Mr. Ravi Tode

Human Rights Defender

Chhattisgarh

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on 30 March regarding the harassment of human rights defenders by lodging false cases against them in Arang panchyat district of Raipur, Chhattisgarh.  Mr. Ravi Tode is a resident of village Bhansoj in the Arang developmental block. He, with other young people in the village, initiated a de-addiction movement (Nasa Mukti Abhiyan) against the ongoing sale of illicit liquor in the Arang development block.

Irked by the loss incurred due to the campaign, the shop operators filed an FIR based on false charges against Mr. Tode while he was not present in the village on 10 March, 2017. He had gone to join the students’ movement at the Chhattisgarh Dental Doctors College at Rajnandgaon. Mr. Tode alleged that one Mr. Rajababu Mishra, a liquor shop operator, along with the station house officer of Arang, planted two boxes of liquor at his house and informed the police, seeking a raid.