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From 'DNA
- Daily News & Analysis', 27th May, 2008
Shikha Rahi, 24, daughter of an alleged ‘Naxal’, is
determined to fight for his release.
It is a battle that this 24-year-old assistant
director has vowed to take to its conclusive
end, even if single-handedly. With her father
Prashant Rahi, 49, labelled a commander of
Naxalite movement in Uttarakhand, his daughter
Shikha has been waging a lonely battle for the
last five months.
Rahi was arrested by the police in December 2007
and has been lodged at the Dehradhun prison ever
since. Police allege that this M.Tech, who
worked as a journalist for The Statesman, was
also an activist “waging war against the
nation”. He has been charged with sedition.
“I know he is innocent,” said Shikha, who worked
as an assistant director for the Aamir Khan-starrer
Taare Zameen Par. “He worked for people’s
rights. Is that terrorism? The state has strange
arm-twisting tactics,” said Shikha, who stays
with her grandparents at Vile Parle.
For the last five months Shikha has been
shuttling between Dehradhun and Mumbai with the
countless jail visits to meet her father and
meeting higher ups in the bureaucracy and the
police top brass to present her side of the
story. As per the police records, Rahi was
arrested from Hanspur, a forest area on December
22.
“However, when I met him days after his arrest,
he told me he was picked up on December 17. He
narrated stories of police torture which I just
could not stomach,” said Shikha. She says her
movements were being constantly tracked by
intelligence agencies and her phone was tapped.
“Everyone who goes to meet my father is
photographed and is later harassed by the
police. No jail manual says that visitors should
be photographed,” she said.
She approached National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) to narrate her story but they just would
not listen. However, despite all doors closing
on her, Shikha was determined to fight her case.
“The last five months have made me wiser. I know
I can’t take anything for granted,” she said.
Her father’s ordeal is made bearable after the
court granted him permission to read in prison.
“I take bagfuls of books on Indian history. I
hope my conviction that he is innocent pays
off.”
...
by Poornima Swaminathan
click here for another story in
'Combat Law' March
- April '08
issue
click here for Shikha's
appeal in
'Combat Law'
click here for a story in
'The Sunday Indian' 6th April '08
issue
click here for a story in
'Tehelka' dtd. 22nd March'08 |
