RELEASE PROF. GN SAIBABA UNCONDITIONALLY AND IMMEDIATELY!
CONDEMN THE UNLAWFUL ARREST OF DR. GN SAIBABA, PROF. DELHI UNIVERSITY!
Lokayat, A people’s Movement Solidarity Group comprise of advocates,
academicians, journalists, artists, writers etc, has organized a protest
on 14/05/2014 in Sector 17, Chandigarh against the Maharastra police
which has clandestinely taken away Dr. GN Saibaba, a Delhi University
professor without following any norms and procedures, rule of law on 9th
May 2014. People from various strata has participated in this namely
Academician Prof. Lallan from Panjab University, Chandigarh, Social
Activist Anand Prakash, S.P. Singh Inderjit Singh, Dramatist Samuel
John, trade union leader Vipin (AICTU), Advocates Rajeev Godara, Hasish
Mehla, Students for Society secretary Daman preet, Inder.
Prof
Lallan from Punjab University, Chandigarh said that Dr. Saibaba, who
suffers from 90% disability and is wheelchair bound, was blindfolded and
pushed into a vehicle. It must be condemned to arrest activist like
Saibaba in such illegal way. As Mr. Saibaba has vehemently organised
protest against the operation Green Hunt and expose the real agenda and
intention of regime which has deployed lakhs of Paramilitary force and
Army in central India to loot the resources under that land. The State
is trying to curb such voices. Mr. Anand Praksh said that the arrest of
Prof. Saibaba is loss of whole movement against imperialism. Advocating
the right to have any ideology, Rajeev Godara condemned the arrest of G N
Saibaba. In His speech Student Activist Daman Preeet said that Mr.
Saibaba has been quite outspoken against the murderous loot and plunder
of people’s resources, their livelihoods under the garb of development
as is espoused by all the corporate sponsored political parties and
business houses in India and abroad. That’s why Government was very keen
to arrest Mr. Saibaba. He calls to fight for the release of Mr.
Saibaba. He further said that central Government is making preparation
to launch another set of war on people in that region. So to curb the
democratic voice which may rise against such vicious design of state
machinery and corporate, Maharashtra Police in nexus with Central
Government has arrested him using illegal means.
While conducting
the protest meeting, Ajay from Lokayat said that Dr. Saibaba is an
internationally acclaimed figure of People’s Movement who was working
for the people’s right since 80’s. He is working with numerous people’s
organization like Revolutionary Democratic Front, Visthapan Virodhi Jan
Vikas Andolan, Froum against War on People. He was Deputy Chair person
of International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) which is working
against imperialist plunder worldwide. He had also played central role
in formation of various fronts such as Forum Against Imperialist
Globlisation (FAIG), JAFIF, People’s Democratic Front of India (PDFI),
MR-2004 etc to resist state Repression, imperialist plunder of country
by MNC’s, World Trade Organization (WTO and against devastation caused
by economic policy laid after 1990 in the name of economic reform.
During protest slogan was raised for the unconditional release of Dr.
Saibaba, Repal the draconian law UAPA, Resist the repression on people’s
movement, fight out the growing Fascism. Protester strongly demand that
Saibaba be released unconditionally without delay.
Released by
Arti,
97791120201
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Civil rights organisations stage a dharna seeking his unconditional release
Civil rights organisations condemned the ‘illegal
detention’ of G.N. Saibaba of Delhi University by the Maharashtra police
and demanded his immediate and unconditional release.
Members
of Civil Liberties Committee, Progressive Democratic Women, Committee
for Release of Political Prisoners, Amara Bandula Mitrula Committee and
Telangana Praja Front staged a dharna near Ambedkar statue at lower Tank
Bund here on Saturday to protest against the arrest of Prof. Saibaba.
Later,
speaking to presspersons, they criticised the police for arresting the
wheel-bound professor without informing his family members.
He was whisked away when he had gone to the university for spot valuation duty for his alleged links with the Maoists.
No consultations with lawyers
“Police
gave a go-by to the Supreme Court directives about informing the family
members and allowing consultation with a lawyer before arrest,” said
Bhojja Tarkarama of the Republican Party of India.
Prof.
Saibaba’s mother, Suryavati, said she had no knowledge about the
whereabouts of her son. Being physically-challenged, he needs
assistance. “How will he manage in jail?” she wondered in a choked
voice.
