Harassment Of Activists Continues In Raigad

RAIGAD, APR. 01, 2008, 09.30 Hrs (CBCI News):

In a strange twist to the case of the 15 March 2008 brutal assault on Carmelite nuns by a Hindutva mob in Alibaug of Raigad district, noted tribal rights activist Ms Vaishali Patil was today, Mar. 31, sent to the Alibaug Jail by the additional session's judge of Raigad under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.

And in a more dramatic move, she was produced late in the evening in the court of the First Class magistrate, Mr. Devker, who released her on a bail of Rs 15,000. A tribal woman who Vaishali Patil had once helped get property rights on her small piece of land, stood surety. She was in jail for about two hours.

It may be recalled that various women, worker and human rights NGOs had criticized the role of the police in foisting this case against Ms. Patil on trumped charges after she had intervened on behalf of the nuns and the tribal women. Ms. Patil surrendered before judge, D A Dolakia, after walking through the town in a mammoth procession led by community representatives, Mr. Joseph Dias, general secretary, Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) and Dr. John Dayal, president, All India Catholic Union and Member, National Integration Council, Government of India and hundreds of tribals of the Adivasi Hakk Sangarsh Samittee.

The tribal women and the Christian leaders were again at had as Vaishali Patil finally walked free from the gates of the jail at night.

It was apparent that the police pressurized by the followers of a local godman and the saffron family, registered the case, after she had come to the aid of the nuns and insisted that their assailants be prosecuted for assaulting the tribals, among whom the nuns had been
working for decades.

Christian leaders Dr Mathai, Mr. Dias and Dr Dayal denounced Ms Patil being sent to jail as "a travesty of justice" and demanded that she be released forthwith by the appropriate judicial authorities. "The false case against Vaishali Patil is part of a conspiracy to keep the ancient and absolutely impoverished Katkari tribe under economic and political bondage. Ms Patil as well as the nuns, had become a thorn in the side of vested interests and Hindu fundamentalists, bent on pursuing their well-known agenda. Over decades, they toiled to empower these marginalized groups and emancipated many from the clutches of vested interests and these force were now hitting back with revenge", the Christian leaders alleged.

Ms Patil had said she was prepared to spend the night in the Alibaug Jail, while the Christian leaders and tribals camped near the police station.

Earlier in the day, there was great drama in the sessions court with hundreds of tribals and the Christian community leaders attending the proceeding, until when court resumed after the lunch break and ruled magisterial, not police custody. The counsel for Ms. Vaishali Patil told the court that though a false complaint had been filed against her client, she was honouring the law of the land and surrendering herself in court. The idea of surrendering in court, and not before the police , was that she wanted to show that she was not afraid, unlike the culprits who attacked the nuns and the adivasis and were now on the run, with the police being unable to arrest them, even days after the incident. The judge asked that she be produced before the judicial magistrate to which her counsel insisted the Sessions Court had the inherent powers to accept the surrender. Judge Dholakia finally agreed to accept the surrender but refused to grant bail to Ms. Vaishali Patil, allowing her magisterial custody, directing the police to produce before the appropriated magistrate by tomorrow.

Hundreds of tribal women, who had kept Ms. Vaishali Patil company throughout the dramatic proceedings of the day, wept openly at the Alibaug police station, as two women police constables and the inspector in charge took her on foot to the jail, a kilometer away, with the crowd following her.

It will be recalled that two nuns of the Carmelite order, who run a school in Alibaug and a social service centre in the forest villages of the tribals, had been attacked in a well planned conspiracy by a mob on 15 March 2008. Nuns Sister Mercy and Sister Philomena and about 30 tribal women were participating in a Women's Day celebration, in the forest when the attack took place. Both sisters re now in Mumbai recovering from injuries and undergoing trauma counseling.

Eyewitnesses have said attempts were made to disrobe the nuns, and both men and women who had been brought from outside in vehicles took part in the attack.

The tribal women and nuns who in subsequent days went to the Collector to lodge their complaint were once again followed by goons owing allegiance to a local godman. Even today, carloads of his followers were present near the police station, in an attempt to instill fear &terror, among the protestors, who were staging a silent sit-in protest.

Issued by:

Dr Abraham Mathai, Mr. Joseph Dias and Dr John Dayal