Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2003 - India

Threats against family members of Mr K. G. Kannabiran²⁹

On 2nd October 2003, at about 9.00 p.m., Dr. Kalpana Kannabiran, the daughter of Mr. K.G. Kannabiran, lawyer and President of the National People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in Andhra Pradesh (A.P), and a well known women's rights activist, received an anonymous telephone call warning her that her two young daughters would be kidnapped and killed. On the same night, she immediately lodged a written complaint with the Tukaram Gate Police Station.

On the following day at about 11.00 a.m., two youths came to the residence of Mr. K.G. Kannabiran under the pretence of selling cane furniture. When they attempted to enter the house, they were stopped by Ms. Vasanth Kannabiran, the wife of Mr. K.G. Kannabiran and a renowned women's rights activist and writer, who got them to leave. When they left the house, Ms. Vasanth Kannabiran saw them, getting on a motorcycle whose front head lamp had the word "Police" printed on it.

These threats targeting Mr. K.G. Kannabiran and his family appear to be linked to PUCL's condemnation of the attempt on the life of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh near Tirupati, on 1st October 2003. Human rights activists have indeed been the victims of reprisals in the past, due to their denunciation of the use of violence following the injuring or the killing of police officers or political personalities in Andra Pradesh.

Attack on People's Watch-Tamil Nadu premises³⁰

On 5th November 2003, at about 7.30 a.m., several uniformed policemen and women, without name badges, barring one inspector, Mr. Vellaiyan, made a sudden entry into the People's Watch-Tamil Nadu (PW-TN) office. They stated that they were authorised to search the premises by an order of the Judicial Magistrate of Sivakasi, allegedly for harbouring a criminal. They made a videotape of the premises without any prior notice with the aim of searching a person accused in connection with crime n° 129/2003 of Mr. Puthupatti Police Station within the jurisdiction of Sivakasi Taluk of Viruthunagar District of Tamilnadu. The police made a video both inside and outside of the People's Watch office. They refused to give the copy of the search warrant to Mr. Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director of PW-TN, wherein he claimed that no accused was found on the premises of PW-TN. On the following night, a sub-inspector of police came to the premises of PWTN and asked for the Director.

These events against PW-TN and his Director, who is also serving within the National Core Group on NGOs of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), may be linked to their activities in the public hearings recently conducted by the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the State Commission for Women in Virudhunagar, Madurai on 27th and 28th October 2003. PW-TN was one of the main human rights organisations which facilitated the depositions of numerous victims concerning police abuses before the NCW panel. It is reported that, during the hearing, Mr. Henri Tiphagne was personally threatened by some senior police officers who were present because PW-TN presented several cases of police excess including sexual abuses, kidnapping of children, of witnesses, etc. They threatened him saying that he and his staff would face serious trouble if they continue such exposure.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

29. See Urgent Appeal IND 001/1003/OBS 051.

30. See Urgent Appeal IDN/ 002/1103/OBS 061.