In the police-mafia regime of Mayawati-ruled UP, ‘Gangster Act’ and custodial torture is the reward for struggling for the landless poor.

On the face of it, Mayawati’s government appears to be at loggerheads with the Congress in UP. But when it comes to the nexus with the land mafia in Pilibhit, the UP police and local Congress leaders have united to falsely frame and torture a young CPI(ML) activist.

Afroz Alam, member of the CPI(ML)’s state standing committee and National Executive member of the All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM) and seven other CPI(ML) activists who have been leading a struggle in the workers’ settlement of Rahul Nagar for land titles, were called by the police station in Pilibhit on 2 July, on the pretext of talks. They were then arrested and serious false charges were filed against them – including arson (Section 436), and SC/ST Act. They were badly beaten and subjected to brutal torture using ‘rollers’ on their thighs. Eventually when the matter came to District Sessions Court and the Court questioned the police’s conduct, ‘Gangster Act’ was invoked against Afroz and the others, ensuring that the hearing for that case will now take place in the ‘Gangster Court’, Bareilly.

Comrade Afroz is 34 years old, from a working class, Leftist family of Rae Bareilly. A left activist from his student days, he joined AISA and the CPI(ML) in the 1990s. After completing his M.Com from Lucknow University, he became a full-time communist organizer, working in Bareilly, Moradabad and then Pilibhit. He is now a National Executive member of the All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM).

In Pilibhit, he has led struggles of agricultural labourers against the eviction of settlements of the rural poor in the name of afforestation and the Tiger Project. He has organized struggles for redistribution of thousands of acres of land, that had been illegally grabbed by land mafia, among agricultural labourers and poor peasants.

In 2010, he organised a popular struggle against the attempts by land mafia and poachers led by Congress leader B M Singh to evict the residents of Rahul Nagar Mazdoor Basti in Pilibhit, and turn it into a farm house. Around 350 families now residing in this colony (which had been created as a result of a decades-old struggle led by CPI(ML)) are struggling for land title rights. The local police and administration has been cooperating with the land grab attempts by Congress leaders and the land-forest mafia all along. As a result of the struggle, B M Singh was jailed, but in a vindictive action, the police and administration had jailed Comrade Afroz too.

After his release from jail, Comrade Afroz organised a successful hartal (strike) by agricultural labourers under the banner of the All India Agricultural Labourers’ Association (AIALA) demanding the redistribution of 1850 acres of village community land that had been grabbed by the land mafia in Bhara Pachpeda. As a result of the strike, the administration had been forced to have the land vacated. In the zila panchayat elections, the CPI(ML) candidate won as a result of the political assertion of the agricultural labourers.

On 15 August last year, a dalit youth Rampal was arrested for an inter-caste love affair and beaten to death in custody in Barkheda thana. The CPI(ML) in Comrade Afroz’s leadership had spearheaded a struggle that resulted in the guilty police personnel being jailed. In particular, this incident has made the local police most vindictive towards Comrade Afroz and the CPI(ML).

When Mayawati visited the Trans Sharda area, which has a substantial dalit presence, she failed to announce any measures to protect the people from flooding of the Sharda river. Comrade Afroz had launched a struggle to demand the construction of a dam and distribution of land grabbed by the land mafia among those affected by the ‘katan.’ A hunger strike was to be started on these demands on 15 July. In order to thwart this struggle, revenge themselves for the jailing of police personnel in the Rampal case, and serve the interests of the land mafia, Comrade Afroz and other CPI(ML) activists have been arrested on false charges and tortured.

During the hearing in the District Sessions Court on 3 August, the Court asked the police why Afroz and the others had been tortured, and asked the police to respond within 2 days. Sensing the possibility that the Court might order their release, the police filed ‘Gangster Act’ on all the 8 CPI(ML) activists the very same evening. Now the Gangster Act case will have to be heard in the ‘Gangster Court’, Bareilly.

In UP, as in the whole country, people’s movements are facing severe repression. While corporate houses and mafia-criminal forces are grabbing land, minerals and other resources, leading to huge corruption, activists and movements that challenge this loot and defend the rights of the poor, are being arrested, jailed and tortured. Several protests in Pilibhit as well as a dharna in Lucknow have been held to demand the release of Comrade Afroz and other activists. On 9 August, the CPI(ML) has called for a country-wide Jail Bharo against corruption, price rise and repression. In Pilibhit, the main issue of the Jail Bharo will be the demand to release Comrade Afroz and the other CPI(ML) comrades.