On October 21, a team of Khunti police attached the belongings of 83-year old Stan Swamy, a well-known activist of Jharkhand, from his residence at the Bagaicha campus in Namkum, near Ranchi. The police took away two tables, three chairs, one almirah (cupboard) and one mattress from his room. Stan was not present during this procedure. The JJM, through a statement issued by Aloka Kujur, Ashok Verma, Bharat Bhushan Choudhary has severely condemned this harassment.
 
The statement says that the attachment was in connection with a sedition case filed against him and 19 other activists of Jharkhand inJuly 2018, over their Facebook posts in which they questioned state excesses in villages that conducted Pathalgadi and attack on Adivasi rights. The posts have been framed as evidence of these activists’ endorsement of the Pathalgadi movement in Khunti in the particular FIR. Among other sections, they have been booked under 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000, which was repealed by the Supreme Court in 2015. (In fact, a recent fact-finding inquiry by Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) found severe repression and violence in the Pathalgadi villages. Thousands of Adivasis have been wrongly charged with sedition).
 
Stan Swamy’s facebook posts, cited as evidence, are attached in Annexure 1. In August 2018, Stan Swamy and three others (Aloka Kujur, Rakesh Roshan Kiro and Vinod Kumar) challenged the FIR in the Ranchi High Court and requested for its quashing. During the High Court hearing, the district court of Khunti, based on the prayers of the local police, issued an arrest warrant against them
(under section 73 of IPC) on 19 June 2019.
 
However, such a warrant can only be issued if it is proven that the accused is hiding or trying to evade arrest. Before the warrant was issued, neither did the Khunti police visit the residences of Stan and others to inquire if they were present nor did it send them any notice. This raises serious questions on the legality of the warrant itself. Interestingly, just a week before the warrant was issued, Stan’s room was raided by the Maharashtra police, in the presence of Jharkhand police, in the Bhima-Koregaon case (He along with ten other national activists are wrongly accused in the case). His presence at Bagaicha during the raid was reported widely reported in the media. And yet, the Khunti police got an arrest warrant issued in aweek.
 
Following the warrant notice, the four persons filed an interlocutory application in the High Court to quash it. Subsequently, on July 22, 2019, the Khunti court, as prayed by the police, declared Stan an absconder. He subsequently appealed for quashing this order as well. On September 24, the notice for attachment of his property was issued. The irony of the Khunti police declaring Stan an absconder, even though he fully co-operated with the Maharashtra police in their investigations (and was available at his residence) in the same period was raised by his lawyer in the High Court. The government lawyer asked for additional time when hewas asked by the Court to explain this paradox. He was asked to justify the state’s orders, regarding the arrest warrant and declaring Stan an absconder, on the next hearing scheduled for  October 23.
 
The attachment of Stan’s belongings just two days before the hearing, while the matter was being debated in the High Court, indicates an attempt by the police to ensure that Stan’s appeal for quashing of arrest warrant becomes infructuous.
 
For the past several decades, Stan has been working for the rights of Adivasis and other under privileged groups in Jharkhand. Among other issues, he works on displacement caused due to forced acquisition of land,the condition of undertrials and implementation of PESA. The Mahasabha strongly condemns the continuous harassment of activists and public intellectuals who are critical of the policies of BJP governments. The harassments are wholly unjustified and are part of the government’s growing attempts to stifle dissent and intimidate those fighting for justice. The haste of the police to declare Stan an absconder and attach his belongings, weeks before the state elections, indicates that it is an attempt by the BJP to invent a false enemy and engage in scare mongering in order to polarise the election in its favour.
 
Stan is an exceptionally gentle, honest and public-spirited person. Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha has the highest regard for him and his work. The Mahasabha demands immediate quashing of the FIR and dropping of all frivolous charges against Stan Swamy and other activists and public intellectuals. It further demands action against the Khunti police for the repression unleashed by it in Pathalgadi villages and building a false case against Stan Swamy and others.
 
