RAIPUR:The seven-member “fact-finding team” of the Telangana Democratic Front arrested in December at Sukma in south Chhattisgarh, is set to move their bail applications in the High Court on Monday. The members include lawyers, social activists, journalists and a research scholar who were reportedly visiting the restive Bastar zone to study the ground situation. They were arrested and jailed under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.
Earlier in January, the Dantewada court had rejected their bail plea. “The bail plea of the members of the civil society group is likely to be heard on Monday. The related case diary would be called to the High Court from the lower court. It’s not a final hearing,” said lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, also the general secretary of rights organisation PUCL in Chhattisgarh.
Chhattisgarh police, however, will oppose the bail applications. “We will challenge the bail. If they are set free, then the bigger risk would be for those in Sukma jail who have helped the police identify the seven members. The charges against the fact-finding members are serious,” Sukma additional superintendent of police, Jitendra Shukla, told Express.
Meanwhile, a protest meeting was organised by the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) at Hyderabad on Sunday. In the recent gathering of IAPL at Mumbai, the organisation called for the unconditional release of advocates Chikkudu Prabhakar and Balla Ravindranath from Telangana and A Murugan from Tamil Nadu and to end the harassment of lawyers from JagLag (Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group) in Chhattisgarh. IAPL cited such instances as an assault on advocates’ right to fearlessly practice their profession and violation of the fundamental right of all arrestees to a fair trial.