Uttar Pradesh govt to release Bhim Army chief, withdraws NSA

LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government announced the release of Bhim Army leader Chandra Shekhar Azad alias Ravan on Thursday, more than a year after the Dalit outfit founder was slapped with the National Security Act (NSA) for allegedly inciting violence in Saharanpur in the wake of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes (SC).

Azad was arrested in June 2017 and subsequently NSA was slapped on him. The current period of NSA arrest was to expire on October 31. The government denied that the decision on Azad’s premature release was taken to pre-empt any adverse order by Supreme Court, which the Bhim Army had approached two months ago.

The government also denied that the move was aimed to placate Dalits in UP ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls following criticism of the BJP government in Maharashtra over the arrests of five civil rights activists last month for their alleged links with Maoists.

"Chandra Shekhar alias Ravan's mother had submitted a plea. Keeping the current situation in mind, the government is taking a sympathetic view and is directing the Saharanpur administration to release him with immediate effect,” the UP government’s order said.

The UP home department confirmed that his release was unconditional. This came even as the Saharanpur district magistrate had submitted an adverse report two weeks ago against Azad.

‘Our war against BJP is on’

The order also said that Azad’s two aides, Sonu and Shiv Kumar, would be released ahead of their term completion on October 14.

Amnesty International described the development as a “wonderful” news for human rights defenders across India. “The UP government must now ensure that Chandrashekar Azad is not targeted for his work to empower Dalit groups and is not incarcerated without a fair trial,” Asmita Basu, programmes director, Amnesty International India, said.

Ravan’s family asserted that the outfit’s movement to safeguard Dalit rights would continue in UP. “Our war against BJP is not over. The atrocities against Dalits would not be forgiven. We had taken a decision not to go ahead with any protests in India, but we would continue to meet people and inform them on what the saffron party has done to our people. When Azad comes out, we will discuss and leave the decision to our people on whether to contest elections or support a political alliance in 2019,” Ravan’s brother Kamal told TOI.