Nandu Gond, resident of Lilasi village of UP’s Sonbhadra district was released today after a rigorous national campaign launched by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) with its partner the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP). We first reported on March 1, 2019 that he was missing from his village, suspected by family to have been arrested, despite the fact that protection against arrest had been granted to him through an order of the Allahabnd High Court on February 8, 2019.
Image: Nandu gond presenting village claim to SDM March 23, 2018 in Robertsganj
There was jubilation in Lilasi village today after his release. The fact that hundreds of calls made by supporters and activists making inquiries impacted on the administration is also a key lesson for the human rights movement and defenders. For close to a week Nandu Gond of Lilasi Village, Sonbhadra district had been untraceable and his family and relatives were seriously concerned.
Sabrangindia and CJP had been talking consistently to the local administration to trace his whereabouts. So far, despite the legal requirements, he has not been produced in a court. Sabrangindia had reported on March 1, that Nandu Gond has been arrested in an allegedly second false case even after HC has protected him against arrest before in another related, reportedly malicious case. Nandu Gond’s only crime seems to be is that he is an assertive land and forest rights activist and is president of Forest Rights Committee (FRC), Lilasi area, thana Nevarpur.
For the past four months, he was forced to be on the run for about four months, even after the Allahabad High Court directed on a stay against his arrest (February 8, 2019). He his family used to live in the village with his wife, two sons, two daughters and his brother. His activism and involvement in the organisation is being used to target him.
Cjp.org.in had, after ateam visit to Lilasi village recently reported how terror was unleashed on his home in December 2018 and his family and the belongings targeted. The story titled, “Forest Rights: A daughter awaits her father’s return in Sonbhadra’s Lilasi nexus of UP Police, Forest Dept. officials and brokers destroy Nandu Gond’s home” was first published on cjp.org.in.
Nandu Gond was prominent among the team of the All India Forest Working People(AIUFWP) making land claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. Community forest rights land claims were submitted at the district headquarters, Robertsganj, UP on March 23, 2018 and the repression against three prominent leader activists from Lilasi, Kismatiya Gond, Nando Gond and Sokalo Gond (from another village) was unrelenting for months and began on May 18, 2018 and and May 22, 2018 when the police authorities of Muirpur police station as well as officers of forest department allegedly committed atrocities on the women of the forest schedule tribes. Thereafter Kismatiya was jailed for a month before she got bail but for Sokalo Gond it was only November 1, 2018 before she could walk out of Mirzapur jail. They were all picked up from the railway station on June 8, 2018 after, ironically they had successfully submitted a memorandum to the UP Forest Minister, Dara Singh Chauhan.
It is in this context that the relatively quick release of Nadu Gond is significant. In December 2018, on the pretext of a kukri (seizure) operation Nandu Gond’s home had been broken down and destroyed. CJP has written about this soon after the team visit to the area in February 2019 (A Daughter Awaits Her Father’s Return).