On 19th June 2023, Vipul Alok, an undersecretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, filed an FIR in Lucknow, urging the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate alleged reports of concerted attempts by leaders, sympathisers, and over-ground workers of the banned CPI (Maoist) Party to re-energise their influence in the Northern regional bureau.
The FIR alleged that the states comprising UP, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi are receiving funds from the Eastern regional bureau of the outfit.
The FIR alleged that the states comprising UP, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi are receiving funds from the Eastern regional bureau of the outfit. Additionally, associates working as over-ground workers (OGWs) were named, allegedly responsible for recruitment and raising funds in their regions.
The individuals named in the FIR include Virendra, Anjani, Suraj in Delhi, Surendra in Punjab, Manish Azad, Rohit Vidyarthi, and Ritesh Bidyarthi in UP, and Aman in Haryana, among other unnamed parties.
The NIA accused these individuals of being long-time members of the banned outfit and holding posts in their states responsible for the management of the party. The FIR also suggested that the ‘frontal organisations‘ of the party, such as student organisations, and other over-ground workers (a term used to associate intellectuals, activists, lawyers, etc.) are associated with the banned outfit and have been insinuating that the ideology of the party is used to propel the ‘war against the Government of India‘.
NIA raids in 2023
On September 5, 2023, the NIA conducted the first round of raids at 8 locations in connection with the FIR. The raids took place across the districts of Allahabad, Varanasi, Azamgarh, Devaria, and Chandauli in UP.
The NIA interrogated and raided several activists and lawyers, including Advocate Soni Azad, an active member of the PUCL UP, and her husband Ritesh Rai at their shared house in Allahabad. Akanksha, President of the Bhagat Singh Student Morcha (BSM), had her office raided in Varanasi. The NIA also raided the Devaria house of Activist Rajesh Azad of the Khiriyabagh-Azamgarh farmers’ movement and the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha.
Manish Azad, brother of Seema Azad, a resident of Allahabad, was interrogated for several hours and had his house raided. Seema Azad, National Secretary and UP State President, a lawyer, author, and editor of Dastak, a monthly non-commercial magazine, along with her husband Advocate Vishwa Vijay, were also raided.
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, a human rights organisation, had called out against the raid of the activists and demanded the immediate closure of the FIR 01/2023/NIA/LKW, and demanded the MHA to stop criminalising activism aimed at realising the Directive Principles of state policy as anti-national.
Akansha Azad, a student activist and president of BSM, shared that on September 5th, NIA officials came early in the morning to her office at around 5 am.
Akansha Azad, a student activist and president of BSM, shared that on September 5th, NIA officials came early in the morning to her office at around 5 am.
‘They showed us the search warrant, which I refrained from signing because it didn’t mention my name. They got it signed by the witnesses they’d brought. My name wasn’t there in the FIR, but they made me a witness in the case,’ said Akansha.
According to Akansha, she was interrogated and raided by NIA officials, alleging her participation in a protest against the development of the Kaimur Tiger Reserve in Bihar and her leadership of a student organisation in Varanasi.
‘The tiger reserve is just one of many government efforts to displace the Adivasi population in favour of corporate interests. When we spoke out against it, they targeted us to prevent any challenge to the brutal oppression and displacement of the Adivasis‘, she said.
In its statement, PUCL mentioned that students and activists have been consistently advocating for human rights, especially in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Haryana, and Odisha. In these areas, there is rampant oppression of Dalits, Adivasis, and other marginalised communities, leading to a normalised state of terror. The resistance of these activists is met with brutal repression, it stated.
‘The red-tagging is simply an attempt of the state to quash the capacity of democratic voices, who question the state’s position in facilitating the blunder in Adivasi lands and wherever else they want to serve the interests of the corporates. This nexus together wields weapons against the country’s most vulnerable people by killing, encountering, displacing and imprisoning them for their rightful demands‘, Akansha said.
Recent raids and interrogations
On 30th August, the NIA conducted raids at nine different locations, including the homes of Advocate Aarti and anti-displacement activist and lawyer Ajay Singh in Chandigarh, farmer leader Sukhwinder Kaur in Bhatinda, human rights lawyer Mandeep Singh in Mohali, human rights activist and lawyer Pankaj Tyagi in Sonipat, and Devinder Azad, president of the Inqilabi Chhatra Morcha in Prayagraj, among others.
Advocate Pankaj Tyagi is a member of the district Bar Association of Sonipat, while Advocate Mandeep, Advocate Aarti, and Advocate Ajay Singh are members of the Punjab and Haryana Bar Association.
Devendra Azad, a student of Political Science at Allahabad University, shared with FII that the NIA interrogated him for several hours in his room in Prayagraj.
‘I, and Akansha are the two editors of Mashal. What we have been doing is reading and writing about issues that concern the violation of human rights by the government, with militarisation and corporatisation at the helm of it,’ Devendra told me.
