Kendrapara: The Orissa Human Rights Commission (OHRC) Monday issued notices to the district magistrate and the divisional forest officer of Sundargarh over the unlawful detention of a woman and her one-year-old daughter in forest range office lockup.
Acting on a petition filed by rights activist Akhand of the Civil Society Forum on Human Rights, the panel has directed the officials to inquire the matter and submit their reports within four weeks.
According to the petition, Sundargarh forest range officials had raided the house of Bharat Pradhan February 23 for his alleged involvement in poaching a wild boar. When the officials did not find Bharat, they took his wife Bharati Pradhan, along with her one-year-old daughter and two relatives to Sadar forest range lockup and detained them for more than two hours.
The petitioner has raised the issue before OHRC arguing that according to Section 51 of CrPc, a woman can be searched by only another woman official with strict regard to her privacy. But in this case, male forest officials raided the house of Bharat and forcibly took his wife to the forest range lockup and detained her unlawfully, the petitioner contended.
The petitioner also cited a judgment of the Apex Court in Sheela Barse Vs the State of Maharashtra, where it has been held that women suspects must be kept in separate lockups but Bharati was kept in a lockup where other male suspects had been kept.
Alleging gross violation of human rights of a woman and her child, the petitioner sought the Commission’s intervention in the matter. PNN
