http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Naxal-recalls-three-years-of-torture-in-jail/articleshow/9917601.cms
MUMBAI: Over three decades ago, as an engineering student at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Mumbai boy Prashant Rahi briefly met Dr Binayak Sen and was inspired by his work in impoverished villages. Little did Rahi imagine that in December 2007, seven months after Sen was arrested on grounds of sedition and accused of being a Maoist, he would face the same fate.
Rahi’s arrest took place around the same time Taare Zameen Par hit theatres in Mumbai, a film for which his daughter Shikha worked as an assistant director.
On Wednesday, TOI caught up with Rahi at his residence in Mumbai, two weeks after he was released on bail after an excruciating, over three-and-a-half year stint in jails in Uttarakhand, where he allegedly faced torture and solitary confinement. “On December 17, 2007, I was assaulted and pushed into a car by men in plainclothes on a road in Dehradun. I thought they were criminals. I later realized they were cops. Officially, the police claimed they arrested me on December 22 from the forests of Haspur Khatta near Udham Singh Nagar,” said Rahi.
During the five days that he was “illegally” detained, Rahi was allegedly stripped and beaten mercilessly” in parts of the body where the pain is unbearable”. He claimed the police did several “vulgar things” to him, including inserting petrol into his anus.
After his arrest, he said he spent three years and eight months in jails in Uttarakhand, including Haldwani, Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun, Pauri Garhwal and Haridwar. Most of his prison years were spent in solitary confinement, which he calls “another sort of torment”.
Rahi is among a number of Mumbaikars who, after leaving home to work in the villages, have been arrested on the pretext of being Naxalites. Rahi grew up in Mumbai, where he studied at St Stanislaus School in Bandra, followed by Ruia College, Matunga. He then went on to study engineering at Banaras Hindu University. It’s there that Rahi was first exposed to youth movements and was involved in fighting for the rights of villagers in Uttar Pradesh. He joined several people’s movements, and was an integral part of the struggle against the Tehri dam.
“Around 2004, the government began a brutal repression against the people under the pretext of a Maoist threat. This, despite the fact that there was absolutely no such threat in Uttarakhand. This was an excuse for the government to collect funds from the Centre and, at the same time suppress those who opposed government atrocities,” said Rahi.
