Economist Jean Dreze & two activists detained in Garhwa, later released

RANCHI/GARHWA: Noted economist and

Right to Food

(RTF) activist

Jean Dreze

and his associates, Vivek Kumar Gupta and Anuj Kumar Gupta, were detained by

Garhwa

police for about two hours just before they were about to host a public meeting on issues related to pension and ration.


The activists were detained from the venue of the public meeting in Bishunpura block of Bansidhar Nagar sub-division and taken to Bishunpura police station for holding public meeting allegedly without permission from the district administration.

After he was released from the police station, Dreze said in a written statement that police allegedly threatened the organiser of the meeting, Vivek. “We had applied for permission to the circle officer but we did not get any response. It was perhaps due to technical reasons as the names of speakers were missing,” Vivek said.

The activists alleged police asked them to sign a bond to “avoid arrest”. “Police threatened to lodge FIR against us under Sections 171, 172 and 173 of IPC if we did not sign a bond declaring that we will not criticise the government or the local MP (Garhwa comes under

Palamu

parliamentary constituency and is represented by BJP MP VD Ram) during our public meeting,” Vivek alleged.

Sections 171, 172 and 173 of the IPC deal with impersonation of public servant and avoiding summons issued by any public servant with competent authority.

The team was holding the meeting to listen to people’s grievances related to social security pensions and delayed allotment of foodgrains under the Food Security Act. “Our meetings often educate people to demand their rights and make them aware of the processes involved,” James Herenj, state convener of

NREGA Watch

, of which Dreze is a part of, said.

Meanwhile, Garhwa SP

Shivani Tiwari

said the activists were stopped from holding the meeting as they had not obtained permission from the administration. “Police did not ask them to sign any bond. On the contrary, they were asked to submit a letter for permission,” she said. Tiwari also denied allegations that the activists were threatened with arrests.

The activists, however, accused the district administration of partiality by allowing a religious event on the same venue between March 16 and 18 in which leaders across political affiliations addressed a gathering and appealed for votes.

Talking to media persons later, Dreze said, “I am surprised that government agencies can subvert the right of the people to assemble peacefully to discuss issues related to access to government schemes.”

He said, “While we tried to address the concerns of the people police officers like Vijay Kumar Singh attempted to make us sign a bond that we will not discuss anything against the government.”