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This is a site of lists. From the name of the site, it would be apparent that these are not pleasant lists. To clarify, the people in these lists are/were good, honorable people. What is unpleasant/infamous about the lists are the circumstances in which these people found themselves.

The site has no graphics. I believe that the lists carry their own message. The links from the names have more information about the people. If you like to discuss what you read, please go here.

List 1: Social activists imprisoned/threatened/killed in India: Last updated on July 22, 2010.

  1. Lalit Mehta, founder of Vikas Sahyog Kendra, an NGO. Status: Killed on May 14-15, 2008 after exposing corruption in National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Jharkhand's Palamau district.
  2. Narayan Hareka, Naib Sarpanch. Status: Died under mysterious circumstances while investigating irregularities in the NREGS in Koraput, Orissa.
  3. Jalil Andrabi, lawyer and human rights activist in Jammu & Kashmir. Status: Disappeared and body found with hands tied on 27th March, 1996, days before he was due to attend the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
  4. Dr. Binayak Sen, human rights and health activist. National Vice President and Chhattisgarh General Secretary of the People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL). Status: Imprisoned for more than two years under the Special Public Security Act, 2005, (PSA) of the state of Chattisgarh, India. Update: Granted bail by the Supreme Court of India on May 25, 2009
  5. Sapamcha Kangleipal Meetei, President of the Manipur Forward Youth Front. Status: Arrested in Imphal,Manipur for having organised a public discussion on “Arming the Civilians and Its Possible Consequences (in Manipur)” and reportedly demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister of Manipur in response to his failure in terms of governance.
  6. T. G. Ajay,  a film-maker and human rights defender who has been documenting problems faced by adivasi (indigenous) communities in protecting their rights, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Member of the state executive committee of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL). Status: Arrested under the Chhattisgarh State Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA).
  7. Shanmugam Manjunath, employee of Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL) working to curb oil malpractices in his territory. Status: Murdered on 19th November 2005 in Uttar Pradesh, India.
  8. Sarita & Mahesh, social activists and members of the Institute for Research and Action (IRA) doing development work. Status: Murdered on 24 January, 2004 in Gaya, Bihar, India.
  9. Satyendra Dubey, engineer employed by the National Highway Authority of India who sent a letter to the Prime Minister's office detailing systemic corruption in the National Highway Authority of India. Status: Murdered on 27 November 2003 in Gaya, Bihar, India.
  10. Shankar Guha Neogi, labor leader and founder of the Chattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh (CMSS) which fought for the rights of over 8,000 iron-ore miners of Dalli Rajhara in Durg district of Madhya Pradesh, India. Status: Killed on September 28, 1991 in the Durg-Bhilai area in Chattisgarh, India. 
  11. Kameshwar Yadav, NREGA activist, questioned the nexus flourishing among officers, leaders, contractors and middlemen regarding minor irrigation work in Deori, Jharkhand, India. Status: Killed on June 7, 2008 in Gaadi, Jharkhand, India.
  12. Tapas (Vimal) Soren, NREGA activist working in Hazaribagh District, Jharkhand. Status: Self immolated himself and died on July 2, 2008 at Charhi Chowk in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand after being local officials refused to release funds for work done by him and others in a NREGA project. Here are his last words.
  13. A.T.Babu, an anti-liquor campaigner and State Convenor of the National Association of People's Movements (NAPM) in Karnataka, India. Status: Killed on 21st July, 2008 in front of two of his coworkers at Mayanagaram, Karnataka, India. Here are a couple moving  tributes to the man.
  14. Navleen Kumar, social activist who fought for the property rights of tribals in Thane, Maharashtra. Status: Killed on June 19, 2002 by two men who stabbed her to death on the roof of her appartment building at Nallasopara, Maharashtra.
  15. Manoj Kumar Gupta, Executive Engineer in the Public Works Department, Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh. Status: Beaten and tortured to death on December 24, 2008 after he refused to pay up a sum of Rupees 50 lakh for the birthday celebrations of Mayawati, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
  16. Abhay Sahu, President of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation leading the agitation against POSCO, the South Korean steel major in Jagatsinghpur district, Orissa, was arrested on 12 October, 2008. More information on him here. 
  17. Shamin Modi, a senior activist of the Shramik Adivasi Sangathan, exposed the corrupt nexus of mining Mafia and politicians operating in the reserved forests of Harda and Betul District in Madhya Pradesh. Status: Brutally attacked on 24 July, 2009 at her residence in Mumbai. Previously, she had been arrested on charges of kidnapping on 10 February, 2009 at Harda, Madhya Pradesh. A video on people demanding her release is here.
  18. Venkatesh, a RTI activist in Bangalore, had been instrumental in saving BDA property worth Rs 35 crore. He earned the ire of loan sharks by using the RTI act to expose encroachments and filing cases against encroachers. Status: Killed on April 8, 2009 under mysterious circumstances in Bangalore, Karnataka.
  19. Prashant Rahi, a social activist and a former journalist for the Statesman newspaper, who spent years trying to organize landless landless laborers in Uttarakhand state. Status: Arrested in December 2007 and in jail since.
  20. Satish Shetty, a RTI activist who exposed corrupt land deals and illegal constructions near Pune, Maharashtra. Status: Killed by three or four men who stabbed him as he was returning from a walk near his house on January 13, 2010
  21. Amit Jethwa, a RTI activist who filed several RTI and PIL petitions against illegal mining in the Gir forests in the Junagadh district of Gujarat. Status: Killed by some men who shot him dead as he was coming out of his lawyer's office in Ahmedabad, India on July 20, 2010.

 

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