Mumbai: When he was barely 20 years old, Raghu Midiyami along with other youths of his age, led one of the most powerful and perhaps the longest (still ongoing) protests in the recent history of the Bastar region.
The protest, which began in May 2021 in Silger village in Sukma district of South Chhattisgarh, was in response to the rampant establishment of CRPF camps in and around villages in the Bastar region. It soon took a bloody turn when the armed forces indiscriminately shot at the protestors, killing three Adivasi villagers, including a 14-year-old boy.
In the years that followed, Midiyami remained at the forefront, questioning the state government for its extractive and violative policies, as well as the security agencies for the growing atrocities in the region. In press conferences and delegate meetings held in the region, Midiyami was always seen in the lead, negotiating and talking to the powers that be.
Three days ago, on Thursday (February 27), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested him for his alleged association with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) (CPI (Maoist)) organisation. Midiyami, who had always been available to both the police and the press, was accused of being part of the underground, banned movement. He is now 24 years old.
Midiyami, a resident of Parlagatta village in Sukma district, is one of the founding members of the Moolwasi Bachao Manch (MBM) – a people’s organisation formed in response to the government’s oppressive policies in the region. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a human rights body, while “strongly condemning” Midiyami’s arrest “over spurious charges of acting at the behest of Maoists,” points to the contribution made by MBM in the past years.
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The PUCL statement notes that the MBM has been “spearheading almost 30 democratic and peaceful sit-in protest sites all over Bastar Division for the past three years.” “Raghu Midiyami, along with many strong young voices of Bastar under the banner of MBM and independently, have been using the tools and methods provided to them by the constitution to highlight and correct the non-implementation of the PESA Act and the FRA Act in Bastar,” the statement adds.
Midiyami was arrested in connection with a two-year-old case. In connection with this FIR, registered on May 5, 2023, the local Chhattisgarh police had already arrested two young men, Gajendra Madvi and Laxman Kunjam, for allegedly being found in possession of Rs 6 lakh in banned Rs 2000 denomination notes and “incriminating pamphlets” related to the banned CPI (Maoist) party. The case, like over two dozen other cases, was eventually handed over to the NIA.
In the FIR, the agency points to Madvi’s association with MBM and Krantikari Kisan Sabha (KKS). The NIA, in the FIR, calls both MBM and KKS “frontal organisations” of the CPI (Maoist). While the FIR was registered in 2023, MBM was only banned in October 2024.
Midiyami’s lawyers point out that no specific role has been attributed to him in the case. “The FIR and the subsequent investigation do not show that Midiyami had any role in the alleged currency that was seized from those arrested in 2023,” Midiyami’s lawyer Shalini Gera told The Wire.
Midiyami, who was recuperating from injuries after a recent bike accident, was arrested in Dantewada district. His role, the NIA has claimed, emerged during the investigation. The NIA has already filed a chargesheet against Madvi and Kunjam. In a note released after Midiyami’s arrest, the NIA claimed: “The outfit has been engaged in the collection, storage, and disbursal of funds for CPI (Maoist), to further their anti-India agenda. As per NIA investigations, Raghu Midiyami was the nodal person for the distribution of the funds at the local level for staging and sustaining CPI (Maoist)-led protests.”
The NIA, in ten points, describes the basis for Midiyami’s arrest. The reasons it gives are protests against the security camps and government projects, which not just Midiyami but villagers across the region have been opposing. The right to protest, a fundamental right guaranteed under the Indian constitution, is almost a luxury in the region, with individuals participating in them criminalised and booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) law.
The camps that Midiyami and other Adivasis from the region are protesting against are notorious for surveillance and atrocities committed against the villagers. Innumerable cases of human rights violations at the hands of the security forces have been documented from the region.
Both the Chhattisgarh police and the NIA have claimed that Madvi and Kunjam were arrested with a stash of cash. Now, the NIA has claimed that Midiyami was involved in distributing funds to the banned terror organisation, without specifically mentioning how Midiyami had any role in the cash allegedly seized from Madvi and Kunjam.
In October last year, the Chhattisgarh government, through a notification, declared MBM a banned outfit. In the notification, however, the state government did not attribute any criminal act to the organisation. Instead, the notification states that the organisation has been opposing the state and Union government’s initiatives in “Maoist-affected areas” and has been a roadblock to developmental projects in the region by opposing the establishment of security camps.
In June last year, the Bijapur police arrested another MBM leader, a 25-year-old tribal rights activist, Suneeta Pottam. She was picked up in one case and then shown as an accused in as many as 12 cases. In the past year, several young Adivasi rights leaders from the region have been arrested and booked in multiple cases. The clampdown against activists runs parallel to the alarming number of killings, all in the name of “encounters,” that have taken place in the Bastar region.
So far, the police have booked Midiyami in only one case, besides the one filed against him, Pottam, and a few other MBM activists in 2021 when they were on their way to meet Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey in Raipur. They were all accused of violating Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which had been imposed in the region because of the rising COVID-19 cases. Several rights activists then accused the police of intentionally criminalising the activists to prevent them from reaching the governor.