Ch. Prabhakar of Telagana Praja Front said the
professor was targeted for working for Adivasi rights and demanding a
halt to the Operation Green Hunt.
“How can he go into the jungle and have links with Maoists when he can’t even walk,” said Ravichandra of Virasam.
Many
like Padma Kumari of Amara Badula Mitrula Committee saw a threat to the
life of Prof. Saibaba who was also the deputy secretary of the
Revolutionary Democratic Front.
In a statement, Gade
Diwakar, secretary, CPI (ML) New Democracy, State Committee, also
condemned the arrest of Prof. Saibaba and demanded his immediate
release.
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earlier message received from activists in Delhi
Prof. G.N. Saibaba, faculty at DU and Joint Secy of Revolutionary Democratic Front was abducted today by the Maharashtra police when he was returning from his college. Without even informing anyone, the police has already taken him to the airport to fly him to Maharashtra. There is a press conference at his residence (Gwyer Hall Hostel warden flat) today at 5.30 pm condemning this police abduction. Please join the press conference. For the last one year the police has been trying to implicate him in absolutely absurd and false charges. To prepare grounds for this, there was first the most vicious media trial against him, followed by a police raid at his residence last year and then police landing him to interrogate him early this year. Now he has been abducted in this surreptitious manner. Condemn and protest against this dastardly police act
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Press Release by Delhi University Teachers
9th May 2014
Against the arbitrary arrest of Prof. G N Saibaba
Dr. G N Saibaba, Assistant Professor at Ramlal Anand College, Delhi University, was abducted by the Maharashtra police today, 9th May around 1.00 PM. He was in the Daulat Ram College for examination duty. The incident came to light when Vasantha, Prof. Saibaba’s wife, got a mysterious call around 3 p.m., informing her that her husband is being taken to Gadhchiroli by the Maharashtra police. There is otherwise no official intimation from the police about his arrest or charges against him so far. His driver and the car also were missing for several hours after that.
Vasantha, accompanied by Delhi University teachers, lodged a missing person complaint at the Maurice Nagar police station an hour later. Maurice Nagar police has now confirmed that Maharashtra Police came with a non-bailable warrant against Dr. Saibaba. Later, Dr. Saibaba managed to get hold of a cell-phone from someone at the airport and speak briefly to his daughter, before the phone was snatched away from him. He confirmed that he was inside the Delhi airport and being taken to Nagpur by the Gadchiroli police.
Dr. Saibaba has been facing harassment and intimidation since the last one year. His house was raided and his personal belongings taken away in the name of investigation. Clearly there is an attempt to frame him up. The Delhi University Teachers Association have earlier denounced these attempts by the police. Now the police have acted without any prior information and abducted Dr. Saibaba.
Prof. Saibaba suffers from 90 per cent disabilities and is strapped onto a wheelchair. To harass and intimidate him like this is a gross violation of his basic human rights.
We strongly condemn this arbitrary and illegal action by the police in connivance with the University authorities. This is an attempt to stifle voices of dissent and suppress those who have been vocal against injustice and oppression.
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PUDR Statement
Condemn Arrest of Dr. G.N. Saibaba
PUDR condemns the abduction and arrest of G.N. Saibaba by men in mufti in broad daylight, on 9th afternoon. Dr. Saibaba, an Assistant Professor of English in Ram Lal Anand College was returning home around 1 p.m. after participating in the University’s examination evaluation work in North Campus when his car was stopped and he was blindfolded and whisked away by plain clothed personnel of the Maharashtra Police. According to latest reports, he has been taken to Nagpur already.
In a blatant lie, DIG (Gadchiroli), Ravindra Kadam, said to the media that Dr. Saibaba was arrested in the morning. In total violation of procedures, the plain clothed men who abducted Dr. Saibaba gave no copy of the arrest warrant to his wife and instead informed her anonymously over phone. It must be remembered that Dr. Saibaba’s residence has already been raided and he was questioned four times in the past six months in connection with his alleged links with Maoists. It must also be remembered that Dr. Saibaba suffers from 90% disability and is confined to the use of a wheelchair.
