Illegal Police Invasion of Badu Center

In an outrageous and bizarre development on last Thursday (17th July, 2014), our premises at the Badu Collective were invaded first by members of Intelligence Branch, and then by a massive police force. The police force led by the Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) came in with tear gas shells and prison vans to break up a meeting of the civic police that they had heard was to take place on the premises. Our peaceful community, which has children and old people living in the Center, was taken by surprise as we had no information of such a meeting. The police kept our campus surrounded the whole day, and in a clearly illegal invasion, trespassed on our land and houses without any rhyme or reason and without any warrants.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures or record any videos of this appalling action of the police who are meant to protect and serve common citizens like us.

This unprecedented incident began on Thursday morning when 3 people who claimed to be from the District Intelligence Branch (which is the domestic security agency of the Indian police responsible for gathering intelligence within the country’s borders) came to the homes of two collective members, first Pravat Chakroborty and then Anuradha Talwar. They wanted to know if any civic police volunteers would be meeting in Badu Center on that day. The “civic police volunteers” are youth who have been recruited by the West Bengal government to provide assistance to the formal West Bengal police force for traffic management, crowd management during festivals, disaster management etc on a contractual no-work no-pay basis. They have started organizing themselves to demand job security, higher wages, and basic job benefits like health care and provident fund. The association formed by them recently held a huge rally in Kolkata attended by about forty thousand people. Despite our repeated denial of any knowledge of any such meeting on that day, the DIB men insisted that we give them names, phone numbers and other details of people who visit us and eat at our common kitchen. They also wanted to know the last date on which the civic police volunteers had met there, the frequency of their meetings etc. We repeatedly assured them that, although our premises were used by many activists for overnight stay and to hold informal meetings, this was, first and foremost, a commune where more than 12 families lived along with their children. All of us cooperated with the DIB men fully even though we found all the questions very strange, because like any other family we do not keep such detailed information of friends and others who visit us.

Not being satisfied with their endless barrage of questions, the three DIB men now started to snoop around the center. They began roaming around the premises peeping into various houses and buildings. They tried to surreptitiously open some doors and even tried to sneak into the house of Jamir and his mother Joynur Biwi.  Some of our members objected to this strenuously. Collective members pointed out that all this snooping and searching was completely illegal on private property with no search warrant. The DIB men stopped, but, that was, by no means, the end of police harassment for the day.

A few hours later, after we had already been told by the DIB that all queries had been satisfactorily answered, we found two jeep loads of police personnel coming to our campus. They were led by Shri Pandey, the Inspector-in-Charge (IC) of the Barasat Police station. Soon after, two more jeep loads of police personnel arrived, and this time led by the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Subir Chatterjee. They invaded our campus, surrounded our premises and set up a police picket outside our gate. It was frightening because they were all equipped with kits with tear gas shells. We were afraid for the safety of all the children and old people living in the commune, and simply wanted at all costs to prevent any kind of violent action on part of the police forces. Some of us objected to the presence of armed forces on the premises, asserting that this was a simply a peaceful community where families lived together and that there were several vulnerable children around. But our protests and appeals fell to deaf ears as the SDPO Subir Chatterjee brushed aside our concerns, simply stating that it was within the call of his duty to check on anything that happened anywhere in his jurisdiction without any kind of warrant even on private property. When asked, he did not, however, tell us what nefarious or illegal activity he was after on our premises.

The police kept Badu Center surrounded practically the whole day. Meanwhile, a few police personnel in plainclothes sneaked into one of our buildings while impersonating journalists from a barely known newspaper. These fraudulent reporters asked the same questions about a supposed meeting of the civic police volunteers on our campus, perhaps trying to ferret out information that we might have kept hidden from the Intelligence Branch. We also got news that a very large number of police personnel had been deployed in the area, on the roads leading in and out of the Badu center and in the local marketplace.

Finally, after repeated calls, complaints and appeals to higher-ranking police officers, all the police personnel left Badu center at 6:30 in the evening.

Our problems, however, did not stop there. We have heard even today that rumors (which we have had to counter) have been circulating in our neighborhood and village that we are suspected Maoists (radical left-wing insurgents in India) and that our commune has been sealed by the police.

The police’s presence and their actions, with no clear law and order problem involved, amount to trespassing. They had absolutely no legal right to invade our premises and try to search our buildings without warrants. Their overwhelming presence armed with tear-gas shells on a campus with several children is simply appalling. Our Collective is used by many like-minded people to stay in or to meet each other. This is done on an informal basis, as they are our friends or relatives who come to visit us. Many of them eat in our common kitchen, often sharing costs with us. This is an informal arrangement and we are not accountable to the police or to any other agency for such actions that we take in our private lives. We regard the questions asked of us and the time spent by police forces on our commune premises as an invasion in our private lives and an attack on our rights to privacy and dignity as citizens of India.

In face of this police harassment that we faced, some vital questions also arise about the rights of the young civic police volunteers. Is it a crime for them to organize for better working conditions? The Right to Form Associations and the Right to Organize are a part of the fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution. What then is the crime of the civic police volunteers in meeting and organizing for better working conditions?