In a significant breakthrough in CJP and All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP)’s campaign to release Adivasi Human Rights Defenders Sukalo and Kismatiya Gond, the Allahabad High Court has allowed both women to seek ‘judicial remedy’. AIUFWP Treasurer Sukalo and Forest Rights Committee (FRC) Secretary Kismatiya Gond, were produced before the court on September 7 due to a Habeas Corpus petition filed by us.

Both women had been languishing in prison for over nearly three months under false charges and even though they were not released immediately, they can now apply for bail. “As these two women leaders are in Judicial Custody, they can seek remedy [for their release] as per the law applicable for Habeas Corpus petition,” said Adv. Farman Naqvi, appearing for the petitioners, Sukalo and Kismatiya.

The Court recorded their statements and asked relevant questions to both of them. The local police was severely upbraided for misleading the court in their affidavit: a police official, a constable had tried to pass himself off as a higher officer. “If you dare to mislead the High Court on a sworn affidavit, we can only imagine the terror that you try and spread locally,” the Judges remarked directing orally that the state government take action against the officer.

The court asked Sukalo and Kismatiya about the time period of their purportedly illegal arrest, to which both of them replied that they had been incarcerated for about three months. The Court also asked them if they had been produced before a magistrate, as mandated by Section 167 of CrPC. Both the women said that they had been “taken somewhere” but they could not affirm if it was a magistrate in the absence of a legal counsel accompanying them. The Court also asked them whether they were ‘properly treated’ during their period of incarceration, and whether they were subject to torture etc. Both of them replied saying they were not treated in a problematic manner and they were given food etc. regularly.

Adv. Farman Naqvi also sought permission from the Court if the Adivasi forest leaders could meet their families, to which the Court agreed and said that they could meet them for as long as they deem satisfactory. The families, then reportedly said that Sukalo and Kismatiya looked fine. Though Kismatiya looked a bit distraught, this kind of incarceration being her first experience, Sukalo seemed a little better.

You can view Sukalo and Kismatiya’s story here:

This is a shot in the arm in our campaign for justice and accountability, especially since the women remained untraceable for a long while. However, owing to the Court’s intervention, the UP police was compelled to produce them before the Court. The families meeting their beloved family members after three months of struggle was an emotional moment.

Brief background of the case

Sukalo Gond and Kismatiya Gond, along with Sukhdev Gond and two others were arrested on Friday, June 8. The Sonbhadra (UP) police picked them up in a clandestine manner at the Chopan railway station, when they were returning from a meeting with UP forest minister Dara Singh Chauhan and the forest secretary in Lucknow. In fact, at the meeting, Chauhan had promised to look into previous assaults on villagers in Lilasi that were allegedly conducted in connivance with the forest department. The women’s names were not even mentioned in the FIR.

Sukalo’s and Kismatiya’s ordeal has lasted more than two months. CJP and AIUFWP were compelled to file a Habeas Corpus petition with the Allahabad High Court. Following CJP’s and AIUFWP’s campaign for their release, political parties such as the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have also voiced support for their release on social media and other platforms. Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted in August that he was concerned about the women and that local Congress leaders should follow up on the matter. On August 28, the Allahabad High Court haddirected the SP of Sonbhadra police to produce both of them in Court today, September 7. Recently, UP MLA Sanjay Garg met the Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath and submitted a letter informing him of the constant police violence that Sonbhadra villagers have faced. He also highlighted the issue of “painting the [AIUFWP] union in bad light”.

This order from the Allahabad High Court will set in motion the process of their release. The next step is their bail applications in lower court and hopes to get immediate relief.

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The post Sukalo & Kismatiya: Allahabad HC Sets Release in Motion appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: cjp.org.in

This thana is at a distance of 20 kilometers from Dudhi, which in turn is 30 kilometers away from Lilasi, the village from where they were picked up! CJP secretary, Ms. Teesta Setalvad, who was also a participant at the workshop, addressing a key session on Constitutional Rights, Forest Rights (the Law For and Against Empowerment of Adivasis) along with Roma, general secretary of the AIUFWP. They immediately then contacted CJP team about these arrests.

Rest of the story may be read here.

Latest Update
On May 22, around 9.30 am, again, CJP received a call from Sukalo informing us that police had entered Lilasi village again and was assaulting the villagers. When the CJP team spoke to one of the villagers, Sukhdev, who was assaulted, he informed us that 3 vehicles of Police forces had arrived at the village and started intimidating the villagers and even entered their huts. After this, in the villagers’ words, the police went on a rampage and assaulted about 15-16 women which included two girls aged ten and fifteen years. The police forces had sticks as well as guns and even intimidated villagers with a revolver. They were constantly asking them, “Are you the owners of the forest that you were cleaning it?”

Despite assurances from the Secretary of the Forest Department, Mr. Sanjay Singh, the police forces returned to the village at aroun 2.30 pm and continuing intimidating the residents. CJP team is trying to contact the Secretary of Forest Department to request him to stop the unwarranted actions and assaults immediately. Today a heavy platoon of the police has been posted in the area.

Context behind these sudden arrests
Days before the arrests by the police, the Pradhan (the Village Head) of the village, who also belongs to the ‘Baniya’ caste group (an economically powerful section of village society) had been regularly visiting the  huts of these Adivasis, goading them to sign some papers. For some months before, since these villagers had worked on NREGA projects for over two years –for which they hadn’t received their wages– this Pradhan mislead them into believing that if their signed these documents they would receive wages due to them. The villagers, who are largely illiterate, signed the papers. Only after the subsequent arrests –and utterly baseless allegations made by the police —they now realise that the documents they signed were not to accrue long pending NREGA  wages as they were mislead into believing –but something else. They do not yet have a clue as to what papers they have put their signatures on.

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The post Police Brutally Assault Adivasi Forest Workers: Sonbhadra, UP appeared first on SabrangIndia.