Farmer leaders

Chhattisgarh

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on September 28 regarding the illegal and arbitrary mass arrests of human rights defenders and farmer leaders thereby not allowing them to protest peacefully in Chhattisgarh.

The farmers from Chhattisgarh decided to do a peaceful demonstration with demands of crop loan waiver, bonus payment for the last three years, implementation of recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, free electricity and crop insurance payment. 

The protest march known as ‘sankalp yatra’ was supposed to start from the Rajnandgaon district on September 19, 2017. But, the district police arrested the trade union and farmer leaders illegally on the morning of September 19, 2017 to prevent them from undertaking the peaceful rally. The district administration imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and extended it to the neighbouring Dhamtari district also. 

Mr. Janaklal Sahu, a trade union leader, was arrested from his house by the police at midnight of September 20, 2017. This completely violated the Supreme Court guidelines regarding arrest of a person. Many members of the Dhamtari Kisaan Mazdoor Mahasangh were arrested when they went to meet the Collector to submit a memorandum protesting against the imposition of Section 144 in Dhamtari district.

The list of the arrested people are listed below:  

• From Rajnandgaon district: Sudes Ekam,  Ramakant Banjare,  Chandu Sahu,  Chhani Sahu, Sanjitmadan Sahu
• From Dhamtari district:  Satrughan Singh Sahu, Sourav Sahu,  Srikant Sonmani,  Purusottam Chandrakar,  Srikant Chandrakar,  Chainsingh Sahu,  Tajendra Todekar.      

From other places the police arbitrarily arrested the following activits: Durga Jha, WHRD,       Uttam Jaiswal, farmer leader,   Arvind Netam, adivasi leader, Alok Sukla, Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan,  Sanket Thakur, Kisan Maha Sabha , Lakhan Singh, president of state PUCL, Anand Misra, kisan leader,  Sanjay Parathey  and many others.