NEFIS stages protest at UP house

IMPHAL | Sept 21

Demanding justice against the suspicious death of Pravish Chanam, activists of North-East Forum for International Solidarity (NEFIS), along with civil voluntary groups and student organisations protested outside the U.P. Bhawan in Delhi today.

A release said NEFIS petitioned the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh decrying the failure of the U.P. government and Union ministry of home affairs, government of India to constitute a CBI inquiry into the death of Pravish. At the same time Manipur chief minister, N. Biren deputing an ADGP for collection of information on the ongoing Noida Police’s investigation is inadequate, it said.

NEFIS has in a separate the memorandum submitted to Union home ministry demanded a CBI inquiry into the case should be conducted, since the UP Police’s inquiry is bound to be heavily biased since its own personnel are implicated in the case, the release continued.

 NEFIS also demanded that the inquiry should especially probe the connivance of police personnel with the criminals and hospital authorities, it added.

The release recalled that Pravish had come to Delhi on a visit and had been residing in Safdarjung, Delhi with his friends. On September 8, he went to Knowledge Park in Noida to attend a music concert with his friends and went missing after the concert.

It has been reported that he was taken in an injured condition to Bhim Rao Ambedkar Hopspital around 10:30 pm, where he was given first-aid by a doctor. It is not known that whether after the first-aid he was discharged or forcibly taken away, said the release.

On September 9, at 6:30 am Pravish left the hospital’s emergency ward, the release claimed, adding the following day a call was received by the PCR of an injured person in Sector-31 Market.

The PCR personnel took the injured youth, Pravish to Bhim Rao Ambedkar hospital around 5:30 pm, where he subsequently died, it maintained. His postmortem was done on September 11 and after waiting for 72 hours, the hospital authorities disposed (cremated) the body as there was no one to claim the body, it added.

The release also recalled that a complaint in connection to his disappearance had already been lodged at Knowledge Park Police Station, Gautam Budh Nagar on September 9. The laxity on behalf of the Noida Police and civic authorities is shameful and reeks of conspiracy, it claimed.