Dr. Saibaba is presently arrested in the case in which Prashant Rahi and Hemant Mishra have earlier been arrested. This case is registered at the Aheri police station in Gadchiroli district (FIR No. 3017/2013) under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). PUDR has documented and highlighted numerous instances of gross violations of individual rights that are endemic to the operation of laws such as the UAPA. At the societal level, the UAPA permits banning of political opinion as per the whims of the governments in power. This in turn becomes the basis to target the individual or the group that the governments perceive as undesirable and to hit them with legislated violence. The doors to justice and judicial remedy become so highly restricted that those targeted languish in jails for years on end.
In the present case too, the entire charge against those accused rests on the vagueness of the UAPA provisions and the arbitrary power to impose ban on political organisations. Prashant Rahi and Hemant Mishra already arrested in this case have been charged under UAPA sections 13 (unlawful activity), 18 (conspiracy in terrorist acts), 20 (member of terrorist gang), 38 (membership of terrorist organization) and 39 (support given to terrorist organization). The reason why the UAPA is deployed is that the accusations brought forth would not stand ground if the same were made under the normal laws of the land with normal procedures and normal rules of evidence.
The enhanced punishments under the UAPA and the carefully crafted jingoism of terrorism on the one hand conceals the socio-economic and political reality faced by those whose live on the margins of prosperous India. On the other hand, it helps to perpetuate a helpless sense of fear in people at large from an imagined ruthless and inhuman enemy. This then permits a willing public ready to deny the basic rights to large sections in exchange for imagined safety and security.
The shocking reality of the world of UAPA yet continues to haunt us. It appears again and again as a misuse here, an injustice there and yet another… The way out of this labyrinth is to reject this law that attempts to redesign our democracy in its own authoritarian shape.
We therefore demand that the UAPA provisions being used to incarcerate Dr. G.N. Saibaba be removed forthwith. There is no reasonable defence available with the police to keep Dr. Saibaba in custody: he has been available for and has cooperated with police investigation whenever such need has arisen in the past, he is confined to a wheelchair with very limited mobility. These are pressing reasons that he be released from custody.
PUDR appeals once again to all citizens to grasp the rapid corrosion to democratic norms and institutions being caused by the continued use of UAPA, to oppose every application of UAPA and to demand is total repeal.
D. Manjit and Asish Gupta
(Secretaries)
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Press Release from ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
Professor GN Saibaba, an eminent rights activist was abducted on 09/05/2014, by a posse of plainclothes men at about while he was returning home after performing examination duties at about 12-30. Dr. Saibaba suffers from 90% disability and is on a wheelchair. After abduction, the plainclothesmen blindfolded him and took him and his car driver was taken to the Civil Lines Police Station and from there Dr. Saibaba was loaded in a Mumbai bound flight. The abductors did not follow the procedures like preparing a memo of arrest at the place of arrest, informing his family as laid down in the laws of the country while ’arresting’ him.
Dr. Saibaba is an eminent activist for the rights of people, for liberty and against corporate aggression. He took leading part in organizing protests in solidarity with Palestinian and Iraqi resistance movements, Kashmiri and North-Eastern people’s struggles. He is in the forefront in people’s movements against Indian State’s war codenamed ‘Green Hunt’ on its people who are struggling to safeguard land, forest and county’s natural resources from corporate grab and in the movement for the release of all political prisoners.
Dr. Saibaba’s residence was earlier raided by the Maharastra Police on 12 September, 2013 and again on 7 January 2014 and he was interrogated for long hours amid protests from the students and faculty of the DU on the pretext of ‘getting information’ from an arrested alleged Maoist activist. Now, it is learnt he is booked under sections 13, 18, 20 and 39 of the draconian UAPA on the same pretext. This is yet another example of the misuse of the UAPA for which the Act is designed.
APDR strongly condemns the illegal and vengeful arrest of Dr. Saibaba and demands withdrawal of all charges against him and his immediate and unconditional release.
APDR calls on all rights activists, democratic individuals and organisations and the people to rise in protest against Dr. Saibaba’s arrest.
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Statement from Delhi Students Union
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act” –George Orwell
It is precisely for this ‘crime’ of speaking the truth in the face of the lies and deceit that seek to hide the untold injustice and oppression perpetuated by the Indian state, that Dr. GN Saibaba has been arrested. Dr. GN Saibaba, a faculty member in DU and a widely known political activist, was clandestinely abducted on 9th May by plain-clothed policemen of the Maharashtra police just steps away from his residence as he was on his way back from examination duty. Saibaba, who suffers from 90% disability and is wheelchair bound, was blindfolded and pushed into a vehicle that swiftly took him to the airport from whence he was flown to Nagpur. The surreptitious manner in which a public figure like him was literally abducted by the police itself testifies that they were wary of the fact that they do not have any substantive evidence to back their hoax of “nabbing” him for alleged “Maoist links”. It has been obvious for quite a while now that the Indian state has been desperate to brand him and frame him under certain cooked up charges. The sole purpose being, to gag a voice of dissent that dares to speak the truth despite repeated threats and intimidations.
