The events of 14th March 2007 in Nandigram were pre-planned and were executed after
plenty of preparation by officials and party functionaries who are very high up in the
Government. They probably also required a sanction from the Chief Minister, who also
controls the Home Department.
2. The timing of the police action in Nandigram and the events that preceded the 14th , took
place on the 14th and afterwards point clearly to a nexus between the CPM party, the police
and the administration.
3. The crowd of protestors was in a religious gathering and was unarmed and peaceful. It was
not an illegal assembly as no ban on assembly was in force in the area. Nor was the crowd
obstructing any one's passage or creating a problem for anyone. They did not also obstruct to
the filling up of the trench near Bhangabera Bridge. This is obvious from the testimonies
from 62 people that we have gathered and the over 200 people we have spoken to. It is also
obvious that the number of police injured were only 4 in Tamluk hospital and these too had
minor injuries. The police action was therefore unprovoked.
4. The police and party goons seems to have been heavily armed. The minimum guidelines for
use of force by the police were not followed- people were not warned sufficiently before
ordering firing or given sufficient time to disperse. The number of people who reported to
hospital in injured condition were as many as 85 with 4 brought dead. Also, huge numbers of
people were dislocated and had fled their homes. Houses and shops were looted, at least 2
women were raped, many more were sexually assaulted, people were lathi charged while
rescuing the injured. All of these point to the use of unnecessary force by the administration.
It also implies that the violence by the police and party goons was not a momentary one.
Instead it took about an hour and a half and could have been stopped by senior officials on
the spot when it was becoming excessive.
ADPR, PBKMS, MASUM final report on nandigram.
23 march, 2007
It is prepared by
Sri Amit Dyuti Kumar, Sri Prasad Roychowdhury, Dr. (Mrs.) Subabrata Bhadra, Sri Raghu - representing Association for Protection of Democratic Rights;
Smt. Anurada Talwar, Sri Jeeban, Ms. Panchali Roy, Sri Sandeep, Sri Chiro, Sri Pramod, Sri Gangyly - representing Paschim Banga Kheth Majdoor Samity;
Sri Sadhan Roychowdhury, Sri Subrata Roy, Sri Arjun Das - representing Manabidhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM);
Combined party-police action - Concealing of dead bodies - Systematic rape - Violence and murder of children - Looting - Missing people
Interviews of people in hospitals.
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