Ahead of Union minister’s visit to Arunachal, 2 anti-dam activists detained

Ebo Mili, a lawyer and a vocal advocate against the construction of mega-dams in the state was apprehended by Itanagar police around 8:50 am. Later, Dugge Apang — convenor of the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum, which opposes mega dam projects in the state — was also apprehended.

According to police, they were placed under ‘bound down’ under Section 128 (security for good behaviour from suspected person) of the BNSS. This section enables an Executive Magistrate to order that a person “show cause” as to why he should not be ordered to execute a bond “for his good behaviour” for a period, if the EM receives information that the person is “taking precautions to conceal his presence and that there is reason to believe that he is doing so with a view to committing a cognizable offence.”

According to a statement issued by the Itanagar police on the detention, this action was carried out after “reliable sources” reported that they were “likely to disrupt the forthcoming public meeting involving the Honorable Chief Minister and Union Ministers” scheduled for the day and “attempt to cause a public order issue.” They were later released on Monday evening.

Condemning the detentions, members of the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum said that there was no intention to disrupt the day’s events and that the activists had been in the process of seeking permission from the DC to hand a memorandum to the Union Minister.

“We want to tell the government that detaining someone before anything happens might have some benefits but there was a process happening to officially take permission from the DC. It was being drafted but you picked them up just like that. To what extent can you stretch the limit of preventive detention? This clearly shows the dam affected people how you view us, you don’t even allow us to speak as citizens,” said a spokesperson for the forum.