He said that several copies of different magazines, which included articles written by him and a copy of Dastak, were seized, and he was questioned about the content of the magazines and books in his room.
‘The incriminating documents that the NIA says were found in my possession detail the accounts of atrocities committed by the state agencies and companies, at the cost of Adivasi lives. One of these articles was on Sonam Wangchuk, the officials forced me to tell them why I was reading it,’ Devendra said.
So far, the NIA has only arrested Ajay Singh. The Sonipat Bar Association, in its statement on 18th September, raised concerns about the raid and interrogation conducted at Pankaj Tyagi’s in Sonipat.
He was called in for interrogation in Lucknow on the 14th, where he was questioned for several hours. So far, the NIA has only arrested Ajay Singh. The Sonipat Bar Association, in its statement on 18th September, raised concerns about the raid and interrogation conducted at Pankaj Tyagi’s in Sonipat.
‘The NIA took Advocate Pankaj to the police station of Sector-27, Sonipat, where they interrogated him for 4 hours. They later notified him to join the interrogation on the 9th of August in Lucknow. Pankaj is a heart patient and has never been associated with the outfit. We condemn the baseless allegations against him,’ the statement said.
‘Lucknow conspiracy case‘
Advocate Aarti, the wife of Ajay Kumar, informed me that upon their arrival, NIA officials presented them with a search warrant.
‘When we requested to see the FIR, there was no mention of Ajay’s name in it. They altered the name ‘Aman’, which was mentioned in the FIR, and replaced it with ‘Ajay Singh alias Aman’. They have confiscated several phones, including a hard disk, from the house,’ Aarti shared.
She also mentioned that Ajay was widely recognised as an intellectual. Some of his articles on agrarian production relations in Haryana and a socio-historical overview of Khap Panchayats were presented at the University of Hyderabad and the Indian Institute for Advanced Studies in Shimla.
‘It is his popularity and his ability to articulate and actively participate in shaping various movements, including the Farmer’s movement and numerous peasant’s movements, that drew the attention of the state,’ Ajay’s close friend stated.
Several civil society groups, including the Campaign Against State Repression and the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association, have released statements condemning the arrest of Ajay Kumar.
The Punjab and Haryana Court Bar Association stated, ‘The alarming pattern of attacks on advocates, who are being targeted based on their clients, is of great concern.’
Between the raids conducted in 2023 and 2024, there has been a gap of a year, which, according to Aarti, was ‘a premeditated plan to implicate the human rights activists by using a vague FIR to intimidate the activists. Now, whoever acknowledges democratic values and expresses concern over the issues of workers, Adivasis, students, farmers, and marginalised and oppressed sections of the society can be framed as an over–ground worker‘.
Campaign against state repression (CASR), in its statement, said that ‘The NIA has been plotting ways to bring down dissent in the Northern states of India, through the same model that has been used in the Bhima Koregaon case.’
Expressing concern over Ajay’s arrest, Seema Azad shared that the ‘The NIA has fabricated a story linking these activists and created an opportunity for more arrests by alleging the presence of Over-Ground workers of the Maoist party in northern India. When these raids were being conducted, I remembered Arundhati Roy’s words who said that the best story writers are in NIA‘.
The civil society groups believe that the case has resurfaced due to new strategies aimed at exploiting Adivasi lands, such as the development of the Maneuver range in Chhattisgarh, which will lead to the displacement of the Adivasi population and trigger atrocities against them.
The civil society groups believe that the case has resurfaced due to new strategies aimed at exploiting Adivasi lands, such as the development of the Maneuver range in Chhattisgarh, which will lead to the displacement of the Adivasi population and trigger atrocities against them.
Similarly, other projects, including the Kaimur Tiger Reserve in Bihar, displacement due to corporatisation and mining in Odisha and Jharkhand, and routine oppression of vulnerable and marginalised communities, are linked to the case.
‘To suppress the challenges posed by human rights defenders who speak out against these anti-human measures, red-tagging is being used,’ said Seema Azad, President of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties.
Speaking to me, Deepak, spokesperson of the CASR said that ‘The NIA alleges that these states have many activists who are Over-ground Workers (OGWs) of the CPI (Maoist) party. This mirrors the Bhima Koregaon model where the Indian state targetted activists and intellectuals from various parts of the country, labeling them as OGWs or Urban Naxals, and using draconian laws like UAPA to arrest them as a means of punishment and to suppress dissenting voices‘.
A press conference held against the arrest of the activists on 12th September at the Press Club of India insinuated that the degree to which dissent and democracy have been stifled poses a danger to the democratic values of the country. The speakers, alongside other activists, demanded the immediate release of Advocate Ajay and the quashing of the FIR, which they named as ‘Lucknow conspiracy case‘.