Saibaba has been a tireless voice that has meticulously tore down the curtain of silence that the Indian state uses to hide the most gory reality of a war it has waged against the most oppressed adivasi population in the name of Operation Green Hunt. As the convenor of the Forum against War on People, Saibaba has been consistent in breaking down the high-sounding myth of ‘Development’ with which the state seeks to cover up a bloody war that it has waged at the behest of the corporate sharks to facilitate an unbridled loot of resources at the cost of death, destruction and displacement for the adivasis. Breaking the deathly consensus of all possible shades of parliamentary forces to this so called ‘development’ model, his was one of those voices that galvanized a large section of democratic opinion against Green Hunt. Large enough to cause panic and fluster the powers that be. As the Joint Secretary of Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), Saibaba has been helping to forge solidarities amongst – the Dalits, adivasis, Muslims, oppressed nationalities, peasant, workers, and so on – for the goal of forging a revolutionary unity of the oppressed. As a faculty in DU, Saibaba has been at the forefront of struggles for social justice, for reservation & against privatization – semester system or FYUP – galvanizing teachers & students for democratization of education.
The most evolved mechanism of the Indian state to contain ‘crimes’ such as the above and to witch hunt countless such democratic right activists is to brand and frame them either as “Maoist” or as “Terrorist”. Voices that dare to speak the truth thereby can easily be projected as “threats to national security” and hence “seditious”. By such means Muslims who burn the US flag protesting against imperialist aggression are nabbed as “terrorists”; Kabir Kala Manch activists who sing about breaking the fetters of Brahmanism are nabbed as “anti-nationals”; and those opposing Operation Green Hunt are nabbed as “Maoists”. With masterful precision, improved upon through repeated rendition, the state apparatus – its police, judiciary, media – complement each other all along this process of branding, threatening, framing, abducting, incarcerating and at other times encountering. We have seen the chronicle being repeated over and over again in the cases of Comrade Hem, Prashant Rahi, Shahid Azmi, Binayak Sen or countless other nameless faceless people’s activists across the country.
The chronicle of the abduction and arrest had also long been foretold. The corporate media had for quite a while been faithfully reproducing the police claims of Dr. Saibaba having “Maoist links” thereby branding him time and again as also threatening to arrest him. Even at the university level he was systematically harassed with threats of eviction from his residence on flimsy grounds. After arrest of Comrade Hem (a known cultural activist and member of DSU) and Prashant Rahi (prominent journalist) on baseless charges, a concerted attempt began to frame Dr. Saibaba. There was a dastardly raid at his residence within the university premises in September 2013 by a joint team of 60 policemen with a ridiculous warrant of “search for stolen property”. Despite several representations to the Delhi University, the Chancellor, as well as the NHRC, which incidentally had taken note of the gross violations on Dr. GN Saibaba during the illegal raid of his house such harassments continued unabated. In January 2014, the Maharashtra police came with the pretext of a so called “interrogation” and in the absence of any evidence resorted to blatant threats and intimidations. The next step thereby was to surreptitiously abduct him and frame him under absurd charges. He was produced yesterday in the Aheri court at Gadchirolli, Maharashtra, and has been given judicial custody.
It goes without saying that Dr Saibaba who had been in the midst of just struggles outside the prison bars will continue to struggle even from behind the bars. But the manner in which he has been taken away in broad daylight is a challenge for all the people who stand for democratic rights. It is the responsibility of all democratic and progressive sections to build a united struggle to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Saibaba, Comrade Hem, Prashant Rahi and all other political prisoners. While the coming years, with or without Modi, are days when fascism is going to further tighten its grip in this country marking the beginning of what many may call a dark chapter of history; but as GN Saibaba himself said a few days back while addressing a meeting, “it is such united struggles of the most oppressed and the progressive sections that can and will turn the coming years into the brightest chapter of history.”
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