The third wave of COVID-19 is on its way out, but it has left in its wake many anxieties in conflict-torn Bastar in the State of Chhattisgarh. COVID times may put a halt to many activities but it does not halt the militarisation that has been growing and spreading to new areas of Bastar division’s seven districts with corresponding actions that satisfy the paramilitary’s raison d’être. The Maoists for their part like to be heard through improvised explosive device (IED) blasts or similar actions with predictable consequences. In the absence of any appeal for a ceasefire from either side — from the State to the Maoists or vice-versa — at least for the duration of this crisis, arrests of local Adivasis, many in fabricated cases, continue as before after every fresh incident.
The lives of those arrested and their families, for a good number of years after incarceration, hinge upon the efficiency of the judicial system and good governance of jails. Jails and courts may not matter much for most people, but in conflict regions such as Bastar where many families have some members in jail at any point of time, jail conditions and speedy trials do matter. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, intermittent suspensions of court work and jail visits have created enormous hardships for prisoners and their families.
Jails out of reach
It is not unusual for me to receive several early morning calls from worried relatives of Adivasi undertrials enquiring about the next peshi (hearing) date or other aspects of the case. Mobile signal strength is weak in interior regions and relatives have often to walk or climb to a better spot to make the query before their work day begins. These calls took on a more anxious tone from January 7, 2022, when mulakaat (visits) in jails were abruptly stopped for a full six weeks until February 21.
On January 7, relatives of undertrials Hidme Markam and Bujji Semla, and unjustly convicted Kishor Kawasi, besides many others, were turned away by the jail guards. The guards also refused to take their parcels — small plastic bags with necessities such as toothpaste and brush, innerwear, sweaters, and sometimes the odd “luxury” item such as glass bangles or biscuits.
The Jagdalpur Central Jail is the largest prison in the Bastar division. Besides the central jail, there are two district jails in Dantewada and Kanker districts and three sub-jails in Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur districts. The total prison population is around 3,500, most of them Adivasis. Only a small fraction are convicts; the rest are undertrials.
In normal times, in all these prisons, relatives or lawyers of prisoners can visit the prisoners only in the first half of the day. Those who come from faraway— as most do — have to start very early in the morning from their homes or reach Jagdalpur the previous day. It is a big blow for family members to return without being granted a meeting after having incurred the necessary time, travel and other expenses. In the first wave of COVID-19, at least the parcels could be sent through lawyers. But this time, even that was disallowed.
Only a small number of prisoners who had some money deposited in their names could make weekly calls. For the majority, no mulakat meant losing touch with the family — a source of acute discomfort and anxiety at both ends.
Lawyers, who are normally able to bridge the two (prisoners and family), can do so only if lawyer-client visits are not discontinued too, as they were during the first lockdown in 2020.
The NIA courts
In Bastar, a high proportion of ‘Naxalite’ cases are being tried in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) courts. Until early 2021, there was only one NIA court for Bastar division. It was set up after a State government notification on May 19, 2015 authorised the First Additional Sessions Judge, Bastar (at Jagdalpur) as the Special Court for trial of Scheduled Offences under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008. On January 15, 2021, by another government notification, the number of NIA special courts was increased by giving additional charge to two courts in Dantewada District and Sessions Court and one court each in Kondagaon and Kanker District and Sessions Courts.
During the first wave of COVID-19 (in 2020), work in all courts, including the NIA court in Jagdalpur, came to a standstill and hearings were suspended for months. Just as the courts were reopening in early 2021, the decision to decentralise NIA courts was made. The decentralisation process required hundreds of files to be transferred to the different courts in the respective districts. Old session trial numbers were renumbered in the new courts. It is only after these cumbersome changes were done that the process of sending summons to the witnesses began. Despite these delays and difficulties, court hearings (in observance of strict precautionary protocols) were slowly but surely resuming. On January 11, 2022, however, hearings were suspended once again, except for fresh or urgent matters (as in previous lockdowns). Work in the courts resumed on February 16, but after every speed breaker it takes time to bounce back; and so it is still in first gear. Overcrowding in prisons, already a serious problem in Bastar prisons, worsens every time court hearings are suspended. In Jagdalpur central jail, for example, the number of prisoners rose from 2,021 (on January 28) to 2,057 (on February 13).
Hopes for a speedy trial
Undertrial prisoners and their families have coped with COVID-19 and now have hope that the loss of time would be made up and their cases closed in the months ahead, especially those which are at the last stages of trial.
Ordinarily, each case is heard only once a month. If nothing happens in the hearing (for example, if the witnesses do not turn up) there is no progress. In Bastar, typically, in any single NIA case many persons are accused and arrested. These are cases where the accused are charged under Acts such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act (all scheduled under the NIA Act) and also other sections of the Indian Penal Code, or IPC (some of which are also included in the NIA schedule), mostly based on fabrications. After a Maoist attack or incident, a large number of people from the surrounding areas, male and female, get arrested and charged in this manner. In such cases, many witnesses — aside from the complainant and investigating officer — are part of the police and security forces. Summons even to civilians are sent to the respective thana. The speed of the trial, therefore, depends on the extent to which the police cooperate with the judicial process. Even in normal years, summons have to be sent many times before witnesses appear in court for examination and cross-examination, which results in unnecessary delay.
Needless to say, life gets held up when cases do not move. This feeling of being stuck in a stagnant pool, the murky workings of which are not known to them, can also take a toll on the mental health of prisoners and their family. For a human-rights lawyer, it becomes hard to keep hope alive. It becomes difficult to explain the delays during the trial or the denial of bail in “Naxali cases”. Bail, a possible relief, is rarely granted in these cases and almost never to those charged under the UAPA. This is so common that it has become unwritten law.
Often, helpless families of undertrials fall prey to false promises made by greedy lawyers and end up parting with a large sum of money. Bail applications are a sure bait for these unscrupulous lawyers. Frustrated family members may even dump an honest lawyer for a far more expensive lawyer in the hope of faster results. Such lawyers in turn corrupt the system by paying bribes to speed things up — from the clerk for an earlier hearing date, to witnesses for singing to their tune, or even to some judges. Law practice becomes a business, dashing all hopes for justice being achieved through fair means.
Honest lawyers and judges in Bastar know that the only hope for the prisoners (especially of the ongoing “war”) is a speedy trial. To this goal, we must remain committed even during COVID times. This calls for minimum disruption of court work, with due observance of COVID-related protocols.
Kosi’s Deva
Deva is a common name in Bastar. One of the ‘Devas’ saved on my phone is Kosi’s Deva. Kosi is from a Dantewada village and has been in jail since 2018. She was picked up with a dozen others after an IED blast by the Maoists. She is one of the hundreds (if not thousands) who are charged under the UAPA in Bastar. Kosi was engaged to be married when she was arrested. Her fiancé, Deva, is a frequent caller from a border village in Telangana, where his family migrated a few years ago to escape the violence. He calls about twice a month and has been doing so season after season. One can only hope that the wait will end soon, allowing Kosi and Deva to turn the page and start a new chapter of their lives together.
Bela Bhatia is a human-rights lawyer working in the district courts of Bastar, Chhattisgarh
