Mr. Agarwal spoke against Jindals in Public Hearing organized for the project. The State Government arrested both and was Handcuffed and Chained. This put forth the brutal face of Corporate and State.
Courtesy: Free Ramesh Agarwal
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| Ramesh Agarawal |
Raigarh police superintendent, Rahul Sharma, told India Real Time that Mr. Agrawal’s request for bail had been rejected by a local court—the charges in question don’t allow for bail under Indian law—and he is presently in jail as the police continue to investigate the Jindal complaint. He said they expect to soon file formal charges in court after which the case will go on trial.
The arrest comes a little over a year after Mr. Agrawal spoke at a public hearing against Jindal Power Ltd., a subsidiary of Jindal Steel & Power that has a power plant in the Raigarh area.
Mr. Agrawal runs a small Internet café in his native town of Raigarh. He uses the revenue from that business to fund his efforts to educate farmers in the nearby villages on their land rights and to investigate any potential violations of environmental laws by companies. When he comes across what he believes to be a violation, Mr. Agrawal tries to bring it to the attention of the relevant government officials, says Mr. Dutta.
In India, companies that are trying to acquire land have to hold a public hearing to inform the residents of what the project would entail so that residents can raise any concerns they might have on issues ranging from the price of land to employment to the environmental impact. Land acquisition is a tricky business in India and large projects, particularly in resource-rich eastern and central India, are often plagued by allegations of having railroaded over local objections.
Mr. Dutta says his client was at the Jindal Power hearing last May to raise concerns about its expansion work in the area—the lawyer said Mr. Agrawal believed it wasn’t clear whether the company’s proposal qualified as an expansion of an existing project or a new project. The difference is critical because the clearances required for air and water pollution differ. The lawyer added that work on the project had started before the firm received environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. When contacted for a response, a spokesman for Jindal Steel said the company had met the criteria required for the project.
“We sought environmental clearances and we got them,” said the spokesman. He declined to comment on whether the clearances had come before or after the work had started.
Two months after that hearing, Jindal Steel & Power filed a police complaint against Mr. Agrawal, as well as two other men. In a statement regarding the complaint, the company said that Mr. Agrawal and the two other men made false allegations against executives of the firm in order to incite other people present to disrupt the hearing. The company also said that the three men made threats to set fire to company properties and to kill the owners.
The hearing was videotaped as required by law. India Real Time saw a portion of the footage of the hearing, which was provided by Mr. Agrawal’s son. In it, Mr. Agrawal, says at one point that Jindal “should come in front of me and I’ll deal with him; If he’s going to threaten the villagers and the people, why doesn’t he come forward himself?” Jindal Steel & Power is a family-run business headed by Naveen Jindal who is also a Member of Parliament.
Mr. Dutta says that Mr. Agrawal had no intention of targeting Mr. Jindal or any of his employees. He said that the remarks were made for effect and questioned the timing of the arrest.
“All political speeches in India start with the sort of ‘threats’ that Ramesh Agrawal is being accused of. How is it that you realize that he’s dangerous a year later?” said the lawyer.
The lawyer also criticized how Mr. Agrawal was treated after his arrest. Mr. Agrawal was shifted to a hospital for four days because he complained of chest pains. While under observation, he was handcuffed and chained to his hospital bed, said Mr. Dutta.
Asked why the arrest happened in May this year, Mr. Sharma, the Raigarh police official, said his department was waiting for results from the government forensic lab in Chandigarh to which they sent a CD with a copy of the video recording of the public hearing to confirm the recording was authentic; the lab confirmed last month that it was. After that, Mr. Agrawal was detained. Regarding Mr. Agrawal’s treatment in hospital, the police official said Mr. Agrawal shouldn’t have been handcuffed. “There was no need for that,” he said. “The guards did it and I have sent a report about it.”
He also said the police had arrested one of the other two men named in the Jindal complaint, and are looking for the third man.
Courtesy: WSJ
Ramesh Agrawal, a land-rights activist in Chhattisgarh who was arrested last month on a criminal complaint brought against him by Jindal Steel & Power, sought bail earlier this week from the Bilaspur High Court but his plea was rejected, according to his lawyer.
The case dates to a public environmental hearing in May last year in a place called Tamnar, near the town of Raigarh in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. A recording of portions of that hearing, provided to India Real Time by Jindal, shows Mr. Agrawal, on a makeshift stand, addressing the officials presiding over the hearing. Mr. Agrawal is surrounded by several people who are not always clearly visible in the frame.
In the video, Mr. Agrawal says: “I want to know who is the Jindal official who threatened the Superintendent of Police; Our SP is tied by the law, but we’re not; if he is his father’s son, he should come in front of me, if he is one man’s son, he should come in front of me; if he’s threatening the SP what will happen to these villagers; clearly [the Jindal official] is not the son of one man and that’s why he hasn’t come out in front of us; forgive me, but there’s corruption and thuggery across the ranks in government and corporate.”
As Mr. Agrawal speaks, the men around him and in the audience shout curses and threats against the company and its leadership, including threats to kill and commit arson. Mr. Agrawal remains silent during those outbursts.
“Mr. Agrawal and his accomplices instead of raising the issues pertaining to their environment concerns, first tried to incite and instigate the public to breach the peace by making totally false allegations against the officers of the company,” Jindal said in a statement. “They abused the police administration and owners of the company for no rhyme or reason and used filthy unprintable language. The accused even went to the extent of threatening to commit the criminal act of arson with respect to properties of the company and further to kill the owners of the company and clearly said they are not bound by any rule or law.”
A company spokesman declined to elaborate.
The company’s criminal complaint was filed against Mr. Agrawal, Harihar Patel, who was arrested last month, and a third man, Rajesh Tripathi, who cannot be located, according to Rahul Sharma, the superintendent of police for Raigarh. The company, in the complaint, accused the three men of defamation, criminal intimidation, insult and annoyance. Mr. Agrawal denies the allegations. A lawyer for Mr. Patel couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.
Sanjeet Purohit, a lawyer for Mr. Agrawal, said Mr. Agrawal’s bail plea was dismissed on technical grounds. He said his client might appeal the bail dismissal to the Supreme Court, which is in recess until July 4.
Courtesy: WSJ
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