By Amritananda Chakravorty
The last one week witnessed tumultuous events pertaining to the state of democracy and the exercise of freedom of expression in this country. On 28th August, 2018, a team of Pune police conducted coordinated raids in almost seven states, and raided the houses and offices of 10 human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and writers, amongst others in Delhi, Haryana, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ranchi and Goa. The police arrested Sudha Bharadwaj, trade union activist and lawyer from Faridabad; Gautam Navlakha, journalist and activist from Delhi, Vernon Gonzalves, lawyer cum activist from Mumbai, Arun Fereira, cartoonist cum lawyer from Pune; and Varavara Rao, dailt activist and writer from Hyderabad, while it raided the houses of Susan Thomas, journalist Kranthi Tekula in Hyderabad, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde in Goa.
The police claimed that these raids and arrests were conducted in relation to the violence that happened in Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra on 1st January, 2018, resulting in the death of one person. These arrests of human rights activists follow the similar arrests in June, 2018, when the Pune police had arrested 5 lawyers and dalit rights activists on similar charges, i.e., Sections 153a, 505, 117 and 120 of the IPC and several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The main allegation against these activists is that they have strong links with maoist groups, funded the Bhima Koregaon violence, and even have links with the ‘PM assassination plot’. Also, the police alleged that these activists made inciting speeches at Elgar Parishad on 31st December, 2017, which was a public meeting organised by dalit groups, that resulted in the violence next day.
Immediately upon the arrest, petitions were filed in Delhi High Court and Punjab & Haryana High Court to stay the arrests of Gautam Navlakha and Sudha Bharadwaj respectively, and a stay was granted, but Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Fereira were taken to Pune. In fact, when the matter was heard in Delhi High Court on 29th August, 2018, Justice Murlidhar was dismayed that the warrant, and all other papers were in marathi, and the accused Gautam Navlakha had no idea of the grounds of arrest. The judge even wondered how did the Magistrate grant remand custody to take Mr. Navlakha from Delhi to Pune, when all documents were in marathi, and no translation was provided. At the same time, a petition was filed in Supreme Court on behalf of 5 eminent citizens like Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Satish Deshpande, and Devaki Jain, amongst others, seeking an independent investigation into the charges against the activists, and also stay the arrest of these individuals till the conclusion of this investigation.
The Supreme Court in a landmark order on 29th August, 2018 stayed the arrest of the activists, and ordered them to be under house arrest till 6th September, 2018. The Court also remarked that “dissent is the safety valve of democracy”, thereby underscoring the importance of dissent and questioning the government in power as a critical aspect of a functioning democratic society. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s order, all five activists were sent home, and kept under house arrest.
Whether the Supreme Court or the Delhi High Court, it was brought to the notice of the courts that these arrests, along with the raids, are part of a larger pattern of suppressing anti-government voices or those working for the most marginalised sections of the society, i.e., for dalits, adivasis and tribals. All these arrested 5 activists, and the ones arrested in June, 2018, where till date no chargesheet has been filed, are known voices who have been working on the ground for decades, and to arrest them would be to deprive thousands of marginalised people their voice in government policies or decisions.
One very dangerous development common in both the arrests is the arrest of lawyers like Surendra Gadling, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Fereira, and Vernon Gonsalves, who either were fighting for political prisoners like G.N. Saibaba, or for dalits or adivasi rights in Chattisgarh. This has had a serious chilling effect on the entire legal fraternity who would now be quite hesitant to take up cases on behalf of alleged maoists or dalit rights activists.
The incredulity of the allegations against the five activists is evident from the fact of the Apex Court ordering their house arrests, and staying their remand in police custody. It is only in rare cases that the Supreme Court does this, and it bodes well for the investigation in the current case. Of course, when the Pune Police produced Mr. Gonsalves, or Mr. Rao or Mr. Fereira in Pune court on the same day as supreme court hearing, the police did not utter a word about their alleged involvement in Bhima Koregaon violence, or in the alleged ‘PM assassination plot’, but only about their alleged links with maoist groups, or their attempts to apparently brainwash young students to ‘recruit in the movement’.
The Supreme Court has a critical task before itself on 6th September, 2018. The entire civil society and marginalised groups are looking towards it to uphold the rule of law and quash the complete abuse of power perpetrated by the Pune police. To arrest 5 eminent activists, with decades of work behind them, on such serious charges, without an iota of evidence, is an affront to the constitutional framework of this country. To level allegations of instigating Bhima Koregaon violence by making incendiary speeches at a public meeting where these activists were not even present is falsity of the highest order. The Apex Court should order an independent investigation into these allegations, and if found false, to direct exemplary punishment against those officers who ordered these arrests. The Court should also lay down strict guidelines for compensation if police arrests individuals on false or cooked up charges, as well as direct the lower courts, especially Magistrates, to not mechanically order remand custody, but to apply their minds, and scrupulously follow the procedures laid down in law.
The arrests in June, and in August, 2018 are an assault on the democratic core of India by the most undemocratic government ever, through a patently unconstitutional law, i.e., the UAPA. It is high time the law is repealed, owing to its repeated use to target human rights activists who often question government actions, or to clamp down on dissenters. A country without dissent is a country without soul, and India is increasingly becoming soulless. It is up to the Supreme Court now to restore the soul to its body. (IPA Service)
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