New Delhi: The human rights group People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has condemned the raid conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) at the rented room of a student activist in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj in the early hours of Friday (August 30) in connection with his alleged Naxal links.
A seizure memo of the operation seen by The Wire showed that the raid was regarding a 2023 FIR lodged under charges of criminal conspiracy, waging war against the nation and several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
In a statement, the NIA said it conducted multi-state raids – across locations in UP, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab – as parts of its “efforts to scuttle the attempts of the banned CPI [Communist Party of India] (Maoist) organisation to revive its presence in the Northern Regional Bureau area”.
A total of nine locations, linked with various accused and suspects in the 2023 FIR case were searched as part of the crackdown, the NIA said.
The agency raided four locations in Punjab, two each in UP and Haryana, and one in Delhi.
Several digital devices (laptops, mobile phones, pen drives, compact discs, hard drives, compact discs, memory cards), SIM cards and pocket diaries were seized during the searches, conducted at the premises of suspects believed to be close aides of various accused in the instant case, the NIA said.
The agency alleged that “these suspects were receiving funds for propagation of CPI (Maoist) ideology from the erstwhile Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB) head Prashant Bose, NIA investigations have revealed.
“The ERB, particularly Jharkhand, had been funding the suspects, believed to be long-time associates and OGWs [overground workers] of the accused, to recruit cadres and raise the organisation in the northern states.”
NIA investigations further led to the identification of several front organisations and student wings tasked to identify suitable persons to work as underground cadres, to wage a war against the Indian government and to carry out violent terrorist acts as per the ideology of the proscribed outfit, the agency said.
Azad’s belongings are left scattered in his room following the NIA’s raid. Photo: Special arrangement.
It added that further investigations are continuing in the case.
The NIA also raided the house of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU-Krantikari) general secretary Sukhwinder Kaur in Punjab’s Bathinda district on Friday, following which farmer groups raised a protest against the government.
The FIR was lodged on June 19 last year by the NIA.
The PUCL said that the NIA seized pamphlets based on a lecture by economist Arun Kumar on Hindenburg Research’s investigative report on industrialist Gautam Adani from the student, whose name is Azad.
Titled ‘Vartaman Bharatiya Arthvyavastha: Adani prakran ka asar’ (‘Modern Indian economy: The effect of the Adani case’, the pamphlets were drafted by a local people’s social group, the Allahabad Nagarik Samaaj.
The raid was carried out at Azad’s house in the early hours of Thursday, from 5:30 am to 10 am, the PUCL said in a statement.
It alleged that the raid at Azad’s room, which he shares with three other persons, was carried out “in view of his activism”.
The 2023 FIR said that “concerted attempts are being made by the leaders, cadres and sympathisers or over ground workers (OGWs) of [the] CPI [Communist Party of India] (Maoist)” for “re-energising their decrepit influence” in the states of UP, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
It named six accused persons and, like the NIA’s statement on Thursday, alleged that the CPI (Maoist)’s ERB was funding overground workers in the aforementioned northern states, and also alleged the involvement of front organisations in waging war against the government.
Several front organisations and student wings were tasked with identifying suitable persons who could work as underground cadres, the NIA alleged.
Azad is the joint secretary of the Inquilabi Chhatra Morcha (ICM), a left-leaning student organisation, and is also a member of the executive committee of the ‘Allahabad Nagarik Samaj’.
The PUCL also said that apart from the Adani pamphlet, NIA officials also seized the May-June issue of the magazine Dastak, in which Azad had written an article on the movement of activist Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh.
Seema Azad, the PUCL’s UP state president who was in 2010 arrested on charges of allegedly being a member of the banned Naxalite outfit CPI (Maoist), is the editor of Dastak, a monthly non-commercial magazine.
A third item seized by the NIA was a copy of ‘Mashaal’, a six-page newspaper published by the ICM.
The UP PUCL in a statement said that the three things the NIA took from Azad’s house “make the purpose of the raid clear”.
“It is not difficult to understand from this what the government wants to do through the NIA. It wants to shut down the voices of those who oppose it,” said the PUCL.
Azad, who hails from Agra, is based in Prayagraj, where he studies at the Allahabad University. He secured a Master of Arts degree in political science earlier this year. He also cleared the Junior Research Fellowship exam last year.
The PUCL described him as a “brilliant student” who was also active in raising “democratic demands” in the city.
The NIA has issued a notice to Azad and summoned him to Lucknow for questioning on September 15.
“This is the next step in the mental torture of a student,” the PUCL said.
Last August, the NIA conducted simultaneous searches at the residences and offices of several activists, including Seema Azad, and students in various cities of eastern Uttar Pradesh, purportedly to look for their alleged connection with the CPI (Maoist).
Those raids were carried out in connection with the same June 2023 FIR.
