Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profileg
Kavita Krishnan

@kavita_krishnan

she/her 🌈 Marxist feminist, author: Fearless Freedom (Penguin 2020), winner @Laadli_PF 2021, https://t.co/gquQGbizlL

ID:1263706735

linkhttp://www.cpiml.net calendar_today13-03-2013 06:08:28

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

It shouldn't take a viral video to force authorities to initiate some action. If someone picked up by cops or army/paramilitary is injured or dies, they need to explain to a court why they didn't produce the detainee before a magistrate to get legal custody.

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Remember. If police or armed forces have evolved code languages for forms of torture & killing, torture is part of the policing system, not a problem of a few bad apples. All govts of all kinds all through independent India have nurtured this culture.

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Short on

in light of tacit official admission that Army personnel tortured & killed 3 Bakarwal men in J&K. Viral video shows perps stripping & putting chilli powder in private parts. thehindu.com/news/national/…

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

You, your kids, no one at all is safe in a country where police or armed forces have the power to declare someone guilty & execute them. In custody the one arrested is unarmed & police have all the power - if he dies police must prove it wasn’t murder.

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

We protest in rare cases - like the rape & murder of Jayaraj & Bennicks by TN police. We need to do that every single time, even when victims are accused of terrible crimes, because police/army can’t be judge-executioner. thehindu.com/news/national/…

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Well for starters protest the use of “encounter” as code for murder. Stop assuming that anyone the police arrests for gruesome crimes is guilty. Persuade friends & family to stop enjoying “encounters” as spectator sport.

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

How long will custodial torture remain our national sport, popular even in the poor & oppressed communities where most victims come from? The way forward?

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Here’s a 1977 IndiaToday cover story on police torture vocab: “parrot”, “aeroplane” and yes, “Goli” which is rape laced with chilli powder, a version of which features in the latest J&K case. Is such a cover feature possible in today’s UAPA-Raj India, in print or TV?

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Police in every state have their own torture lexicon, with terms describing different sciences and arts of sadism.
Take Kerala’s infamous “uruttal” torture - since the Emergency we knew it exists & yet it continues to happen. (Screenshot from my book Fearless Freedom)

Police in every state have their own torture lexicon, with terms describing different sciences and arts of sadism. Take Kerala’s infamous “uruttal” torture - since the Emergency we knew it exists & yet it continues to happen. (Screenshot from my book Fearless Freedom)
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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

It’s also used as verb, in the link, read Dopdi - the short story by Mahasweta Devi - for a brilliant example. (Yes her death “deeply saddened” Amit Shah, accused & acquitted in multiple “encounter” murders.) amp.scroll.in/article/811931…

It’s also used as verb, in the link, read Dopdi - the short story by Mahasweta Devi - for a brilliant example. (Yes her death “deeply saddened” Amit Shah, accused & acquitted in multiple “encounter” murders.) amp.scroll.in/article/811931…
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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

India, Pakistan have an entire, elaborate custodial violence lexicon. In all Indian languages,“Encounter” = murder in uniform. We celebrate “encounter cops”. We know they didn’t kill in self defence in a shootout. “Encounter” means “wink-wink, we did it”. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounter…

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

These cases aren’t that rare,
nor confined to conflict areas nor to terror cases. Anyone who’s poor, detained in police lockup for “questioning” in a petty theft case, risks being tortured to “confess”. If he dies, police say he killed himself.

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

When police are accused, not Army, AFSPA doesn’t apply. In Chhattisgarh an FIR was registered against cops after judicial enquiry found the so-called “terrorist” was a teen girl they raped & killed. But the cops were acquitted. ndtv.com/india-news/chh…

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Till 2016, AFSPA meant Govt could prevent FIR against armed forces personnel for custodial rape/murder. Court verdicts changed that but even where FIR is registered, Govt can still prevent arrest, prosecution, trial. Will this happen in this case? m.thewire.in/article/securi…

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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Yet, India doesn’t like to talk about our custodial torture & murder problem. Absent embarrassing video evidence, media labels victims (even children, see screenshots & link 4 examples) terrorists, human rights activists pursuing justice are“urban naxals”. aisaspeaks.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/bas…

Yet, India doesn’t like to talk about our custodial torture & murder problem. Absent embarrassing video evidence, media labels victims (even children, see screenshots & link 4 examples) terrorists, human rights activists pursuing justice are“urban naxals”. aisaspeaks.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/bas…
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Kavita Krishnan(@kavita_krishnan) 's Twitter Profile Photo

In this case, J&K police registered an FIR & announced compensation. In prev cases of custodial killing by armed forces (Manorama & some other Manipur cases) compensation was the substitute for justice: a tacit admission of truth, minus punishment for the murderers in uniform.

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