Annexure 1 – Facebook posts of Stan Swamy framed as evidence by police

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Image Courtesy: Two Circles
 
Bastar: Human rights defender and tribal leaders Soni Sori and Lingaram Kodopi released a statement on the murder of 10 innocent people by security forces in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. They spoke about how the truth was shoved under the carpet about the continuing onslaught of violence against the indigenous Adivasi population of Bastar, especially after the incident of February 7 in village Tadiballa, Tehsil Bhairamgarh, Bijapur situated in the hills of Abujhmad.
 
“It is notable that the government and the Home Minister are presenting this as a great victory of the security forces, but if one asks just a few questions and conducts even a small inquiry, a chilling reality emerges. We, the residents of many villages of Bastar, have gathered at Bhairamgarh today, on March 5, to expose the lies of the government, to tell our story to the world, and to seek justice,” they said in their statement.
 
Security forces gunned down at least 10 alleged Maoists during an encounter in Bijapur and claimed that 11 weapons were found by them.
 
The activists claimed that none of the ten people killed that day by the security forces were Naxalites, and no encounter took place on that day. “Most of the villagers who died that day were our children, who had gathered that day to participate in village sports. The security forces came and started firing indiscriminately on the crowd of villagers without any warning, as a result of which people panicked and there was utter chaos. Those hit with bullets were brutalized further by the security forces. Two girls were raped, of whom a young girl of 12 years was not only raped, but her nose and private parts were mutilated.  All the dead were subjected to brutal torture, despite the security forces clearly knowing that they were only villagers. The force personnel also burned all the clothes, vessels, containers etc present at the incident site,” the activists said.

Video Courtesy: Two Circles

“We want to know why the security forces behave so badly each and every time they visit our village on routine patrol. From where do they get these orders? Every day, without any reason or any evidence, Adivasis are being rounded up, taken to a camp or police station where they are being detained for days on end and beaten up.  Their family members are denied any information about their whereabouts, at the end of which they are either let go or arrested in a false Naxalite case. Under whose orders do the security forces consider women’s bodies as their own property to assault and violate at their will? Even pregnant women, young girls and mothers with children at their breasts are not spared. When we file complaints, they come up with casteist defences – that Adivasi women have a foul smell, and none of these men would even touch them. What kind of orders are these which call for brutal extermination of hundreds of innocent Adivasi civilians?” they said in their statement.
 
The Adivasi population in Bastar continuously lives in the shadow of death and destruction. “Our houses are looted and burned, and our carefully earned money, clothes, cash, crops, sheep and cattle, chicken, and all our wealth is like an eyesore for the government. What kind of militarization is this, supposedly for the protection of Bastar’s population, but something which only arouses utmost fear in us? What we have lost, what torture we have borne, what misery the government has bestowed on us is immeasurable, but today it is the duty of the government to answer our questions and give us justice,” they said while making the following demands from the government-
 
1. As per our description of the event, a counter-FIR should be lodged into the incident under sections 302, 307, 376(2)(c), 201 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 5(b) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which should be investigated in an unbiased and transparent manner
 
2. To get to the bottom of this matter, a Commission of Inquiry should be instituted, presided by a retired High Court Judge.
 
3. The family members of the deceased should be given copies of the FIR and the Post Mortem.
 
4. The Magisterial Inquiry should be conducted as per the guidelines of the NHRC and in a manner making it possible for the family members of the deceased to give their testimonies fearlessly.
 
Two Adivasi women were also shot at by CRPF officers on February 2 in in the forest of Rengaiguda village, around 450 kms from Raipur, under Polampalli police station limits, when a joint team of security forces was returning after an area domination operation.
 
While a woman named Podiyam Sukki died of the gunshot wounds, another woman Kalmi Dewe was wounded and is currently being treated at a hospital. The police have been calling them Maoists but villagers have rejected these claims and said that they were not involved in any skirmish. The officers were also seen changing the women’s clothes and dressing them up in Naxal uniforms.
 
Read Also:
Sukma fake encounter: Jawans were dressing up victim in Naxal uniform after shooting her
 

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