Prasenjit Bose, an economist and activist based in Kolkata, and eight others were arrested earlier this week from the Deocha Pachami coal project area in the Md. Bazar block in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. The nine persons— four from Kolkata and five locals from Md. Bazar — have been booked for unlawful assembly under Section 149 and non-bailable charges of Section 333 of voluntarily causing hurt to public servant in discharge of his duties of the Indian Penal Code.
The First Information Report (FIR) lodged by sub-inspector Bandhan Deogharia has stated that the accused under the banner of Birbhum Jomi Jeeban Jeevika O Prakiti Bachao Mahasabha on February 20 held a meeting at the Dewangunj playground “to foment people, particularly Adivasi people having lands and dwellings under the Deocha Pachami Dewangunj Horisinga Coal area not to give their land for the said project and also not to allow the project to start”.
