Activists from various human rights and people’s movements took to the streets on Friday to protest against the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) recent actions. A mass rally was organized in Kolkata to denounce the NIA’s crackdown on political and mass movement activists across West Bengal. The march, called by multiple mass organizations, began at College Street and concluded at Dharmatala. The demonstrators demanded the repeal of repressive laws, including UAPA, PSA, NSA, and the NIA Act.
A participant in the rally stated, “False cases are being fabricated against activists by the NIA, STF, and the police throughout the country. We demand the immediate withdrawal of all these baseless charges.”
On October 1, the NIA conducted simultaneous raids on the residences of 11 activists in different parts of Bengal. Those targeted in the searches included journalist Prosenjit Chakraborty, labour rights activist Sudipta Paul, women’s movement activist Bipasha Sarkar, political activist Gaur Majumdar, researcher and filmmaker Abhigyan Sarkar, and several others. During the raids, electronic devices such as mobiles, laptops, hard drives, books, and newspapers were seized.
Human rights advocate Rahul Chakravarty expressed concerns about the integrity of the investigation, stating, “The NIA did not provide any hash values during the seizure of electronic devices, which raises fears that evidence could be tampered with to establish fabricated ‘Maoist links,’ similar to the Bhima Koregaon case.”
Ranjit Sur, Secretary of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), echoed these concerns, saying, “The fascist BJP government is using the NIA as a tool to suppress dissent by falsely accusing individuals of having Maoist links. We fear this case is being handled similarly to the Bhima Koregaon case, where dissenting voices were silenced through fabricated charges.”
Sur added, “We want to make it clear that we are not afraid. We call on all democracy-loving people of the state to stand up against the fascist BJP.” The protest drew significant attention, with activists urging the public to continue resisting any attempts to suppress democratic dissent.
