This Article is From Aug 19, 2010

Tamil Nadu: Human rights activists jailed on impersonation charges

Tirunelvelli, Tamil Nadu: Tamil Nadu police have arrested five human rights activists on charges of impersonation. Their offence: they were on a fact-finding mission against a sub inspector facing torture charges. Four of them are Dalits.

Police say these activists of the Dalit Foundation in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelvelli district posed as government employees and tried to extract some documents from a local police station.

But activists tell a different story. They say those arrested were part of a training programme run by an NGO- People's Watch. They were sent on a fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of police torture of a Dalit youth. But the police allegedly arrested them and slapped fake charges.

International organizations including Amnesty International have sought the release of these activists. While human rights are taught in schools and colleges, clearly those who are campaigning for it are often at the receiving end.


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