Amnesty International, USA, Nov. 10, 2017.
Chandrasekhar Azad, a prominent Dalit rights activist has been held in administrative detention since 3 November 2017, the day after he was granted bail following over four months in prison.
Chandrasekhar Azad remained in detention for over four months, before he and 14 other arrested Dalit activists were granted bail on 2 November by the Allahabad High Court. Newspaper reports quoted the court stating that the cases against Azad appeared to have been politically motivated. The next day, before he was released from custody, Chandrasekhar Azad was arrested again on the same grounds under the National Security Act (NSA), an administrative detention law. Chandrasekhar Azad is the founder of the “Bhim Army”, a group of Dalit activists who campaign against caste-based discrimination and violence, and run about 300 schools for underprivileged Dalit children in Uttar Pradesh.
Villagers in Shabbirpur have commenced a hunger strike demanding Chandrasekhar Azad’s release. The NSA states that a non-judicial Advisory Board must submit a report to the Uttar Pradesh authorities with its opinion on whether there is sufficient cause to continue detaining an individual within seven weeks of his detention. Depending on what the report recommends, authorities may continue to detain Chandrasekhar Azad for up to one year without charge or trial.
