[Reader-list] Sanhati statement on the continued detention of activists and the granting of bail to Partho Sarathi Ray

[asit das]

*Sanhati statement on the continued detention of activists and the granting
of bail to Partho Sarathi Ray*

18.4.2012

We welcome the granting of bail on April 17, 2012 for the release of Partho
Sarathi Ray from Alipore Central Jail, Kolkata. We continue to demand the
unconditional and immediate release of the remaining six prisoners arrested
on April 8, 2012, for participating in the peaceful anti-eviction movement
in Nonadanga, Kolkata. Debolina Chakrabarti, Samik Chakraborti, Manas
Chatterjee, Debjani Ghosh, Siddhartha Gupta, and Abhijnan Sarkar, must be
immediately released and all the fabricated charges against all of them be
immediately dropped.

Sanhati is especially concerned that one of the activists, Debolina
Chakrabarti, has been forcibly sent to CID custody for “interrogation” on
April 12, 2012, and has been tagged in a murder case under the draconial
UAPA. The utter lawlessness that prevails in the halls of power in
contemporary India provides ample grounds to understand “interrogation” by
the notorious CID as an euphemism for custodial torture. To protest against
this unjust incarceration and imposition of UAPA on her, Debolina has
started a hunger strike in CID custody. It has been reported in the press
that she has developed some eye problems in CID custody. Sanhati extends
its unflinching solidarity to Debolina and the other incarcerated
activists, demands immediate and proper medical attention for Debolina’s
eye problems, and criticizes the police establishment and government
machinery of West Bengal in the strongest of terms for its undemocratic and
anti-people behaviour.

Reports in the media (
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/KMDA-may-lease-out-Nonadanga-land/articleshow/12697960.cms)
show that the KMDA is attempting to lease out the land of the evicted slum
dwellers to private real estate companies to build multiplexes, hotels, and
residential complexes for the wealthy; this confirms our worst
apprehensions. It is a matter of concern that while such nefarious moves
are going apace, there has been no attempt by the West Bengal to address
the just demands of rehabilitation or resettlement of the evictees. And so
the struggle of the evicted slum dwellers in Nonadanga is on. It has
reached a critical stage with the mass hunger strike entering the 8th day
and the call for a mass convention on April 18. We ask all democratic
minded persons to attend the Nonddanga convention tomorrow and continue to
stand up for the rights of the evictees.

*Sanhati*