The State Intelligence Department (SID) has accorded protection to human rights lawyer and activist Asim Sarode, who has taken up cases against big conglomerates in the National Green Tribunal as well as against fringe right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha.
Mr. Sarode, founder of the Pune-based Sahyog Trust, said the authorities had not specified the nature or the source of the threat against him. “While I had not asked for any security from my end, I was intimated in September that the SID had come up with a list of more than 20 individuals working for social causes who were in need of protection. A committee of the Pune Police had decided the people who ought to be given protection,” he said.
Mr. Sarode, who is known for taking cases of environmental import critical of the establishment, told The Hindu that he received a terse communication from the special branch of the city police on October 30 that he was being assigned an armed security guard. “I have given a schedule of my activities to the police authorities. An armed guard has been accompanying me to court since November 1. He provides round-the-clock security,” the lawyer said.
In August, the SID accorded ‘X’ category security to Megha Pansare, Hamid Dabholkar and his sister, activist Mukta Dabholkar — family members of murdered rationalists Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar. A diary obtained from one of the suspects in the Gauri Lankesh murder case allegedly mentioned the three as possible targets of a radical Hindutva outfit.
Shivaji Bodkhe, Joint Police Commissioner of the Pune Police, said the protection accorded to Mr. Sarode was part of standard procedure and the lawyer was not on any ‘hit list’. “The SID reviews cases where certain groups or individuals could indulge in acts with the intent to harm prominent persons, whose actions or statements may have provoked them. Mr. Sarode’s name, along with others, came up during a review and we have given him protection with the aim of precluding any untoward incident,” Mr. Bodkhe told The Hindu.
He said a call on the threat level to the lawyer would be taken after three months.