New Delhi: As Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited the Babhani region of the state’s Sonbhadra district for an event to honor Scheduled Tribes and to distribute land claim certificates, Adivasi rights acivist Sukalo Gond was detained by the police.
Sukalo is the president of the the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP). She was aiming to attend the meeting chaired by Adityanath in a bid to provide a memorandum detailing land claims of villagers hailing from 22 villages in the region.
However, she was detained earlier in the morning ahead of the event. Speaking to The Wire, Kismati Gond, an activist accompanying Sukalo said, “She is still detained, we were together and she was picked up and sent off the station. No one is being allowed to visit the station.”
Sukalo has been active in the struggle for land rights for tribals in the Sonbhadra region, has a 70% tribal population. She was previously incarcerated for a month in Mirzapur in 2015 amid the campaign to stop work on the Kanhar Dam project.
The Wire reached out to the Superintendent of Police (SP) Yashveer Singh’s office, and the PRO stated that Sukalo Gond will be released soon. However, he did not answer questions as to why she was detained in the first place.
