New Delhi: Activists, scholars, lawyers and writers have issue a joint statement condemning the multiple cases – including culpable homicide – filed against MNREGA activist Sanjay Sahni and others in Muzaffarpur. A total of six cases have been filed against Sahni in the last four-and-a-half years.
Sahni told The Wire that the administration has been threatening since the time he began educating people about the MNREGA, which guarantees employment for 100 days every year. “They have filed false cases against me and a few others who are working with me. Whenever there is any violence anywhere in the region, my name is added to the FIR,” he said.
In July 2017, a fact-finding team investigated the five FIRs that were filed against Sahni at the time. The cases involved charges of violence, obstructing government officials and caste atrocities. The team concluded they were false cases.
The latest case was filed against Sahni on September 7, after the death of a worker in Maniyari, Muzaffarpur. The worker’s wife and Sahni have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Sahni, however, denies even having been in Muzaffarpur that day. “I was not even present here. The father of the boy who died has been misled by the administration and has been told to include my name in the FIR,” he said.
Last week, thousands protested in Muzaffarpur against the charges. Now, eminent citizens including Jean Dreze, Harsh Mander and Farah Naqvi have issued a solidarity statement.
The full statement has been reproduced below.
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We strongly object to the continued harassment of members of Samaj Parivartan Shakti Sangathan (SPSS), also known as MNREGA Watch, in Muzaffarpur and stand in solidarity with them. SPSS began with the electric passion of one man — Sanjay Sahni, a class 7 drop-out, once an electrician in South-West Delhi — to expose corruption in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) works in his Panchayat. SPSS is no longer one man’s crusade against corruption. It is a non-violent people’s movement that has now translated to a collective of more than 50,000 labourers, largely Dalit women, who are fighting for their rights and against corruption. Some of the sangathan members are facing a severe backlash from the local elite and the bureaucracy through a series of false FIRs.
A detailed fact-finding report on the fabricated FIRs filed till April 2017 was compiled and presented to the Director General of Police, Bihar in June 2017. No palpable action seems to have been taken. On the contrary, more false FIRs have been filed since. In the most recent FIR, dated 6th September 2018, it has been claimed that three SPSS members (Sanjay Sahni, Mandeshri Devi and Nilam Devi) forcefully took away the daughter-in-law of the complainant to do NREGA work — in opposition to her husband’s wish. This allegedly led his son to commit suicide. The truth, in fact, is that Sanjay was away in Ranchi, in a meeting with Jean Drèze, when the purported incident in Muzaffarpur took place. Further, on 8th September, the police illegally detained Mandeshri Devi, telling her that she would not be released until Sanjay surrenders. Later, the complainant (father of the deceased) submitted an affidavit with the Muzaffarpur Court retracting the FIR, saying that he was forced to file it by the police.
On 18th September 2018, a complaint letter about this bogus FIR and the continued harassment faced by the sangathan was submitted to the Additional Director General (ADG) Modernisation and the ADG Special Branch. On 2nd November 2018, the ADG Special Branch had forwarded Sanjay Sahni’s FIR files to SSP Muzaffarpur. On 11th November 2018, Sanjay’s email account was hacked and threatening emails were sent from it to the Bihar Chief Minister. Later, the same email was forwarded to the DGP by the CM’s office and copied to Sanjay regularly. Sanjay has, since, sent email responses stating that he had nothing to do with the emails sent to the CM and that he is willing to cooperate with the investigation in the matter. In at least another of the six known FIRs, dated 31st March, 2017, there is incontrovertible evidence to suggest that Sanjay was away in Ranchi at the time of the alleged offences.
The other FIRs stand on very weak ground, with incongruent testimonies of a small set of government officials weighed against consistent accounts of a large number of SPSS workers and other local citizens. The means that have been used to harass and break the sangathan, such as false FIRs and fabricated emails, are symptomatic of the methods employed to suppress dissent across the country. The sangathan’s resistance is part of the larger struggle to defend democracy. We support this effort and stand in solidarity with the sangathan. A dharna is being organised in Muzaffarpur on 14th December, 2018 to protest against these atrocities. Please endorse if you agree.
Our immediate demands from the government are as follows:
- Quash the false FIRs against members of SPSS.
- Take strict action against those using FIRs to break the sangathan.
- The administration should work in collaboration with the sangathan and respect citizens’ rights.
