Condemn the Illegal Arrest of Lingaraj Azad

People’s Union for Democratic Rights — 2019 March 8, 2019

PUDR protests the illegal arrest of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti member Lingaraj Azad, who has been at the forefront of the peoples struggle against bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills, and the continuing repression against the people through routine detention of NSS leaders, security camps, patrolling and raids on villages.

Lingaraj Azad was detained and arrested on 6 March in Lanjigarh when two FIRs against him, one of April 2017 and another of February 2019, were resuscitated, in continuation of the trend under the current regime where retributive FIRs are used as ticking time bombs against activists and dissenters. The FIR of April 2017 accuses him of unlawful assembly, rioting with weapons, wrongful restraint, criminal conspiracy, among others under the IPC, for his participation in a protest outside Vedanta’s Alumina Plant. The FIR of February 2019 contains accusations of unlawful assembly, rioting, singing obscene songs and criminal intimidation under IPC, and the Arms Act for use of weapons, for his participation in a protest in Tirlochanpur against the setting up of CRPF camps.

One needs to look no further than the Odisha government’s own press release to reveal the reasons behind his arrest, which labels him a ‘Maoist sympathizer’, and a ‘nuisance’-maker who organizes meetings against bauxite mining and rallies against setting up of CRPF camps. NSS in particular has been subject to this intensified repression since 2016-17, when the Home Ministry declared it a ‘Maoist outfit’ and was met with strong protests. Lada Sikaka, another member of NSS, was illegally detained and assaulted in custody by the Raigarh police on 23 October 2018 for organizing a rally against the setting up of CRPF camps, surveillance and combing operations. Separately, British, a member of the Bhumi Adhikar Suraksha Samiti and CPI(M) had also been illegally detained and assaulted in Kalahandi.

The brazen abuse of state power, illegalities and violation of fundamental rights are made possible by the overarching climate of intense state repression against rights activists, dissenters and peoples movements, where illegal arrests, detentions, fabricated cases, encounters, militarization, sedition and UAPA have become part of the regular vocabulary of the fascist Hindutva-vadi regime.

It must be remembered that in 2013, 12 gram Sabhas unanimously and unequivocally rejected bauxite mining by Orissa Mining Corporation Limited in the Niyamgiri forests, under protection of a Supreme Court judgment, yet the greed of Vedanta and OMCL remains unvanquished. While attempting to have the Gram Sabha decision reconsidered in the Supreme Court, they are complicit with the state government in ensuring that the people of Niyamgiri are terrorised into handing over their jal, jangal, zameen.

PUDR demands:

(1) immediate and unconditional release of Lingaraj Azad and the quashing of all FIRs against him,

(2) accountability for the illegal arrests and detentions, and custodial violence against Lada Sikaka, British and other people of Niyamgiri,

(3) stop the targeted persecution of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti and the people of Niyamgiri

(4) withdrawal of security camps and patrolling,

(5) withdrawal of all proposed mining projects in the Niyamgiri hills.

Deepika Tandon and Shahana Bhattacharya
Secretaries
pudr@pudr.org

SANHATI http://sanhati.com/articles/19137/


COUNTERCURRENTS.org

Human Rights Defenders Alert – India

National Secretariate

32, Besant Road, Chokkikulam, Madurai – 625 002,Tamil Nadu. India
Phone:+91-452-2531874 & 2539520 Fax:+91-452-2531874 Mobile: +91-99943 68540
E.mail: hrda.india@gmail.com Web: http://hrdaindia.org

March 7, 2019

To,
Mr. Khaleel Ahmed,
National Focal Point - Human Rights Defenders & Deputy Registrar
National Human Rights Commission
Manav Adhikar Bhawan,
Block-C, GPO Complex, INA,
New Delhi – 110 023
Email: hrd-nhrc@nic.in

Sub: HRDA Alert – India – Urgent Appeal for Action- Odisha- Mr. Lingaraj Azad - Arrest of Mr. Lingaraj Azad, leader of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti in Odisha -Regarding

Dear Sir,
Greetings from Human Rights Defenders Alert - India!
HRD Alert - India is a forum of Human Rights Defenders for Human Rights Defenders. It endeavours to initiate actions on behalf of Human Rights Defenders under threat or with security concerns.

We are now writing to express our grave concern regarding the repeated judicial harassment and arrest of human rights defender Mr.Lingaraj Azad, leader of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha by the Kesinga police under false charges.

