185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR
NAGAR, NEW DELHI-110025
Condemn the arrests of
civil libertarians, students and others
in the garb of
Maoists!
Demand their immediate
and Unconditional Release!
Stop criminalising all
forms of dissent and the right to assemble!
30 December 2012
30 December 2012
From what appears in the news in Malayalam print media, about seven
people were arrested by the Mavelikkara police from a lodge in the said town
alleging them as Maoists. It seems they were all arrested in the afternoon of 29
December 2012 and till late night were not produced in the court. From the civil
liberties fraternity it has been made clear that all the seven were remanded in
police custody and they have been framed under the draconian UAPA. Even before
the seven arrested could approach their lawyer the police have already started
planting stories in the local print and electronic media saying that all the
arrested have accepted that they belong to the Maoist organisations. Yet another
usual story of fomenting rumours about the accused in the media so as to
prejudice the courts towards buying the story of the police.
That Mr. Gopal a well known civil liberties activist and former
scientist in the atomic research centre Mumbai and Kalpakkam is one among the
arrested makes the whole story of the police all the more hollow. Gopal has been
quite vocal in the Committee for the Protection of Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu)
as well as with the PUCL Tamil Nadu. Most of these activists while at the same
time being students or active with various people’s movements—such as the
anti-Kudumkulam agitation which saw widespread solidarity from various sections
of the people—know each other and had congregated for a get together to discuss
their various experiences is a normal and natural thing to happen with every
socially sensitive individual. It is through such solidarities and exchange of
experiences that people enhance their world view and move forward in their
conviction to stand for and join hands with issues that are of immediate
significance for the greater common good and well being of the
society.
It has become a set pattern for the police to find ‘terror’ and
‘national security threats’ with every possible such gatherings of conscientious
people. It is through such arrests that the ‘anti-terrorism’ industry and and
their ilk find common cause for ‘national security threats’ so as to reinforce a
mindset and the attendant burgeoning capital intensive industry that it
sustains. To add to this two sisters—a plus one student Ami and her sister
Savera a 5th standard student—are the others who have been alleged of
having Maoist links. That both of them happen to be the children of alleged
Maoist activists is the deductive logic that we can get from these police
officers. The police also claims to the obliging media that one of the arrested
Mr. Rajesh Madhavan, himself a student, had been having links with banned
organisations. Neither the media nor the police take the trouble to clarify
which are these banned organisations!
It goes without saying that such arrests and the media drill that the
police and the investigating agencies indulge in are definitely acts of impunity
right from the word go. To cover up an illegal act of
detaining/arresting/framing people’s activists and civil libertarians what is
called into action are further such acts of impunity—such as the vilification in
the media.
The CRPP strongly condemn such acts of impunity to terrorise people
as well as to criminalise all forms of dissent as well as the right to assemble,
under the garb of ‘national security threat’ not to mention the so-called ‘war
against terror’.
We demand the immediate release of all the seven people—Gopal, Ami,
Savera, Rajesh Madhavan, Bahuleyan, Shiyaz and Devarajan—immediately and
unconditionally!
We also demand the repeal of draconian laws such as UAPA and AFSPA
with the cover of which the police and the investigating agencies indulge in the
worst acts of impunity.
In Solidarity,
Amit Bhattacharyya
Secretary General
SAR Geelani
Working President
Rona Wilson
Secretary, Public Relations
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