'Big Brother is watching'

He was arrested in Nagpur on May 8 2007 and branded a Naksalvadi by the Maharashtra police A generic term used to describe any member of a militant Communist group it39s how they first presented Arun Ferreira to the press The word 39Naxal39 had by that time begun to guarantee headlines Ferreira and three other men were picked up from Deekshabhoomi mdash the monument where Babasaheb Ambedkar and lakhs of others converted to Buddhism in 1956 mdash and charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act the Indian Arms Act and 353 of the Indian Penal Code IPC assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty According to the police Ferreira was state chief of the CPI Maoist communication and propaganda wing They said he operated under a number of aliases and was working on carrying out a conspiracy Free at last Arun Ferreira is the cynosure of all lenses at a packed press conference in the city post his release The conference was held at the Press Club According to Ferreira however all he had been doing is working with slum dwellers in Mumbai and a youth group called the Naujawan Bharat Sabha Another thing he had done is organise protests against the massacre of a Dalit family in Khairlanji in 2006 It was enough to convince the state he was a threat A little over two years after these allegations were made and following further allegations by Ferreira of human rights violations in jail he was acquitted of all charges The court also referred to some of the evidence put forth by police as contradictory and granted him bail As Ferreira stepped out of Nagpur Central Jail to meet his parents he was pulled into a van by the Gadchiroli police and slapped with a fresh set of charges This act played out in full view of a disbelieving public comprising his family and friends As a muchpublicised war against Naxalites raged in jungles and newspapers across the country Ferreira became just another name mentioned casually at parties in Bandra or meetings between alumni of St Xavier39s College his alma mater His fight against the system for that is what it always has been was relegated to a few paragraphs in city dailies Few stopped to ask 39What happened39 On January 4 this year following an incarceration of four years and eight months he finally walked free raising disturbing questions about how our law enforcement agencies operate in his wake If police believed he was conspiring against the state why did the courts disagree I got in touch with Arun Ferreira because as someone who had seen the underside of our justice system up close he was in a better position to provide a few answers than most others This is what he had to say The Interview Q There were eight cases under Sections 10 13 18 20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA and one under the Arms Act lodged against you What according to the court is the current status on these Have you been completely exonerated Ans I was initially arrested in May 2007 in a case in Nagpur under Sections 10 13 18 20 of the UAPA and Arms Act I was then implicated in another six cases at Gondia district under various sections of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code IPC These were regarding offences of blasting police vehicles murder attempt to murder arson assault etc allegedly committed by Naxals In 2008 when some youths belonging to an NGO called Deshbhakti Yuva Manch in Chandrapur were arrested under UAPA I was implicated and made party to their case So I was arraigned in eight cases under UAPA in total Additionally while in prison we political prisoners at Nagpur Central Prison went on an indefinite hunger strike in April 2008 It lasted 27 days None of our legitimate demands were met and instead an additional criminal case of attempt to suicide was registered against us All these nine cases were tried while I was in prison I was acquitted in ALL of them The court was compelled to do so because the prosecution failed to produce any evidence against me I was released from prison on September 27 2011 acquitted of all charges levelled against me by the Nagpur Gondia and Chandrapur police On my release I was immediately abducted by civil dressed police personnel and rearrested in two cases at Gadchiroli These cases deal with armed encounters between Naxals and the police in February and April 2007 I was acquitted in one of these cases in December 2011 As for the other case I have been released on bail pending trial This case is currently being heard at the Sessions Court at Gadchiroli and I am required to attend court dates approximately once every fortnight The trial has yet to commence but court dates require my attendance Ranting and raving Arundhati Roy at a press meet in the city nearly two years ago She had cleaved into the media calling it lsquocorporate mediarsquo on the occasion QYour lawyer refers to your rearrest in September as abduction How would you define it Ansu00a0u00a0According to the law Article 22 of the Constitution and under various sections of the Criminal Procedure Code and as per guidelines set by the Supreme Court in the DK Basu case relating to custodial death and torture police are to inform the arrested person of the grounds of arrest inform his family or lawyers of his place of detention and make the arrest in uniform along with badges displaying name and designation On September 27 all these strictures were blatantly violated In fact there were no circumstances that called for such action Further there exists a lawful procedure where I could have been arrested in the two offences they wanted me for by obtaining a warrant from the Court Hence we called it an act of 39abduction and secret confinement39 especially as it was done in full view of my lawyers and family members They willfully did not inform my lawyers or family In my years of prison we have seen that this is a practice the police has been resorting to so as to artificially inflate statistics of arrests This has been illustrated in Point 10 of a petition filed by me quotBeing confident that in the name of the fight against Naxalism they can rest assured that their higherups will provide them immunity against punitive action for their violations of fundamental rights they are becoming increasingly more blatant in rearresting after release on acquittal or bail and are even resorting to openly illegal acts such as abduction from prison premises secret confinement and the like They then attempt to portray before higherups and in the media and elsewhere that these arrests are major successes of the investigating and prosecuting police authorityquotRemember all police personnel in Naxalaffected areas get a minimum 15 per cent increase in pay scale and also abundant unregulated funding for antiNaxal operations Hence they have their own interests in artificially increasing arrests of socalled Naxals Q So this method of rearresting someone is a fairly common ploy