Arrest of Roma and Sukalo from Robertsgunj office of AIUFWP on 30 June 2015 early morning
– an eye witness account
New Delhi. About 6.15 AM in the morning on 30 June, there was loud banging on the door of the room in which I (Avijit ) and one other comrade were sleeping. By the time I could get up to open the door was almost breaking apart. As I opened the door, dozens of police officers, brandishing revolvers and using the choicest and filthiest of language, barged in. They immediately snatched our mobile phones and pushed and shoved us around asking for Roma. In the mean time Roma came out of her room and asked them to behave themselves. “ I know you have come to arrest me and I am not running away. Wait till I change my dress”, Roma told them. Despite this the CO of Robertsgunj thana, barged in to Roma’s room and tried to pull her out of the room, slapped two other women who were there and threatened Sukalo and despite one woman in the process of changing her dress the C.O. of Robertsgunj thana – Kapil Yadav did not have the decency to come out of the room and stood there threatening them and abusing them. He kept telling ,” It is because of Roma that my arm got broken, I will have my revenge now.” I was not even been allowed to use the toilet, which they relented after I protested ( but had one police constable constantly peeping in!). There was no lady constable to be seen though they had primarily come to arrest a woman leader.
The landlady (of this rented office – cum – residence of the AIUFWP and Roma) was called and threatened and was told that she should see to it that Roma is not allowed to stay here, also adding that she has time that Roma would not be released easily from jail. So it was clear that they were not arresting Roma to disrupt the demonstration programme scheduled later in the day under the banner of AIPF to protest against the Land Ordinance and illegal land acquisition and forcible eviction of people for the Kanhar dam, but they were arresting her to thwart and derail the on going peoples’movement in this region. Around 7 am , we were packed in to police jeeps – Roma and me in one jeep, Sukalo and another comrade in another jeep. There were atleast 10 more jeeps packed with police officers and a van full of heavily armed police personnel . So all in all about 150 -200 heavily armed police personnel had come to arrest one women leader. We were led in convoy to the SP’s office on the outskirts of Robertsgunj. Moment our jeeps landed Roma was taken to a separate room. Sukalo was also sent to a different room. The two of us were made to sit on the verandah in front of the SP’s office, who was sitting triumphantly and holding court with several other officers having their morning tea. The SP said that the main culprit of the disturbance inKanhar and inciting adivasis and dalits for their land rights was now in their custody and pointing to Sukalo he commented that here was another community leader who needed to be taught a lesson or two. Then the SP and other officers burst forth with their anger on Roma and the peoples movement in Sonbhadra and the adjoining areas, telling us that they hated her guts in challenging the police and the administration and “inciting” the dalits and adivasis to fight uncompromisingly for their land and forest rights. They blamed Roma squarely for the protest in Kanhar saying that people had agreed to hand over land because of the very good compensation being offered by the UP government but Roma had single handedly disturbed the entire process by inciting them to demand for their informed consent and discussions about appropriate compensation, environmental issues etc. Roma was “ant-development” and was misleading people for her own ends of becoming a leader. And then he added something of note. He said that they had no problems with leaders who worked with the administration and police but were against leaders like Roma who was always challenging the administration and police and trying to empower the poor people of the region. Here in like the crux of the administration and police’s anger with Roma – she is empowering the people to stand up and speak for their rights. Around 8 am another comrade and myself were packed in to a jeep and were taken away to Robertsgunj thana where we were detained till 4 PM. Due to pressure created by the demonstrating people at the days programmes the police were forced to escort us from the thana and hand us back to our comrades. During the day time, while we sat in a room bustling with activity around Roma’s arrest, we heard that people coming to participate in the days demonstration programme were being held back, some leaders were also arrested/ detained. We also heard that Roma and Sukalo were produced in court around mid afternoon ; the court was cordoned off by armed police and completely emptied when they were being produced in court – such is the extent of the police and administration’s fear!There was relief all round the Robertsgunj thana when around 2.30 pmnews came in that Roma and Sukalo had been remanded to judicial custody and were on their way to Mirzapur Central Jail. While me and the other comrade sat through the day detained at the Robertsgunj thana the only thing which kept crossing my mind was how to strengthen the peoples movement for forest, land and rights over natural resources and transform it into ground breaking land rights movement for the adivasis and dalits of this region which could spur such movements across the country to shake up this socio-political firmament which is inherently so anti-poor, anti- dalit adivasi. The anger which I saw in peoples eyes after my release indicated that the objective conditions for such an upheaval already exists.
Avijit Cheterji
Case details : Roma ( and Sukalo) ( as on 30 June 2015) Crime no 125/15 - 147,148,149,332,333,504,353,307, 345,347, 120B Crime no 126/15- 147, 149, 395, 397, 120B Case no 127/15- 147, 148, 149, 323, 353, 332, 504, 186, 120, 7 CLA-

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