ANURAG MODI Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Public Interest Litigation has been filed by the petitioner who has founded a Shramik Adivasi Sangathan which according to him is working for the upliftment of marginalized sections of society in Betul, Harda and Khandwa Districts. In the present petition, although various reliefs have been claimed for the welfare of members of Pardhi Community, the petitioner during the course of arguments submitted that he is not pressing for those reliefs and instead prayed for a direction that the incident involving Pardhis on 11-9-2007 at Village Chothia, District Betul and deaths of Mondru and his wife of that community be directed to be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (in short 'the CBI'). The petitioner has also prayed that the State Government be directed to adequately compensate the Pardhis who were affected in the incident and they be allowed to move freely and settle in any part of the State.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that Pardhi is a de-notified nomadic community of Madhya Pradesh State. In the year 1995, 11 families of the community were allotted lands by the Gram Panchayat Chothia and under Indira Avas Yojna,pucca houses were built for them. One house belonging to Aalsia Pardhi was built by his own money which was much opulent than other houses. On 9-9-2007, an upper caste woman in that area was allegedly raped and murdered by Pardhis. In retaliation to this incident, on 11 -9-2007 at about 8.00 a.m. a mob of few hundreds of people led by Sanjay Yadav, Block Congress President Multai and Raja Pawar of Bhartiya Janta Party, Zila Panchayat Member, Multai, reached Village Chothia and started demolishing the Pardhi settlement and setting their houses on fire. At around 10.00 a.m. the mob swell to thousands and their activities also increased. THE Town Inspector M.L. Verma and Sub-Divisional Officer (Police) D.K.Sakalle of Multai were present in the village right from the morning. Sometime between 10:30 - 11:00 a.m., Senior Officers of the District and Police Administration also reached the spot and were present throughout the incident. During that time even the members of Legislative Assembly from Masod and Multai namely Sudhakar Panse and Dr.Sunilam reached the scene of occurrence and they too remained present till the incident was over. Collector and Superintendent of Police reached the spot at about 2.00 p.m. and the mob continued their activities in their presence. THE Pardhis were driven away from the village by local police and lodged in two camps run by the administration. Photographs and video CD of the entire incident has been annexed as Annexures P-1 and P-2.

(3.) IN this background the petitioner has contended that as the police have deliberately not investigated the incident of uprooting and looting of Pardhis due to the strong political influence despite overwhelming evidence against the perpetrators of crime recorded in video CD, he was constrained to file the present petition. The petitioner has also challenged the propriety of the rehabilitation plan of Pardhis prepared by the Collector, Betul, filed as Annexure R/7-A, which rests on the premises that they arc criminal outsiders and they need be isolated from the rest of the population for their own safety as much as the villagers protection.