This is the second time in six months that the SIMI prisoner serving life term has resorted to this method of protest; his mother appeals for his safety
NEW DELHI — SIMI activist Safdar Nagori who is serving life term in Bhopal Central Jail is on hunger strike since Sunday. According to his mother Fatima Bi, Nogori has taken this step to protest against the excesses that he is facing in the jail. He is especially disappointed that even after more than one year he has got no relief from the torture that he was subjected to on January 1, 2020.
This is the second time in six months that Nagori has gone on hunger strike. In October 2020, the Hindustan Times reported that Nagori and five other prisoners in the Bhopal Central Jail have been shifted to the jail hospital after their health deteriorated on October 3. The Hindustan Times broke the news quoting jail superintendent. The newspaper also reported that they have been on hunger strike for the past one week protesting against inhuman treatment being given to them in jail.
Haider Nagori, brother of Safdar Nagori, had told Clarion India at the time that jail authorities have not informed his family about the well-being of Safdar. He said he came to know about the development through newspapers. Apparently, families of other five prisoners, too, are unaware of the situation inside the jail.
This time around, Nagori has gone on hunger strike with similar complaints. According to his mother, he is demanding end to continued mental torture, end to desecration of Quran in front of him; availability of newspaper and pen, permission to write letters; and access to legal remedies.
In a press statement from her home in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, Fatima Bi has sought protection to her son’s life in the jail.
Safdar Nagori has been convicted for a 2008 case in Indore. His appeal against his conviction is pending before the High Court. Nagori is former general secretary of the SIMI or Students Islamic Movement of India, an organisation banned since 2001. Bhopal Central Jail hosts ten convicted as well as 21 undertrial prisoners allegedly belonging to the organisation.
Last September a letter written by Nagori was sneaked from inside the jail. It revealed that SIMI prisoners were facing torture and inhuman treatment at the hands of jail authorities.
In the undated letter, which was made available to Clarion India by elder Nagori, Safdar gave a chilling account of the treatment the jail authorities were giving to its inmates classified as ‘SIMI prisoners’. They are denied “almost all human rights which, otherwise, are available to all other prisoners as mandated by the Jail-Manual-Rules,” read the letter. It said threats, expletives and religious slurs are routine because of which, Nagori said, he is living in constant phobia.
In 2017, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) conducted two investigations into complaints torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners in the Bhopal Central Jail. Both investigations concluded that the prisoners were facing physical and mental torture at the hands of prison authorities, and even highlighted the illegality of their continued solitary confinement. Four years have passed, neither the jail authorities nor the state government of Madhya Pradesh has taken note of the findings of a statutory body formed under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
In October 2020, the NHRC issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Inspector General of Prisons, Madhya Pradesh, seeking a detailed report on the present health status of all the SIMI prisoners and their medical treatment records, within 4 weeks. No one took note of the notice. Even NHRC did not pursue. Meanwhile, Safdar Nagori and other SIMI prisoners in Bhopal Central Jail continue to suffer.
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