Bhopal: On 13 July 2024, at about 4:30 pm, as a family from the Pardhi tribe in the Guna district of Madhya Pradesh prepared for the baraat of their youngest son, Deva Pardhi, police personnel without warrants descended upon Deva’s home in a village called Choti Kaneri.
The police dragged Deva and his uncle Gangaram out of the house, alleging they were involved in theft and housebreaking. As women and children pleaded that they be allowed to continue with marriage rituals, the police, they alleged, inflicted verbal, physical and sexual violence.
Later that night, police from the Jhagar chowki handed over Deva and Gangaram to colleagues at the main police station in the nearby town of Myana. They were taken to an old chowki, where both were tortured, their families said.
It was only when there was no reaction from Deva that the police appear to have realised that he had died.
Gangaram was also seriously injured and moved to the police station at Myana. On the evening of 14 July, when a hospital staff member called up a Pardhi leader, and told her there was an unidentified body that appeared to belong to their community lying in the mortuary.
That is how the family learnt that Deva was dead.
Traditionally hunters of small game—the word pardhi is derived from the Marathi paradh or hunter— Pardhis are a ‘denotified tribe’ or what is called a Vimukta community, deemed by British colonial rulers as ‘criminals by birth’ under the colonial Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. Repealed on the recommendations of the Ayyangar Commission in 1952, the Act was replaced with ‘habitual offenders’ laws in many states.
Policing through surveillance, illegal detention torture in custody, often ending in death, is a routine part of the everyday policing of Vimuktas, such as the Pardhis, who have not largely managed to break free from their marginalisation.
The disproportionate criminalisation of Vimukta communities, including the detention of children for petty offences by the police forms a crucial part of the deliberate legal creation of the category of ‘habitual offenders’.
Research on policing under the MP Excise Act, which forms a significant proportion of the laws police deploy, reveals how Vimukats are routinely arrested for offences punishable by less than seven years in jail. Arrest is not mandatory for such offences, such as making small quantities (less 10 litres) of liquor, a Pardhi tradition that is now criminalised.
No Checks & Balances
Death in custody, in many ways, is the culmination of routine violence that the police inflict on Vimuktas. A prominent example of how such violence plays out is evident in the death of Budhan Sabar in Purulia, West Bengal, who died in police custody on 16 February 2001. Sabar belonged to a Vimukta community called Khedia Sabar. It was only last year, after a quarter century, that Ashok Ganguly, the officer in charge of the police station responsible for Sabar’s death by suicide was convicted to five years rigorous imprisonment.
There is no shortage of news reports that refer to Pardhi victims of police violence with casteist criminal tropes, such as “badmaash”, “habitual offenders” or “members of Pardhi gangs”. These casteist narratives of terming certain communities as habituals offenders finds its legal sanction in MP through the MP Police regulations, where those accused of crimes might be viewed as habitual offenders, if the police station house officer has “reasonable suspicion” to think they might be. Couple this with rule 411(4) of the Madhya Pradesh Prison Manual that defines a habitual offender as also being, “Any member of a Denotified tribe (DNT) subject to the discretion of the State government concerned.”
These wide-ranging discretionary powers bestowed upon the police accompany the lack of police accountability mechanisms. Formerly, section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), now section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) makes prosecution of public officials subject to prior sanction.
No recommendations made by Commissions, including this made by the National Police Commission of 1977 for the “fresh examination of the role and performance of the police both as a law enforcing agency and as an institution to protect the rights of the citizens enshrined in the Constitution” have been implemented.
Neither have guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh & Others vs Union of India & Others (2006), among others, for the creation of a Police Complaints Authority at the district and state level to look into complaints against police officers.
For Vimuktas, in particular, the impact of police impunity is experienced in all aspects of their lives.
Criminalisation Of Vimuktas
Guna is a rural and peri-urban district located in the Chambal region of MP, infamously known for its violence. Pardhis, Kanjars and Banjaras are some of the Vimukta communities from this region, which is dominated by upper castes who often oppress them, such as Thakurs.
During discussions that activists, social workers and other civil society members had with the superintendent of police and other local police authorities in the case of Deva, it was evident that the use of torture is so normalised that even death in custody did not cause a flutter within the system.
The immediate response, primarily, was that Pardhis are a nuisance for the police. They cited cases against Deva—the number rising after his death—and against Pardhis in general to establish their “criminal antecedents”. Rounding up Pardhis en masse and beating them are common practices in Guna, much like the rest of the state. In March 2021, a man called Sheru Pardhi died after police picked up 16 Pardhi men and herded them into police vehicles, with no specific charges against them.
Physical violence is, often, accompanied by the confiscation of property. In Deva’s case, the police took away a tractor owned by a family member without officially seizing the vehicle.
The family said the police were demanding an “extraction amount”. A theft by the police was not seen with any level of concern within the police system. It was commonly accepted in Guna that the police could pick up any vehicle, motorcycle or tractor and demand 25% of their value as extortion fees.
Violence against women from Vimukta communities, including, sexual violence, is often obfuscated, citing their criminal history. We spoke to a young Pardhi woman who lost her baby after being pushed and kicked by the police, she said, while others were left bruised. This happened when women from the family and community pleaded at the chowki that the police allow Deva’s wedding to be completed.
The gendered nature of the criminalisation by the police in the case of men often results in them fleeing, staying away from their homes and families. The courtrooms of MP hear many stories that describe how Pardhis are treated.
In the case of children, especially teenagers, the fear of being detained by the police while on their way to school is a significant factor in dropping out of school.
The Case For Police Accountability
In Deva’s case, a first information report (FIR) was registered against a “three star TI (thana in charge) and other 7-8 unknown policemen” after nearly two months, after a judicial inquiry by a magistrate.
But the quest for justice is far from over.
No policeman has been suspended. The officer in charge, the TI and two other personnel have only been attached to the police lines, meaning they have been removed from daily operations. Copies of the postmortem report and judicial-inquiry report evade the family.
Gangaram, the sole eye witness in the case, is confined to a wheelchair after torture allegedly inflicted by the police while in judicial custody, where he did not get adequate medical care. No cognisance has been taken of the violence inflicted against women from the family.
As Deva died in Myana, the police at 1:30 am on the night of 13 July registered an FIR against his family for attacking them.
A photograph of Deva, dressed in a sherwani, smiling at his image on a phone, sitting atop a decorated tractor, is what his mother Ansurabai now carries with her.
She also carries another photo that the family took a few hours later.
It shows Deva motionless at the Guna district hospital, his body bruised and battered, after the police were done with him. The coloured dots above his eyes remain, the markers of a bridegroom.
(Nikita Sonavane is a member of the Article 14 advisory board. Shivani Taneja is an educationist working with urban marginalised groups and Vimukta communities in Madhya Pradesh.)
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