 Summary of this article
- The arrests of Kartik Naik and Suneeta Pottam reveal how Adivasi leaders opposing mining, security camps, and land dispossession are criminalised through IPC charges, organisational bans, and stringent security laws like UAPA and CSPSA.
- From colonial forest laws to contemporary development and conservation regimes, Adivasis have been systematically recast as ‘encroachers’ and ‘extremists’ for asserting constitutionally protected rights over land, forests, and self-governance.
- Organisational bans and guilt-by-association allow the State to suppress democratic movements, enabling indefinite incarceration without proof of individual wrongdoing and turning political assertion into a punishable offence.
On September 19, 2024, Kartik Naik, a prominent leader of the Maa Mati Maali Surakhya Manch was arrested on multiple allegations under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including of unlawful assembly, causing grievous hurt and attempt to murder. As part of the Manch, Naik had been organising Adivasis in several villages of Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of Odisha against a proposed bauxite mine by Vedanta which would subsume 1,549 hectares of land, including 699 hectares of pristine forests, in the Sijimali/Tijmali hills. |
