On 16.10.2011, at about 6 pm in the evening, Shreeji Bhavsar, Advocate, alongwith 5 other persons, another lawyer and a nun working in the Aligaon Sapera Basti had gone to the PS Sarita Vihar to register a complaint/FIR against the illegal demolitions that were taking place in the Basti by unknown persons without any notice. 

That the SI OP Yadav who was present in the police station on duty, without uniform, first speaking rudely to the party told them that since it is a Sunday no complaints can be entertained. Shreeji Bhavsar informed the SI that he is a lawyer and is well aware that there is no such rule as per law. After perusing the complaint handed over to the SI, the SI tried to intimidate the party by saying that there is no point of a complaint and nothing can be done even if the property belonged to the affected parties. 

STATEMENT OF PROTEST

We write to protest the denial of entry to David Barsamian by Immigration Authorities at the New Delhi airport in the early hours of September 23, 2011, and we write to draw attention to the growing arbitrariness of the Indian Government in dealing with dissent of any kind.

PIL filed in Allahabad High Court seeking accountability for Police 

brutality against disabled man

September 6, 2011

Jhansi: To hold the government responsible for the violent and brutal police beating of a disabled man and his subsequent death, Bundelkand Viklang through the Human Rights Law Network, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Allahabad High Court in July 2011. The PIL was filed against local actors including the Railway Police Force, the General Railway Police, and the Railway Hospital in Jhansi, as well as the Ministry of Railways in New Delhi and the North Central Railway in Allahabad who oversee the functioning and training of Railway Police.

On Thursday, 28 July 2011, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) demolished the houses of 15 Dalit families who had been living in the Karol Bagh area for the past 60 years. The demolition was conducted without any due process in clear violation of the residents’ constitutional and statutory rights. The forced eviction occurred even though an urgent petition had been filed on behalf of the residents by the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) in the Delhi High Court, challenging the legality of the eviction and scheduled for initial hearing on Friday 29th July 2011.

The residents, about 80 members of the Valmiki community (a scheduled caste), had been living on the demolished land for over 60 years. The community is comprised of society’s most vulnerable, including poor pregnant women and children, the elderly, the sick and the disabled. Initially occupied by an MCD employee charged with the upkeep of local facilities, as the families grew, various descendants started their own families and built homes on the land. Most of the residents had been born in the homes or married into families who had lived here since before Partition.