Ans It is a common practice In fact the exdistrict judge the highest judicial authority in Gadchiroli district has even referred to it as quota modus operandiquot of the police in rearresting Naxal accused immediately after release The judge called it a violation of fundamental rights of the accused In my study on these rearrests as part of my post graduate diploma course in Human Rights I have illustrated cases of such accused One tribal woman was rearrested three times in this manner Her total period of incarceration as an under trial was eight years Q The Indian Association of People39s Lawyers IAPL demanded an apology and compensation of 25 lakh before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court for infringement of your fundamental rights What happened to that writ petition Ans This requires some clarification I as the petitioner have demanded the apology and compensation Some of my lawyers representing me belong to the IAPL The IAPL is not the petitioner in my case Q You have spoken in the past of the democratic space shrinking from 2004 onwards What exactly did you meant by that Ans I have spoken of the democratic space shrinking post 911 especially with the passage of the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act POTA POTA included a list of organizations and parties as proscribed When POTA was repealed and UAPA passed in 2004 all such chapters were merely reproduced in the new law The list of proscribed organizations for example was exactly the same as in POTA The problem with banning organizations is it basically bans a particular ideology A 39thought39 becomes an offence under this new law Hence any organization or person subscribing to the radical left or Islam is construed as a Naxal or Jehadi In my case I was arrested on the grounds that literature such as magazines interviews of Arundhati Roy etc were seized from me These special antiterror laws such as UAPA or the Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA give unbridled power to the police to arrest abduct kill or force quotdisappearancequot on any dissent they see as a threat Ever since our Prime Minister and Home Minister declared the Maoist movement as the quotsingle biggest internal security threatquot the police machinery is keen to see 39red39 in all peoples39 movements The banning of ideologies only drives them underground and is never an acceptable longterm solution The rationale behind this attack on the Maoist movement is related to the compulsion of big corporations to exploit the mineral rich deposits of central India I won39t go further on this topic as it is worthy of another interview Q Could you tell me about alleged human rights violations you noticed during your term in prison Ans Life in prison brought me in touch with the realities of our criminal justice system Things I had earlier read I now experienced Archaic prison rules and practices followed since British times to discipline 39uncivilized natives39 rather than reform civilians abound Every procedure from the admission of new inmates to routines of eating and sleeping are done with an aim to degrade the inmate The strip searches overcrowded barracks attitude of officials medical facilities etc all violate human dignity On the other hand the judicial process too is skewed against the poor Hundreds are denied bail for frivolous reasons Money decides the nature and duration of the judicial process and also its outcome Prison was filled mainly with the poor and marginalized Q How do you spend your time these days What keeps you occupied Ans It has been almost four months since my release Life was chaotic at first The monotonous routine of waking up opening of the barracks rations served and the day coming to an end with the closing of barracks was suddenly substituted with unexpected phone calls television shows and visitors It made me realize how totally unsuccessful prisons are in preparing a person for society Incarceration of four years and eight months temporarily incapacitated me I wonder how those who are released after 2025 years cope with lifeI pass much of my time getting back into life enjoying time with family and friends reading watching movies and having discussions with other political and social activists The biggest fear is of further action by the State The fear that Big Brother is watching every step I take waiting for every opportunity to throw me back into prison for another five years or more searching for other avenues to silence my voice From the experience of other political prisoners who have been released I take this fear as a real threat On the other hand I have received tremendous support from many over the past four months Sharing my experiences with them has been an eyeopener For activists involved in the struggle for true democracy my release has been their victory Nevertheless like me there are many others who remain incarcerated tangled in numerous criminal proceedings During the past few months I have been helping in legal efforts for their release Q Do you think your case was represented adequately or unfairly by the media Did you get a chance to put across your point of view Ans My experience with the media regarding my arrest and incarceration has been conflicting After my initial arrest the media mainly carried unconfirmed stories mouthed by the police It added to the fear and apprehension family my friends and I went through Some sections of the press even prodded the police department to take more aggressive postures At the same time voices in support of me were merely quelled by this dinOn the other hand after my rearrest in September 2011 it was the voice of support that was loudest in the media Images of my abduction were well carried by the media and hit the consciousness of the common man hard Sympathetic sections campaigned for my cause Some fellow activists even used social media to generate support All this was definitely instrumental in bringing about my release As in all instances of human rights violations publicity helps contain further atrocities In my case too the media played a supportive role Lindsay Pereira is Editor MiD DAY Online twittercomlindsaypereira Evasive In his first public appearance after getting bail Arun Ferreira spoke about the plight of political prisoners in India at an event held by the Committee For Release of Political Prisoners in Mumbai at the Press Club in the city During the press conference Ferreira was asked if he was in favour of violence to which he replied quotThere are movements which were meant to be nonviolent Due to circumstances violence creeps in In such a scenario it is not right for one to back out from the movement At least I wouldn39t do thatquot Red Alert A retired Army officer moves the Supreme Court to restrain the Orissa government from releasing jailed Naxals in exchange for an abducted MLA SC agrees to hear the PIL on Orissarsquos hostage crisis today Agenciesu00a0