RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh police on Monday arrested seven members of a civil society group in the restive district of Sukma, south Bastar and were jailed under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.
Those arrested included two lawyers, a student, two journalists and a couple of tribal rights activists. The members hail from Telangana were reportedly visiting the strife-torn Bastar zone to study and inquire into the existing ground reality.
However, the Chhattisgarh police allege that based on the intelligence inputs the group members were "engaged" in suspicious activities and put on surveillance.
All the seven were produced before the Sukma district court, where their bail applications were rejected. They were sent to jail.
“We provided the information about them to the Telangana police and sought their cooperation. All seven were detained by Telangana police and later we arrested them under section 8 of Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act”, the Sukma district additional superintendent of police Jitendra Shukla told New Indian Express.
Section 8 of the Act relates to supporting the banned organisation (Maoist) or assists in the management of an unlawful organisation or indulge in any unlawful activity of such banned group.
“We have recovered some incriminating Maoist literature and Rs one lakh from them. All the currencies in their possession were in old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000”, Shukla added further.
Following the arrest, the Bastar inspector general of police SRP Kalluri told media-persons that those arrested were “coercing the local villagers to get the old notes of the Maoists exchanged and also support the rebels”.
Those booked included Chikud Prabhakar (48), Bala Ravindra Nath (42) (both advocates), Mohammed Nazeem (28) (student), Rajendra Prasad (30) (Journalist), R Lakshmanaiah (45) (tribal rights activist), B Durga Prasad (38) (social activist) and B Prabhakar Rao (52) (social activist and journalist).
In the virtual war zone of Bastar besides the instances of alleged human rights abuses, the reports of journalists, lawyers and activists facing intimidation and harassment by the self-style vigilante groups and the police keep surfacing. The state police, however, refute the charges of human rights violations.
The human rights organisation People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has condemned the arrest calling it “illegal, unprovoked and malicious”.
“PUCL demands that the Chhattisgarh police immediately drops all charges against the 7-member team and release them. The NHRC should immediately intervene to ascertain facts, especially the reported untruths about the arrest of the fact finding team, who were initially arrested in Telangana but claimed to have been arrested in Chhattisgarh, and to initiate criminal prosecution against the police officials of both states”, said V Suresh, PUCL national general secretary in the issued press release.