India: CRPP-WB, Condemn the witch-hunting of democratic voices by tagging them in fabricated cases!
We hereby share a press release issued by the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners – West Bengal (CRPP-WB).
06.01.25
In its endeavour to witch-hunt democratic forces of the country, the BJP-RSS-led State apparatus has once again inflicted an attack on a number of social activists in the pretext of destabilising the state. On 3rd January 2025, NIA called Bachcha Singh, a veteran trade union activist from Jharkhand, for interrogation and thereafter arrested him in a case with FIR Number RC-03/2023/NIA/RNC. On the other hand, news has come from UP that on 5 th Jan 2025 Manish Azad, a well-known writer, poet and political activist was arrested by the ATS (Anti-terrorist Squad) in an old case of 2019, which he was on bail for the last four years.
So far as Bachcha Singh is concerned, he was the General Secretary of a registered trade union MSS (Majdoor Sangathan Samity) since 1989 and organised contract workers in the coal mine areas of Jharkhand against the State’s policy of privatization. After successfully organising doli mazdoors providing services to the pilgrims visiting the Parasnath temple, MSS was banned in 2017, citing the allegation of an ally organisation of CPI (Maoist). However since the State Government could not produce any evidence for such an allegation, the ban on MSS was lifted in 2022. Still, in August 2023, MSS was again banned by the State Government for the second time under the colonial-era Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLA), 1908. Being a leading member of MSS, Bachcha Singh was thus constantly facing State intimidation. In May 2023, NIA raided his house along with the houses of several other activists in connection with a so-called ‘Conspiracy Case’. But at present, he has been arrested in another concocted ‘Conspiracy Case’ (RC-03/2023/NIA/RNC) where the allegation is his involvement in a conspiracy to collect funds and garner support for the revival of the Maoist Party in Bihar-Jharkhand region. Earlier we have seen, that over the last few months, NIA has conducted search operations and raids in the houses of activists from Northern India and West Bengal under other fabricated ‘revival conspiracy’ cases. So it becomes clear, that such ‘conspiracy cases’ have become a new ploy of the central agency NIA to implicate a large number of social and political activists by tagging them in a single case.
In case of Manish Azad, who was earlier arrested by the same ATS in 2019 along with his wife Amita Shereen, was released on bail in 2020. The FIR lodged against him alleged that he was travelling across UP, inciting people against the government. As per Manish’s sister Seema Azad, this time he has been arrested in the same old case by showing him “absconding”, although Manish used to live at home in Allahabad along with his wife and parents. So in this case also, the State apparatus has to resort to a concocted story before arresting a democratic voice like Manish Azad.
We strongly condemn this attitude of the State to terrorize democratic forces and those who stand strongly beside the marginalized sections of our society. We also urge all the real patriotic forces of the country to come forward and voice their opinion against this fascist attack of the State.