Status of Human Rights Defender:
Mr. Lingaraj Azad, is an indigenous tribal activist from the Kalahandi District of Odisha and has been struggling against bauxite mining in Niyamgiri area of Kalahandi and Rayagada districts in Odisha, where Dongria Kondh (indigenous tribal commuity) are to be displaced forcibly from the thirty villages due to bauxite mining. Mr. Lingaraj Azad is a fierce fighter for the rights of the adivasis. He is the National Vice-President of Samajwadi Jan Parishad and National Convener of National Alliance of Peoples Movement (NAPM) under which he has successfully led the peoples movement and fought the valiant struggle against Vedanta Corporation. In nearly three decades of his activism, Mr. Lingaraj has faced physical attacks, arrests, judicial harassments from the State in connivance with corporates due his struggle against the systemic oppression and corporate loot of the natural resources in the region.

Source of Information:
• Regional Coordinator HRDA for Eastern zone
• Advocate Sidharth Nayak, who is Mr. Lingaraj’s legal counsel
• Another HRD from the region (anonymous)
Perpetrators:
• Mr. Battula Gangadhar, Superintendent of Police, Kalahandi;
• Mr.Gupteswar Bhoi, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Kesinga Police station;
• Mr. Mohapatra, Inspector In Charge Kesinga Police Station;
• Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mandal, Inspector In Charge Lanjigarh Police Station.
Date of Incident:
March 6, 2019
Brief History
Dongria Kondh, is a vulnerable indigenous tribal group that resides in the Niyamgiri hill range, Odisha. The Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), which is a public sector undertaking allowed Sterlite Industries, owned by Vedanta Corporation to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiti area by violating the Forest Rights Act and The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), which was opposed by the Dongrias who consider the hill range as the abode of their traditional god ‘Niyam Raja’. Since then the said tribal group formed an association named “Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti” (NSS), which opposed the mining. After the landmark Supreme Court verdict in 2013 in the case of Orissa Mining Corporation Vs Union of India, the mining came to a halt, but Sterlite Industries along with OMC is now trying to re-start the mining by displacing the Dongrias from the nearby thirty villages. Mr. Azad was leading the NSS, since its inception because of which the local police is trying to arrest him in different fabricated and false charges inorder to help the mining companies to start the displacement of the indigenous community without much resistance.

Details of the Incident:
As per the sources, on March 6, 2019, while Mr. Azad was in his village, one police personnel from the Kesinga Police Station came to his house and asked him come along with him to meet Mr.Gupteswar Bhoi, who is the SDPO. Mr. Azad refused to go along with him and told him that he would go on his own to meet the SDPO. Accordingly, he went to the Kesinga police station in his bike from his village and at the police station, he met the SDPO. The SDPO informed Mr. Azad that the reason to summon him to the police station was to question him in an old case registered with the Lanjigarh police station and therefore personnel from the said police station had come to meet him.

After a few hours, Mr. Lingaraj was told that he is now being arrested for two old cases bearing Case No. 28 dated 26/04/2017 under Sections 143,147,148,188,149, of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) 7 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) along with 341,120 B of the IPC and another case bearing Case No. 1 of 2019 dated 18/2/2019 under Sections 147,148, 294, 506,149 IPC and 27 of the Arms Act. After medical checkup, he was forwarded to Bhawanipatna district court and remanded to custody.

It is pointed out here that arrest and brazen attack of Mr. Lingaraj by the Odisha government just before general elections is a planned action and is done just to stop him from continuing the anti-displacement activism so as to discontinue him from carrying forward his struggle for the indigenous people.

Appeal:
We, therefore urge you to immediately take necessary action to ensure that the Superintendent of Police and the District Collector of Kalahandi District:
• Order immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Lingaraj;
• Order that the State Legal Services Authority to send a senior criminal lawyer of Mr. Lingaraj Azad’s choice to represent in the cases for which he has been arrested now and others which he is facing at state cost;
• Order an immediate, thorough, transparent, effective and impartial speedy investigation into the above-mentioned incident;
• Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological safety and integrity of the HRD Mr. Azad, his family members, other community leaders and members who are still under risk from the perpetrators.

Looking forward to your immediate action in this regard,
Yours sincerely,
-sd

Henri Tiphagne
National Working Secretary

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