Press Release
Jeeten Marandi and others in Death Row are Targets of Indian State’s Conspiracy! REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRATIC FRONT
Contact: revolutionarydemocracy@gmail.com*<revolutionarydemocracy@gmail.com>
*, 9910455993*Press Release
27 June 2011
Jeeten Marandi and others in Death Row are Targets of Indian State’s Conspiracy!
Immediately Withdraw the Death Sentence Pronounced against Adivasi and
Dalit Cultural Activists Jeeten Marandi, Anil Ram, Manoj Rajwar and
Chhatrapati Mandal!*
The Giridih Lower court has awarded death sentence to peoples’ cultural
activists Jeeten Marandi, Manoj Rajwar, Chhatrapati Mandal and Anil Ram in
connection with the Chilkhari killings. On 27 October, 2007, Anup Marandi,
the son of Babulal Marandi, ex-chief minister of Jharkhand, was shot dead by
the Maoists along with 19 members of the Nagarik Suraksha Samiti, a
vigilante gang promoted and patronised by the ex-chief minister. Jeeten was
deliberately and falsely implicated in this case, because Jeeten as a
cultural activist has been exposing and opposing the anti-people and
repressive policies of the state, through his organisations *Jharkhand Aven*and
*Krantikari Janvadi Morcha*. Through his songs, plays and articles he
consistently opposed displacement, corporate loot and state repression.
Jeeten had been arrested and jailed in the past too as he tried to spread
consciousness among people through his cultural activities about the
anti-people policies of the government. The state wants to strangle his bold
voice. He was being implicated in the Chilkhari case because he wrote an
article in three parts in a Hindi daily *Prabhat Khabar*. In the article he
tried to explore the reasons behind the spreading of the Naxalite movement
where he analysed and exposed the anti-people role of the state and showed
the close relations the Naxalites have with the people. On 5th April 2008,
after the third part of the article was published, the police immediately
arrested its writer when he was returning home from a state committee
meeting of *Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan, *which took place in Ratu
Road, Ranchi.
The state had first put the charge of sedition on Jeeten Marandi where they
alleged that he has given ‘inflammatory speeches’ in the rally that took
place on the issue of release of political prisoners on 1st October 2007, in
front of Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. After that a series of false cases were
slapped on him. Along with the Chilkhari case, the state had put two cases
from Thana Gaon, one case from Pirtand police station and two cases from
Teesri police station. It must be noted that when the cases of Pirtand and
Teesri P.O. took place, Jeeten was in jail for different cases. This clearly
reflects the real intention of the government to implicate him in false
cases to silence his voice.
Even in the Chilkhari case, the police denied the possibility of involvement
of Jeeten Marandi. While reporting the incident of Chilkhari the Hindi daily
*Prabhat Khabar *published Jeeten’s photo in the first page calling him the
prime accused of the case. Later the editor of *Prabhat Khabar* acknowledged
his mistake and publicly apologized to Jeeten. That time the police officers
also confirmed that the prime accused of Chilkahri case was not cultural
activist Jeeten Marandi, but allegedly a Maoist commander of the same name.
But later the police changed its statement and said both cultural activist
Jeeten Marandi and Maoist commander Jeeten Marandi are involved in the case.
In order to involve the cultural activist Jeeten Marandi, three new
witnesses were incorporate in the case. This is how the conspiracy to
falsely implicate Jeeten Marandi was hatched.
On 24 March 2009 Jeeten Marandi was produced in the Sessions court for the
Chilkhari case. There he was waiting in the Sessions lock up along with
other accused, when a person who claimed himself to be the OC of Giridih
Town police station came and met Jeeten Marandi, and left. Later the police
constables forcefully took Jeeten out alone and took him to the Sessions
court. Outside the Sessions lock up the Giridih P.S. O.C showed Jeeten to
some people and said this is Jeeten Marandi, remember his face. Then all
those people followed Jeeten till the court. In the sessions court they
tried to take him out without signing the attendance register. Later the
people to whom the police had shown Jeeten in the court gave false witness
and said Jeeten Marandi was present when the incident happened. Jeeten
Marandi even intimated the court of this whole incident. None of these
so-called witnesses were the family members of the ones who died in
Chilkhari. They were all members of Babulal Marandi’s party Jharkhand Vikas
Morcha. The Sessions court sentenced Jeeten Marandi and three others to
death on basis of these ‘witnesses’.
The sentence awarded to Jeeten Marandi and three others once again exposes
the puppet nature of the criminal court procedures of the government and
police. This is the way the criminal court implicates and frames people who
resist the state policies or raise their voice against oppression or
injustice. Especially the most oppressed sections, the dalits, adivasis,
backwards sections and minorities are always targeted and are given the
harshest of punishments like death sentence by the court. The ones who have
been given death sentence in Chilkhari case, i.e. Jeeten Marandi, Manoj
Rajwar, Chhatrapati Mandal and Anil Ram are also from extremely poor
adivasi, dalit, and backward families. The use of the judicial process and
criminal court proceedings that led into the capital punishment of Jeeten
Marandi is not a new thing. Earlier also the revolutionary leader from
Andhra Pradesh Kista Gaud and Bhumaiyya were sentenced to death. In Barah,
Bihar, five poor peasants have been given death sentence. Justice Bhagvati
from the Supreme Court had accepted earlier that ‘many times the police
create witnesses in order to prove their cases’.
In the same case the Supreme Court said that death sentences can be awarded
in the ‘rarest of the rare’ cases. But despite that in the Indian judicial
system death sentences are being distributed like freebies. According to a
report by the Amnesty International, as many as 140 death sentences were
handed out in India during 2006-07. In 130 countries death sentence has
already been abolished. But the country that claims to be the world’s
largest democracy is not ready to end the practice of death sentence so that
it can use death sentences in largest numbers to strangle the voices of the
revolutionaries and the people who dream to change the society and can
implement the policies of loot and exploitation without any resistance or
dissent.
Revolutionary Democratic Front demands the immediate withdrawal of the death
sentence of Jeeten Marandi and three others and their unconditional release.
The politicians and police officers involved in the conspiracy against
Jeeten and the rest three must be punished. Death sentence must be
abolished. RDF appeals to all intellectuals and democratic people and
organizations to unite and intensify the struggle for the release and
justice of Jeeten, Anil, Manoj and Chhatrapati without delay.
*Raj Kishore
G N Saibaba*
*General Secretary
Deputy Secretary*
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