NIA Conducts Searches at Premises Linked to Bengal Activists Who Had Been Vocal Against SIR

Kolkata: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took up almost simultaneous searches at the premises associated with three rights activists and researchers across Bengal early this morning. The search operations, which activists said began around 4.30 am, have raised concern among civil liberties groups over what they described as a widening attempt to intimidate organisers of people’s movements in the state.

All three activists were involved in grassroots organising, anti-displacement campaigns, and student activism. The NIA searches attempt to link them to a 2022 Ranchi case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code, concerning the alleged revival of the Maoist movement in eastern India.

The searches spanned across Kolkata and neighbouring districts, focusing on vocal critics of Special Intensive Revision-related disenfranchisement.

Among those targeted was scholar Jhelum Roy, a prominent activist with the organisation Feminine in Resistance and a primary organiser of the sit-in at Kolkata's Park Circus against the arbitrary deletions under the SIR exercise that preceded the Bengal elections.

A team of 12 NIA personnel visited the apartment in south Kolkata where Roy lives alone. Almost at the same time, a team of around 12 officials carrying a search warrant visited the residence of Tathagata Roy Chowdhury, the 24-year-old general secretary of the group called the Revolutionary Students' Front (RSF), in south Kolkata.

“This is a natural consequence of BJP coming into power in West Bengal. They had been using all kinds of instruments they have at their disposal to suppress voices of dissent. We know the price that human rights activists have to pay. Many such activists are languishing in jail,” said Roy Chowdhury, a researcher who completed his Masters degree from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU).

Further away in Jaguli, Nadia, the central agency visited Sukumar Kayal, a government school teacher and an organiser for the Sangrami Krishak Manch (SKM), an agrarian-focused mass organisation that has recently been leading movements against voter deletions under the newly formed Sara Bangla Bicharadhin Voter Mancha ('all Bengal platform for those under adjudication'). Officials reportedly intercepted Kayal at his school, instructing him to remain on the premises for a lengthy interrogation.

Books, receipt books seized

Roy and Roy Chowdhury provided similar accounts of the searches. The activists expressed profound bewilderment at the items confiscated by the central agency during the searches, which primarily comprised legal documents and publicly available literature. According to the official seizure list, seen by The Wire, among items taken from Roy Chowdhury's residence are copies of the Bengali magazines Manavi Ekhon and Student Force, local leaflets addressing SIR-NRC issues, and ironically, legal photocopies of the NIA charge sheet in the very case the NIA is investigating. 

“They seized three books and a money receipt book for a fund raiser in support of political prisoners. All the books are readily available and not banned. When I pointed this out, the investigating officer said they look suspicious,” said Roy.

Roy Chowdhury said that the papers seized from his house were "all little magazines and leaflets, none of them banned, and court papers of the same case that they conducted the raid on."

"They are taking the court papers of the case they are working on as evidence," Roy Chowdhury stressed.

Following the conclusion of the raid at his house, Roy Chowdhury was served an official summons notice, instructing him to appear for further investigation at Ranchi.

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) strongly rebuked the central agency's actions, interpreting them as a move to engineer a climate of fear. Ranjit Sur of APDR, warned of the broader implications.

 “The government is trying to terrorise the organisers of the people’s movement in West Bengal. The people’s movement is gradually increasing, as we saw in the protests against the hawkers’ evictions, the deletion of voters and the tying up and parading of under trial prisoners. People are coming out on the streets, and this is something the government is afraid of,” Sur stated.

The Wire has reached out to the NIA for its comments on the searches. This report will be updated if the agency responds.

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