We, the undersigned teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University strongly condemn...

We, the undersigned teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University strongly condemn the arrest of Hem Mishra and the subsequent framing of him by the Maharashtra Police as a ‘prominent Naxal courier’. Hem was till recently, a student of JNU, in BA Chinese and a known student and cultural activist. He was abducted by the Maharashtra police sometimes around 20th August, kept in illegal custody for some days and then sent to ten days of police remand, which has now been shockingly extended.


He was neither produced within 24 hours of his arrest in court, nor was his family informed about the arrest. We are appalled to know that he was not even allowed to meet his lawyer in custody and that bolsters the possibility of him being physically and mentally tortured in custody. The police have not been able to produce any evidence against Hem for his alleged crime and yet they continue to keep him behind bars.

Arbitrary arrests and framing of democratic rights and cultural activists is nothing new. The intolerance of the state is exemplified by the fact that any voice of dissent or protest is being consistently met with similar repression, slapping of bogus charges and incarcerations. We strongly condemn such false framing of activists and demand Hem’s immediate release.

Signed/

Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, SIS, JNU

Prof. Nivedita Menon, SIS, JNU

Prof. Chamanlal, (retd.) SLL&CS, JNU

Prof. Avijit Pathak, SSS, JNU

Prof. C.P Chandrashekhar, SSS, JNU

Prof. K.J. Mukherjee, SBT, JNU

Prof. Mohan Rao, SSS, JNU

Prof. Arun Kumar, SSS, JNU

Prof. A.K. Ramakrishnan, SIS, JNU

Prof. Tanika Sarkar, SSS, JNU

Prof. G.Srinivas, SSS, JNU

Prof. Supriya Verma, SSS, JNU

Prof. Rohan D’Souza, SSS, JNU

Prof. Arun Kumar, SSS, JNU

Prof. Deepak Kumar, SSS, JNU

Prof. M.S.S. Pandian, SSS, JNU