Endorsements
- A Rajarajan, Advocate
- Abey George, Member, Kerala RTI Movement
- Abhay Kumar, Grakoos Karnataka
- Abhijit Sen, Concerned Citizen
- Abhinav Sekhri, Advocate
- Achin Vinaik, Retired Professor, Delhi University
- Aditya Shukla, Advocate
- Ajitha George, Omon Mahila Sangathan, Noamundi, Jharkhand
- Alok Laddha, Chennai Mathematical Institute
- Amita Baviskar, Professor of Sociology, Institute of Economic Growth
- Amitava Choudhary, National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information
- Amrita Johri, Satark Nagarik Sangathan
- Anand Srivastava, Assistant Professor, Azim Premji University
- Anand Vaidya, Yale University
- Anindita Adhikari
- Anjali Bharadwaj, National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information
- Anjor Bhaskar, Concerned Citizen
- Ankita Aggarwal, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha
- Anuradha Talwar, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha
- Apurva Bamezai, Researcher, University of Pennsylvania
- Archit K, Advocate
- Aruna Roy, National Federation of Indian Women
- Ashish Ranjan, Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan
- Ashok Verma, Jharkhand Loktantrik Manch
- Bhanwar Meghwanshi, Concerned Citizen
- Bharat Dogra, Concerned CItizen
- Bhaskar Prabhu, Mahiti Adhikar Manch
- Cecilia Davies, Lawyer
- Chakri, National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information
- Cheryl Dsouza, Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform
- Chitra Venkataramani, National University of Singapore
- Debmalya Nandy, Concerned Citizen
- Deep Joshi, Activist
- Devaki Jain
- Dipa Sinha, Concerned Citizen
- Dunu Roy, Hazards Centre
- A.S Sharma, Former Secretary, Government of India
- Farah Naqvi, Writer and Activist
- Gautam Bhatia , Advocate
- Gautam Mody, General Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative
- George Monippally, Jharkhand Van Adhikar Manch
- Harsh Bora, Advocate
- Harsh Mander, Aman Biradari
- Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Networks on Dams, Rivers and People, Delhi.
- Himanshu, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Ishan Banerjee, Independent Development Practitioner
- Jagdeep Chhokar, Professor (Retd.), Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
- Jayati Ghosh, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Jean Drèze, Visiting Professor, Ranchi University
- Jeffrey Witsoe, Assistant Professor, Union College (New York)
- Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA
- Ketaki Purohit, Concerned Citizen
- Kiran Shaheen, Concerned Citizen
- Kunal Ambasta, Advocate Ragini Ahuja , Advocate
- Mahendra Yadav, NAPM Bihar
- Meghana Rao, Visiting Faculty, Azim Premji University
- Meneka Khanna, Advocate
- MR Sharan, PhD Candidate (Public Policy), Harvard Kennedy School
- Mythili V. K., Advocate
- N Sai Vinod, Advocate
- Nachiket Udupa, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
- Nazar Khalid
- Noopur Tandon Sen, MPA/ID candidate, Harvard
- Paari Vendhan, Advocate
- Pamela Phillipose, Journalist
- Paras Ram, Suchna Evum Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan
- Parth Shrimali, JNU
- Payoshi Roy, Advocate
- Praavita Kashyap, Advocate
- Prashant Bhushan, Advocate
- Praveen Peter, Activist, Jharkhand
- Rajendran Narayanan, Azim Premji University, Bangalore
- Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Academician
- Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu, Factly
- Rakshita Swamy, concerned citizen
- Reetika Khera, IIM Ahmedabad
- Robin Christopher, Advocate
- Rosamma Thomas, Journalist, Pune
- S Prabu Ramasubramanian, Advocate
- Sabarish Subramaniam, Advocate
- Saikat Ghosh, IIT Kanpur
- Sakina Dhorajiwala, Independent Researcher
- Sayandeb Chowdhury, Ambedkar University, Delhi
- Shailesh Gandhi, Former Central Chief Information Commission
- Sharmadip Basu, Azim Premji University
- Sharvari Nadkarni Ghosh
- Siraj Dutta, Right to Food Campaign
- Subhashini Dinesh, Concerned Citizen
- Suchi Pande
- Sunandan K N, Azim Premji University
- Surabhi Dhar, Advocate
- Swati Narayan, Right to Food Campaign
- Utkarsh Saxena, Advocate
- Uttam Gayen, General Secretary, Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity
- Vasavi Kiro, Jharkhand State Visthapit Aayog
- Vikas Dubey, Ph.D Student, IIT Kanpur
- Vipul Mudgal, National Campaign for People’s Right to Information
- Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Advocate
- Vrinda Bhandari, Advocate
- William Vinoth Kumar, Advocate
- Xavier Dias , Former Editor, Khan Kaneej Aur ADHIKAR (Mines minerals & RIGHTS)
- Yogita Bangar, Advocate
- Zeba Sikora, Advocate