Kailash Meena

Anti-mining activist and human rights defender

Rajasthan

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on September 03, 2019, regarding the attack with intention to kill anti-mining activist and human rights defender Mr. Kailash Meena in Neem Ka Thana, Sikar district Rajasthan. Mr. Meena has remained under threat constantly in his two decades long work as an anti-mining activist. He has been involved in exposing/bringing to light illegal mining activities as well as opposing  unauthorised construction undertaken in Sikar and Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan.

Anti-mining activities routinely have been met with hostility and threat owing to the mafia networks that operate mining in the state, since mining operations shifted to Rajasthan in 2004 after a Supreme Court directive closing mines in Haryana. In such a context, prior to the attack described below, on January 1, 2019 Mr. Meena was threatened to be killed by Mr. Rajendra and was stopped by a gang of men on the same day who threatened him to stop his anti- illegal mining work. Mr. Meena also faces more than 10 false cases before the attempt to end his life on August 22, 2019.

Mr. Meena had gone to the SDM court in Cantonment area in Neem Ka Thana, Sikar district in Rajasthan on August 22, 2019 to submit a memorandum regarding the unauthorized construction activities and illegal stone crushing units in and around Kansawati river. At around 2.50 pm, while taking a walk after visiting the court, he was hit by a speeding blue-coloured Maruti Baleno car with registration number RJ 02 CD 6079 that fled away. Mr. Meena suffered grievous injuries and was treated at the Khetri More Jeevan Rekha Hospital, after which he was accompanied by his colleague Mr. Mahesh Saini went to Neem Ka Thana police station to file a complaint. He was made to wait a long duration after being asked to meet the Circle Inspector Kamal, yet, the police did not register his complaint as a FIR, adding to the suspicions that the police are in collusion with the illegal mining mafia in the state.