India : Arrest of Fact Finding Team Members by Telangana Police
COORDINATION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS (CDRO)
PRESS RELEASE
Date: 28-12-2016
CDRO strongly condemn the arrest of 7 member Fact Finding team by the Telangana police at Dummagudem village of Bhadrachalam district on 25th December 27, 2016 at 6 pm and in turn handing over them to the Sukma Police (Chhatttisgarh State).
We also strongly object the way the the Sukma Police foisted a false case against the Fact Finding team members under Sections 8(1),(2) (3)and (5) of the Chhattisgarh State Public Security Act. All the members of Fact Finding Team are leading activists of the democratic mass organizations and they have been in public life since three decades in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States.
Very recently, Telangana Democratic front has been formed to protect and defend the democratic rights of people and fight for basic demands of the people in Telangana State. Well known and respected persons, academics , former high court judges , advocates and journalist and students are associated with Telangana Democratic Front.(TDF).
As part of their activity , the following persons constituted a Fact Finding team to probe into human rights violations in Chhattisgarh State,, particularly the incidents of Police excesses and extra judicial killings . The members of the Team are: Chikkudu Prabhakar(Advocate) ; Bhalla Ravindranath(Advocate,HighCourt,AP);DurgaPrasad(Journalist);DudduPrabhakar(President,KNPS,AP) ;Rajendra Prasad ( student leader, Telangana vidyarthi vedika);Nazeer( Student leader ,Telangan Vidyarthi vedika) and Ramananda Laskhme ( Stutent organizer).
When Fact Finding team planning to proceed to Sukma they were taken into custody and latter handed over to Sukma Police. And the next day they were produced in the court . The police misled the court by making false allegations that they are Naxalites and they had come there to aid the activities of the Maoists. A criminal case has been filed against the members of Fact Finding team under section 8 of the draconian Chhatissgarh Public Secruity Act. These sections empowers the police to brand any person or organization as unlawful.We suspect that both Telanana and Chhattisgarh Police in connivance intended to delegitimize the democratic activity and portray it as criminal activity and harass them by false cases.
In the recent past we have witnessed that vicious attitude of the DGP Kalluri towards human rights activists and he almost banned the entry of human rights defender in to Bastar area.A false murder case was filed against Nandini Sunder and others and the Journallist Malini Subramanyam was harassed and intimidated by the vigilante groups and forced her to leave Jagadalpur. Defending human rights is democratic right and not a criminal activity.Criminalising Human Rights activity by the police is against law and democracy. Right of know the truth in extra judicial killings and disappearances has been recognized as a fundamental right of the citizen by the International law and the Indian Constitution.
We therefore condemn the attitude and actions of the Telangana and Chhattisgarh Police and demand withdrawal of false cases foisted against the activists and release them immediately. We also urge all the democratic forces and Rights Organization to speak out and stand with us in solidarity.
C. Chandrasekhar (CLC, Andhra Pradesh), Asish Gupta (PUDR, Delhi), Pritpal Singh (AFDR, Punjab), Phulendro Konsam (COHR, Manipur) and Tapas Chakraborty (APDR, West Bengal) (Coordinators of CDRO).
Constituent Organizations: Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR), Punjab; Association for Protection of Democratic Rights APDR), West Bengal; Bandi Mukti committee (BMC), West Bengal; Campaign for Peace & Democracy in Manipur(CPDM), Delhi; Civil Liberties Committee (CLC), Andhra Pradesh; Civil Liberties Committee,(CLC)Telengana; Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Mumbai; Coordination for Human Rights (COHR), Manipur; Human Rights Forum (HRF), Andhra Pradesh; Jharkhand Council for Democratic Rights (JCDR), Jharkhand; Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), Assam; Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR); Organization for Protection of Democratic Rights (OPDR), Andhra Pradesh; Peoples’ Committee for Human Rights (PCHR), Jammu and Kashmir; Peoples Democratic Forum (PDF), Karnataka; Peoples Union For Democratic Rights (PUDR), Delhi; Peoples Union for Civil Rights (PUCR), Haryana, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR),Tamilnadu.
