Salima Mema Begam

Human Rights Defender

Manipur

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on 12 April regarding the intimidation on Ms. Salima Mema Begam in Thoubal district of Manipur by the police commandos and ransacking of her house. Ms. Salima Memcha Begam is the district coordinator of Extrajudicial Execution Victims’ Families Association (EEVFAM) in Thoubal district, Manipur. EEVFAM is seeking probe of 1528 cases of fake encounters before the Supreme Court of India.

On April 7, 2018, Ms. Salima was at her house verifying the documents which were to be shown to the CID in connection with her husband’s fake encounter, when she heard someone was knocking on her door forcefully. She came out and saw a team of police personnel, commandos and women police personnel waiting at her door. Then she went out and enquired about the reason of their visit. Without giving any answer they went inside her house and started throwing her household articles and started searching for something. Then they forcibly entered in to all other rooms and started damaging everything in her house. They asked about the whereabouts of her family members. She replied that her son is studying outside Manipur, and some police personnel in an intimidating manner asked why her son is studying out of Manipur. Meanwhile when the police personnel started ransacking her house, the women police personnel told the other policemen that this is uncalled for and they left the place. But the other policemen continued to damage things and left after about 30 minutes as her relatives who are residing near her came to her house after hearing the commotion.

It will be pertinent to mention here that the case filed by EEVAFM before the Supreme Court was listed for hearing on April 16, 2018 and she was also summoned by the CID officials to furnish required papers in connection to her husband’s fake encounter.