BIHAR-Landlords on Rampage in Champaran

In June 1977 the Governor of Tamil Nadu orderted an administrative en- quiry into Seeralan's murder despite the TNCLA's specific demand for a judicial enquiry. The police have resorted to threats, bribery, violence and kidnapping of witnesses in order to frustrate the enquiry. As for the government, it considers .the transfer of the three constables accused of murder to other towns in the same district as sufficient precaution against police interference in the Commission's work. The Commission is yet to submit its report Seeralan's mother presented a memorandum to the chief minister last BIHAR month demanding a judicial enquiry not only into the killing of her son but also into the illegal detention and torture of Jaya and Velu and police- landlord atrocities against the peasants of Ponneri, "The men who perpetrated these atrocities are walking as free men today, five months after the Emergency nightmare has ended.. ..As a mother in deep sorrow I am anxious to ensure that this fate docs not befall other mothers in future. This, I am convinced, can only come about by vigorously defending people's civil rights and by meting out exemplary punishment of the criminals involved." Landlords on Rampage in Champaran Arun Sinha THE killings at the math of Darpa show that even if ill-paid agricultural labourers refuse to die of starvation their masters will find other ways to destroy them. The labourers of Darpa, Sukhlahia and other villages of Champaran were merely asking for employment; they had been fighting only for their right to exist. For showing such 'daring', five of them, including an old woman, were killed on September 5.