Kaskarkod Fishing community 

Karnataka

On morning of January 24, 2022, at around 6:00 AM about 60-70 men and women of Kasarkod fishing communities gathered to sit in protest the laying of the illegal road outside their homes by Honnavar Port Private Limited. They were brutally evicted, assaulted and detained by a 600-700 strong police force. Out of the 27 women detained, 1 was pregnant and 1 was a breastfeeding mother. The pregnant woman (about 7 weeks pregnant) lost her unborn child on January 27, 2022. 

False and wrongful FIRs were filed against the fishing community of Kasarkod by the Honnavara police on November 09, 2021, January 24, 2022 and January 25, 2022. 

On June 3, the latest FIR was filed on the peaceful protestors on June 03, 2022 under IPC 506(criminal intimidation), 341(wrongful restraint), 504(Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 143(unlawful assembly), 147(Rioting), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence commit-ted in prosecution of common object). 

Human Rights Defenders Alert sent an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission highlighting the continuous harassment of the HRDs who were standing up for community rights and the environment. We urged the Hon’ble Commission to direct its investigation wing to independently assess the incident of police excesses on peacefully protesting citizens and assess if due processes were followed for the construction of the road as mandated by the laws and depending on the result of the investigation, direct the Director General of Police of Karnataka to take stern action against the police personnel of Honnavar police station. We also urged the Hon’ble Commission to direct the Director General of Police of Karnataka to withdraw all the complaints filed against all protestors involved in peaceful protests.