RSF Strongly Condemns Illegal Abduction of Dalit Rights Activist

We hereby share a statement issued by Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) against a new repressive case against a democratic rights activist.

We, the Revolutionary Students’ Front, strongly condemn the illegal abduction and arrest of Dalit rights activist and advocate Rajat Kalsan by Haryana police on July 30 from Hisar’s Auto Market. He was forcefully abducted from the Auto Market in Hisar by cops in civil clothes who neither identified themselves nor produced any arrest warrant or legal documents. This abduction was later claimed to be an arrest by Haryana police in connection with a so-called “blind murder” case in Budana village. Rajat had been representing a Dalit woman survivor of sexual violence, and it is her family that has now been falsely implicated in the murder. The police alleged that Rajat circulated a video accusing them and the administration of corruption in the case, a flimsy pretext to target him. Even after securing interim bail, he was booked again under another fabricated case of manhandling police officials. During his custody, his family and legal team were repeatedly denied access to him, and he was subjected to custodial torture and casteist abuse. His house has been raided multiple times, and for over a year, he has faced continuous surveillance.

This arrest is not an isolated incident but part of the fascist blueprint unfolding under the RSS-BJP regime to systematically criminalise dissent and annihilate democratic voices. Just a couple of weeks ago, activists associated with BSCEM, FACAM, Nazariya magazine and some others were illegally abducted by the Delhi police in a similar way, they were held captive in a torture centre in Delhi, and were subjected to brutal inhuman custodial torture for about 10 days. Adv. Rajat Kalsan has long stood with Dalits facing caste atrocities in Haryana, from Mirchpur to Daulatpur to Bhatla, and has consistently spoken out against caste atrocities, police impunity, and the dilution of the SC/ST (PoA) Act. For this, he has been relentlessly targeted : repeated raids, surveillance, blocked social media, custodial torture, and a slew of false cases under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita designed to ensure prolonged incarceration. The charges against him, like those against Bhima Koregaon accused or anti-CAA-NRC protestors, are not about justice but about silencing those who resist Brahminical hindutva fascism. This is part of the Surajkund Scheme and the wider arsenal of fascist tools – UAPA, BNS, targeted surveillance, crafted to shut down all forms of political resistance, particularly from oppressed castes and classes.

We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Adv. Rajat Kalsan and the withdrawal of all fabricated charges. We call upon all progressive and democratic forces to unite against this escalating crackdown on dissenting voices and expose the violent agenda of the Brahminical fascist BJP-RSS that serves the imperialist powers.