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Regular-article-logo Saturday, 23 August 2025

Activist takes on cruelty against special persons - Lawyers sit on three-hour dharna to protest torture of beggars, stress on their rehabilitation

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Gautam Sarkar In Bhagalpur Published 24.03.15, 12:00 AM

Lawyers stage a dharna in Bhagalpur on Monday. Picture by Gautam Sarkar

A senior lawyer staged a dharna on Monday to force the authorities to stop the police from torturing special persons and beggars who roam the streets here.

Sanjay Kumar Modi, who is also the president of a voluntary organisation called Kabach, had on March 18 written to the inspector-general of police, Bhagalpur range, Bachchu Singh Meena, in this regard. On Monday, he staged a three-hour-long dharna in front of the civil court in Bhagalpur and urged the district magistrate and district and sessions judge to take appropriate measures to counter such torture and ensure proper rescue and rehabilitation of such special persons.

Over two dozen lawyers and social workers joined the dharna. 'My protest is over violation of human rights, particularly by the police, against people who lack sense. I had written to senior officials on October 29, 2009, and March 18, 2015, requesting them to take suitable measures under the norms of Mental Health Act, 1987, but nothing has been done so far,' he alleged.

In his memorandum to the district judge and district magistrate on Monday, Modi elaborated the pathetic condition of special persons who beg and wander the streets. 'Most of them join dogs in eating food from dustbins or take shelters on the roads,' he said in his letter. He urged officials to take immediate steps to check such inhuman practices against special persons and also take firm action against the guilty policemen. He requested officials to implement the norms mentioned in Mental Health Act, 1987, and ensure proper rescue and rehabilitation of such persons.

Lawyers Anand Mohan Jha and Dinesh Singh, who participated in the dharna, said they, along with Modi, would jointly send a memorandum to the National Human Rights Commission naming officials concerned here who have failed to check cruelty on special persons. 'We would also file a PIL in Patna High Court to order implementation of the Mental Health Act, 1987,' Jha said.

Dinesh Singh said not a single government hospital in Bihar is equipped to treat such persons. Ajit Singh, the chairman of a non-government organisation, stressed on mobilising people from different walks of lives to fight for such persons. The district magistrate and the district and sessions judge were unavailable for comment. A source in the district magistrate's office said: 'It's the work of the police to rescue such persons, but they often beat them up.'

But IGP Meena said rehabilitation of special persons was the welfare department's responsibility. The police have been told to check if someone is a special person when arrested, he said.

 

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