‘Protesting for basic human necessity’: Raigad court acquits 9 booked for confining Jal Jeevan Mission officer for clean water

“Evidence reveals a genuine civic agitation about the non-supply of water. The complainant’s own admissions show the protest was peaceful, non-violent, and borne of frustration over basic needs. There is a total absence of intent to obstruct public servants or to commit any offence,” Additional Sessions Judge S D Bhagat said in the order.

“The mere fact of a group of citizens visiting a public office to demand performance of a public promise cannot, without any overt act of violence or intimidation, be equated with an “unlawful assembly”. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a peaceful demonstration or collective expression of grievance does not ipso facto constitute an unlawful assembly unless accompanied by unlawful intent or violence,” the judge added.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) filed at Pen police station in Raigad district, the nine individuals had approached the officer to discuss a written assurance given earlier by the department to finish the construction of an elevated water tank by December 2023 to provide clean water for the nearby villages.

The FIR said that while the discussion was in progress, some people locked the office from outside, confining him and two other officials inside. It was only after the arrival of the naib tehsildar, who requested the agitators to withdraw the protest, that the lock was opened around 11 pm, it said. The FIR said the agitators had violated prohibitory orders and obstructed public servants.

During the trial, a government employee, when cross-examined by the accused people, said the villages and hamlets in the region had a long-standing water scarcity issue, and that the residents had earlier held agitations, but the government was not able to provide a proper water supply. It was also submitted that none of the accused had assaulted anyone and were only demanding clean water.

A public servant who was a witness in the case also accepted that the water being provided to the residents was unfit for drinking, and diseases such as jaundice and cholera had occurred, and one person had died due to jaundice in the region.

The court said no independent witnesses were examined, nor was the tehsildar who had spoken to the protestors cited as a witness to depose during the trial. The police had seized the locks and presented them as evidence, but the court said that there was no evidence to prove that those exact locks were used in the alleged offence, and said that such locks were of a common type, available in the market.

The court said that there was no proof to show who had locked the door, nor from whom the keys were seized. It said that the whole occurrence could at best constitute a “passive sit-in or demonstration to press a legitimate demand”.

“The broader context reveals that the accused were agitating for drinking water, a basic human necessity. Even the complainant acknowledged the genuineness of their grievance and the government’s failure to supply safe water. There is not the faintest suggestion that the accused acted for private vengeance or gain. Their conduct is consistent with civic protest, not criminal conspiracy,” the court said.

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