HRF sees police bid to implicate its leader in case

VIJAYAWADA: The Human Rights Forum condemned the attempts of the police to implicate K Jayasree, AP State vice-president of the federation, in a criminal case on patently “absurd charges” and project her as a person associated with and working at the behest of the proscribed Maoist party based on a ‘confession’ statement by an accused in a case registered under the UAPA and Sedition, at Piduguralla of Guntur district.

In a press release, VS Krishna and S Jeevan Kumar, HRF (AP&TS) coordination committee members, said the contents of the ‘confession’ that incriminated her are pure fiction. “We strongly condemn and reject these insidious attempts by the police to frame human rights activists. Frankly, these tiring old methods of suppressing dissent need to be dismissed with the contempt they deserve. They have no place in the civilized and democratic society we aspire to be,” they said. 

Jayasree, a founding member of the HRF and resident of Proddatur in Kadapa district, has consistently highlighted rights violations and worked towards their redressal. Often, her activism has been directed at exposing the failures of the government, whether of the TDP or the current ruling dispensation, they added. 

Jayasree has campaigned against mining for uranium by the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd at Thummalapalli of Kadapa district while pointing out how the mining is poisoning the land and depleting groundwater tables. She also stood by Gandikota project displaced and highlighted the manner in which hundreds of families were left in the lurch by successive governments. 

“It is this legitimate activism that the police are now trying to scuttle by seeking to implicate her in a criminal case. We feel obtaining a concocted ‘confession’ from an accused in another case alleging a connection with the Maoists is the first step in that direction. It is evident that the police are seeking to project her and the HRF as Maoists,” they said. 

They reiterated that the HRF is not an appendage of either the Maoists or any other political party. “We are a rights organisation seeking to perpetuate a human rights culture in society,” they asserted and demanded that the police desist from these attempts.