Hany Babu M.T., Associate Professor of English at the University of Delhi, Major in Language Ideology, Politics and Policy, Linguistic Identity, Marginalised Languages and Social Justice, was arrested by NIA (National Investigation Agency) on Tuesday, July 28, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case. A total of 12 people – all activists, lawyers, and academics – are now behind the bars.
The Elgar Parishad Event
The Elgar-Parishad event was held on 31st December 2017. It was conducted by a union of about 250 non-profit organizations. The event was a massive success with more than 35,000 attendees.
Many activists and social-leaders like Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, Dalit activist Radhika Vemula, Adivasi activist Soni Sori, Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, Bhim Army President Vinay Ratan Singh, retired Bombay High Court Justice BG Kholse-Patil, and student leader Umar Khalid were in its attendance. The event had predominant Ambedkarite and Left-leaning ideology.
The Violence
On 1st of January 2018, Dalits in large amount had gathered to honour the 200th year of the Battle of Bhima-Khoregaon , during which a spontaneous violent attack occurred between the Hinduvta group and the Dalits.
The violence resulted in the death of 28- year-old Rahul Phatangale. Many were injured. This event lead to chains of violent protests all over Maharashtra. Maharashtra Bandh was declared on 3rd January 2018 by Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s president Prakash Ambedkar.
Read more: How Yogi Adityanath’s Guru Saw Potential In His Movement To Build Ram Mandir Decades Back
Arrests and Aftermath
FIR’s were filed with the Pune Rural Police and the Pune City Police. The Elgar Parishad was accused of spreading inflammatory and Maoist linked speeches. FIR was registered against many right-wing leaders also for instigating anti-Dalit violence across the state.
Who is Hany Babu M.T. and how did he get involved?
Babu first got involved in September 2019, whenmore than 12 Maharashtra police officers came to his residence in Noida and conducted a raid his home which took place for more than 6 hours, without any warning or even a warrant. Thw police took away several of his books and electronic devices, including phones of his wife and daughter, not allowing them to communicate with their family and friends. The police even restricted Mr Babu’s access to his email and other social media accounts.
Babu is not only a professor at DU but also a vocal anti-caste activist. He has done extensive work on caste oppression and linguistics.
The NIA is claiming to have found a hidden folder in Mr Babu’s laptop and is associating it with him being involved in the violent event.
In a press statement, the NIA said: “During further investigation, it was revealed that accused Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused.”
Hany Babu was summoned to Mumbai as a “witness” to the case. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Hany, concerned about his health, said, “I did share my concerns with the officer who visited my home. He said, I have no choice but to fly down to Mumbai on July 15”. He was constantly called to Mumbai every other day, visits which Hany did to cooperate with the ongoing case. Shockingly, Hany Babu was unexpectedly arrested.
Professors and students enraged about the arrest
Hundreds of academics and activists have also spoken up against the arrest. The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) said that forcing Babu to present himself at the NIA’s office and questioning him was “merely a ruse to force him into providing false testimony against other persons and accepting allegations of being a functionary of the Maoist group.”
Writer Arundhati Roy slammed the government for the “relentless and ongoing incarceration of activists, academics and lawyers“, a day after the associate professor of the Delhi University was arrested by the NIA in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.
After the NIA overtook the Bhima Koregaon case from the Pune Police in January this year, many arrests were made. Human-right activist Gautam Navlakha and scholar Anand Teltumbde were arrested who are both in their 70s with extremely sensitive health conditions. A Hyderabad-based journalist, Kranthi Tekula, was interrogated heavily at the NIA’s Mumbai office.
Eighty-year-old revolutionary poet Varavara Rao was taken to a private hospital in Mumbai after huge protests were made by the civil society. His health condition has deteriorated and he has tested positive for COVID-19. The other accused in the case, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves, are all in prison.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Firstpost, NDTV, DU Express
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This post is tagged under: activists, anuradharoy, bhima koregaon case, casteviolence, DU, du professor arrested, elgarparishad, english professor at du, Hany Babu, hany babu arrested, Hanybabu, maharashtra bandh, NIA, Politics, rahul phatangale, varavararao
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