NGO claims government filing false cases against its workers

On Friday, three members were attacked while on their way to court. The group has blamed TMC workers for the attack.

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), an NGO, accused the TMC state government of filing cases against its workers on “trumped up charges” for allegedly participating in the Bhangar land agitation. Association chief Ranjit Sur said that at least seven members have had cases filed against them. He claimed that many of them were not even present physically in Bhangar on the day the agitation turned violent. Villages in Bhangar protested against construction of a power sub-station in their area last month. The protests turned violent and two persons were killed in alleged police firing. Police have denied this.

“Some of the cases filed against our activists have been under IPC sections 147, 148 etc and include charges of rioting, blocking the highway and obstructing government work. This is the government’s petty vindictive politics. Their names have simply been added. They were never on the original list in the police complaint but have been added later. One of the activists, for instance, was in Kolkata in television studios talking about the agitation,’’said Sur. “We believe that the orders have come from the very top (of the government).”

On Friday, three members were attacked while on their way to court. The group has blamed TMC workers for the attack.

Meanwhile, CPI(ML) Red Star General Secretary KN Ramachandran in a statement condemned the government for “hatching a conspiracy to impose Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on the arrested leaders and villagers in connection with the ongoing protest in Bhangar.”

In his statement, Ramachandran said: “The State Government is unleashing terror in the entire state by arresting the people’s leaders, activists of different democratic organisations and political parties who are acting using the existing democratic and constitutional rights.”

“The state government and the police and executive under it are denying the constitutional rights and democratic functioning of the political parties by haunting and arresting their workers and leaders, and raiding their offices and residences as well as harassing many of their relatives,” he added.

The general secretary alleges that on February 4, Red Star comrade Sharmistha Choudhury, who had been arrested during the Bhangar land agitation, and has been remanded to police custody starting from January 25, “was taken to her relatives’ house in Salt Lake to harass them, and then taken to her residence at Kharda, from where they took away her computer and many books and papers.”

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“It is reported that the police are planning to raid the houses of other leaders also. The Central Committee demands that the state government restrain from all such nefarious activities,” he said.

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