manhandled him when he visited the tehelka office on August 5 in connection with an investigation. Kharayat said in his complaint: "When I reached the tehelka office, I was taken to Bahal's room where he started hurling choicest of abuses against me, my organisation and our Director and later manhandled me."

Tehelka rebutted the allegation and said that Kharayat came to its offices prepared to pick up a fight. He barged into Bahal's office after a scuffle with the security guard at the entrance who asked him to enter his name in the register. Tehelka said that on reaching Bahal's office, Kharayat demanded that the entire tehelka staff be presented before the CBI for questioning. Tehelka, which earlier worked with a strength of 120 people, has since closed operations. Bahal pointed this out and said that it was impossible to summon his former colleagues.

Several anomalies are evident in the manner in which the police arrested Bahal. When the police team picked up Bahal it did not reveal the nature of the charges. Tehelka has alleged that documents of his arrest were prepared during and after his arrest. While the tehelka office fell under the Malviya Nagar police station limits, Bahal was taken to the Lodhi Colony police station. It was also pointed out that after the police came to know that none of the previously filed charges against Bahal was of a non-bailable nature, a charge under Section 506 was added apart from charges under Sections 186 and 353 of the Indian Penal Code. Under these sections, besides assault and threat, Bahal was charged with obstructing an official in the discharge of his duties.

Counsel for tehelka Siddharth Luthra said: "Since March 2001, when tehelka broke the story, it has been hounded by the CBI. Its offices have been raided several times. Each time they have been cooperative as they don't have anything to hide. To say that Bahal threatened a CBI man is bizarre." Tehelka's main financier and chairman of First Global, Shankar Sharma, was arrested twice in 2001 allegedly for his role in the stock market scam of 2001. His offices in Delhi and Mumbai were raided some 25 times and he was summoned over 200 times by various government agencies including the Enforcement Directorate. On June 26, raids were conducted on the tehelka office in New Delhi and its reporter Kumar Badal was arrested on July 3. Badal was subsequently produced in the Saharanpur court and was allegedly beaten up in custody. Badal is still in jail.

Naunidhi Kaur