The Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has been asked to probe the alleged custodial death of two women from Myanmar, who were among 29 refugees kept at a centre that was turned into a temporary prison.
The two women, identified as 46-year-old Ma Myint and 40-year-old Mukhai, died of COVID-19 without proper medical care, a rights group called Human Rights Alert (HRA) said in a letter to the Commission on July 2. The group is based in Manipur’s capital city Imphal.
HRA’s executive director, Babloo Loitongbam, said the 29 Myanmar nationals, including six minors, were kept in judicial custody at Saadbhavana Mandop in Churachandpur district’s New Lamka after they were arrested on March 31 for entering India illegally.
They were remanded to police custody on April 7 after a local court recorded that they “crossed the border due to threat and fear of persecution as a result of the military coup … without any valid documents and papers”.
They were later remanded to judicial custody, with the Manipur government declaring the centre as a temporary prison under the Prison Act of 1994.
The government had planned to transfer the 29 Myanmar nationals to different jails in Imphal. Scared of living separately, they requested the authority to let them stay together.
“The authority conceded to their request but did not provide them with any food or healthcare,” said Mr. Loitongbam, adding that local organisations volunteered to organise food for them.
The inmates of the camp started falling sick by the end of May and nine of them were found to be COVID-19-positive on June 5. While the two women died, 13 others recovered.
“The inmates are dependent only on the charity of the civil society organisations. They were deprived of their right to adequate nutritious food and mandatory medical attention they deserve as any other prisoner,” said Mr. Loitongbam, pointing out that the death of the two women was a violation of the right to life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The HRA requested the MHRC to direct the government to provide nutritious food and regular medical attention to the inmates of the centre-turned-prison without any discrimination and recommend monetary compensation to the next of kin of the two deceased women.
The rights group also sought adherence to the National Human Rights Commission’s guideline on custodial death in dealing with the death of Myint and Mukhai. The guideline includes mandatory reporting to the secretary of NHRC as well as conducting a magisterial inquiry.
