Jharkhand activists slam attachment of Stan Swamy’s belongings by state police

Condemning the attachment of the belongings of 83-year old Stan Swamy, from his residence at the Bagaicha campus in Namkum, near Ranchi by a team of Khunti police, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) has demanded the dropping of all frivolous charges against Stan Swamy and other activists and public intellectuals.

The attachment was in connection with a sedition case filed against him and 19 other activists of Jharkhand in July 2018, over their Facebook posts in which they questioned state excesses in villages that conducted Pathalgadi and attack on Adivasi rights. The posts have been framed as evidence of these activists’ endorsement of the Pathalgadi movement in Khunti in the particular FIR, said the statement from JJM. Among other sections, they have been booked under 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000, which was repealed by the Supreme Court in 2015.

In August 2018, Stan Swamy and three others (Aloka Kujur, Rakesh Roshan Kiro and Vinod Kumar) challenged the FIR in the Ranchi High Court and requested for its quashing. During the High Court hearing, the district court of Khunti, based on the prayers of the local police, issued an arrest warrant against them (under section 73 of IPC) on 19 June 2019. However, such a warrant can only be issued if it is proved that the accused is hiding or trying to evade arrest. Before the warrant was issued, neither did the Khunti police visit the residences of Stan and others to inquire if they were present nor did it send them any notice. The Khunti police declared Stan an absconder, even though he fully cooperated with the Maharashtra police in their investigations (and was available at his residence) in the same period was raised by his lawyer in the High Court.

The government lawyer asked for additional time when he was asked by the Court to explain this paradox. He was asked to justify the state’s orders, regarding the arrest warrant and declaring Stan an absconder, on the next hearing scheduled for October 23. The attachment of Stan’s belongings just two days before the hearing, while the matter was being debated in the High Court, indicates an attempt by the police to ensure that Stan’s appeal for quashing of arrest warrant becomes infructuous, explains the statement from Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha.

Stan has been working for the rights of Adivasis and other underprivileged groups in Jharkhand. Among other issues, he works on displacement caused due to forced acquisition of land, the condition of undertrials and implementation of PESA. The haste of the police to declare Stan an absconder and attach his belongings, weeks before the state elections, indicates that it is an attempt by the BJP to invent a false enemy and engage in scaremongering in order to polarise the election in its favour.

Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha has demanded action against the Khunti police for the repression unleashed by it in Pathalgadi villages and building a false case against Stan Swamy and others.