Rights groups protest Bengal activist’s arrest

KOLKATA - Several human rights organisations Thursday protested against what they called the illegal and arbitrary arrest of social activist Naba Dutta by the West Bengal Police for his alleged role in the torching of a sponge iron unit in West Midnapore district.

At a joint media meet, the organisations said the state government had acted with a vengeance in arresting Dutta - general secretary of the Nagarik Mancha - Tuesday while he was returning to the city after attending a hunger strike agitation of the Lodha and Sabar tribes at Narayngarh in West Midnapore district against the injustice meted out to them.

“Police took Dutta and his associates to a police outpost at Manickpara. Though the others were subsequently released, Dutta was moved from one place to another from the evening till late into the night and arrested,” they said.

“The charge against him was involvement in the torching of the sponge iron unit Dec 18 last year in Jitusole. About 1,000 people had been named in the FIR. His name was at number 803. Dutta didn’t even know that his name figured in the FIR. Nor was he told about it all these months,” they said.

“It’s an effort on the part of the state to throttle the voices of the people taking part in mass agitations. We condemn it and demand withdrawal of all charges slapped against Dutta,” the organisation representatives said.

Dutta is now out on bail.

Among the organisations present at the media meet included the Bandi Mukti Committee, the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights and the Lalgarh Mancha.

Theatre personality Bivas Chakraborty was among those who addressed the meet.