Indrani accused of using kids as shields
Indrani Mukerjea, jailed former media baron, along with other woman inmates at Byculla jail have been accused of using children as shields against lathicharge during the protests that took place on June 24 after 38-year-old Manjula Shetye was allegedly murdered by six jail officials.
Based on news reports, the Maharashtra Commission for Protection of Child rights (MCPCR) formed a six-member committee that visited the jail on Saturday around 12 noon, and spoke with children of inmates as well their mothers.
The officials interrogated the inmates accused of using children as human shield including Mukerjea, who is the prime accused for the murder of her daughter.
Pravin Ghughe, chairperson of MCPCR, said, “We spoke with every person involved during the riot, and inquired whether they used children as a human shield. We even had a word with the jail officials.”
According to a source, MCPCR officials will be submitting a detailed report about the incident to the woman and child ministry of the Maharashtra Government.
In addition, MCPCR officials would also be putting forth certain recommendation on the basis of their visit for the betterment of children development.
There are 285 woman inmates at Byculla Jail and 17 children below the age of six live with their mothers in the same barracks with other inmates.
“We would recommend that inmates who have to live with their children should be kept in a separate barrack all together, so that the children aren’t affected mentally and do not get develop criminal minds,” said Ghughe.
Mukerjea, along with 200 inmates, has been booked under the sections of rioting and mischief. As after the news of Shetye’s death broke out, the woman inmates rose in protest. The inmates damaged jail property and as a mark of protest.
With the communal violence that rocked West Bengal’s Basirhat having ebbed, questions are now being raised over whether unregulated madrasas, locally called khareji madrasas, had a role in last week’s mayhem.
Basirhat in the North 24 Parganas district bordering Bangladesh was swept by violence for several days after Muslim mobs went on a rampage, angered by a controversial Facebook post by a Hindu teenager. One person was killed and several homes, shops and vehicles torched before sanity was restored.
Stunned by the scale of the violence, sections of locals have blamed outsiders for it. But police say the role of unregulated madrasas, often viewed as breeding grounds of radicalisation, cannot be ruled out. Under scanner are two in Ghoraras and Kholapota of Basirhat and one in nearby Baduria. West Bengal has a long tradition of madrasa education. There are three types: Madrasas that are government approved and funded, ones that are approved but get no funding and the more common kind that operate without any approval and outside any regulation.
The unregulated ones are more in number and more problematic, say police officials. By last count, there are some 6,000 madrasas in West Bengal of which about 90% are unregulated