Odisha’s Dhinkia police arrested Dalit woman Gitanjali Das on June 6, 2022 on reportedly false charges while she was merely demanding that local activists’ families’ have a right to visit their kin. She has been charged under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code which is an offence of attempt to murder!

On January 14, anti-Jindal and Anti-POSCO Movement leaders Debendra Swain, Murlidhar Sahu and INSAF State Convener Narendra Mohanty were arrested. Villagers complained that the police prevented families from meeting their kin. Concerned, Jagatsinghpur’s local political leaders and progressive groups like the Lok Shakti Abhiyan (LSA) wrote to the Director General of Police (DGP) citing people’s basic right to move wherever they want in the country. They received no response to these letters although a similar letter was sent on June 7.

On Monday, a delegation of Medha Patkar, Professor Manoranjan Mohanty, Lingaraj and Sudarshan Pradhan met with Swain to talk about his arrest. The group intended to then meet his 85-year-old mother in Dhinkia village but they were stopped by the police mid-way. According to LSA President Prafulla Samantara, the police claimed that the delegation will divide the people and cause troubles. It was during this time that Das tried to reason with the authorities. She asked why the families could not meet the arrested.

For this alone, Das was arrested under Section 307 that relates to attempted murder, said Samantara.“This shows that people’s personal liberty is under threat. Das protested to such illegal prevention. She was handed over to police by company supporters and she was arrested under 307 and sent to jail. How can the police stop anyone, especially families from meeting their kin?” asked Samantara.

Further, he pointed out how he and Lingaraj wrote letters separately to DGP, Odisha about Patkar’s visit to the families of jailed villagers. This was to avoid any obstacle by company supporters. Copies of this letter were sent to the District Superintendent SP. Yet, the police did not respond. “Instead, they provoked company supporters to prevent Patkar to enter village,” said Prafulla Samantara.

In January, protest leaders released a fact-finding report on the conflict between local authorities and Dhinkia villagers. Since 2005, villagers opposed POSCO-India Private Limited’s development project in the area. Locals resisted the idea citing the issue of forest rights settlement under the Forest Rights Act 2006.

However, when the company backed away in 2017, the High-Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik transferred the land to the JSW Utkal Steel Limited (JUSL). This move violated the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR) of 2013. Yet, authorities even granted a forest clearance despite claims that the villagers faced severe oppression from police.

Related:

Odisha: 3 activists arrested for speaking truth to power in fact-finding report
Dhinkia: A story of perseverance against administrative oppression
End police oppression! FIAN Int. stands with Odisha’s adivasis
Odisha Police beat up Adivasi villagers
Tougher than Steel: Odisha villagers condemn govt’s to attempts to usurp their land

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The Paralakhemundi police in Odisha arrested lawyer Upendra Nayak on February 20, late night in the capacity of a non-bailable warrant issued by the R Udayagiri JMFC Court. Nayak was arrested from his residence at Badagouda Sahi in Bhubaneshwar. After his arrest he was presented at the JMFC Court at R Udayagiri as per reports available.
 
The People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) had expressed its deep concern on his arrest. He was arrested on serious charges of sedition, waging war against the State and UAPA.

Adv. Upendra Nayak is a regular practitioner who was defending poor Adivasis and Dalits in Gajapati district, especially in a precarious situation where hundreds of innocent people are behind bars for an alleged Maoist link and have no access to legal aid. He had helped in the past to provide legal aid to these very people, which included women too.

However, presently Adv. Nayak is behind bars for his services, in a similar trend following that of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, where people’s lawyers are being hounded and prosecuted for the assistance they are providing to marginalized sections, empowering them to fight legal battles.

Mr. Nayak has been sent to jail for his alleged ‘involvement’ in as many ten cases especially the cases in which he was the defence lawyer and the accused have been acquitted at the end of trial! Some of the said cases include those of Arati Majhi, Basanti Patamjhi, Munita, Lakshmi – registered way back in 2009 and 2010 (GR Case No- 260/2009, 261/2009, 262/2009, 263/2009, 264/2009 and GR Case 14/2010, 168/2010, 73/2010, 105/2010 and 221/2010 ).

Questioning this method of harassment, the PUCL statement had noted, “The present issue not only relates to the harassment of an individual Advocate like Upendra Nayak, but also raises larger issue of fundamental rights of the lawyers in general to freely and fearlessly choose their profession guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India. It also does affect the fundamental rights of the persons to have free choice for a legal counsel to defend themselves in the court of law. “

Human rights organizations expressed that the arrest of Advocate Nayak is an attempt to create a sense of fear amongst the lawyer community so that they do not defend any innocent persons implicated in serious charges such as sedition and other offences against the state. This undermines the tenets of the criminal justice system which says that lawyers should not be identified with their clients or the causes their clients take up as a result of discharging their functions. [Basic Principles of the Role of Lawyers, 1990 (Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.)]
Rule of law has been severely compromised in this case and the state is using the police as a weapon to silence dissenting voices who speak in favour of innocent, marginalized voices.

The PUCL, apart from demanding immediate and unconditional release of Adv. Nayak, had also demanded that strong voice must be raised to protest the high handedness of the state. It strongly resists the tendency of the state to identify the lawyers with their clients.

Narendra Mohanty, the Convenor of Campaign against Fabricated Cases (CAFC), Odisha requested the participation of all democratic forces to express solidarity against the attack upon professional independence and rights of lawyers.

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