India -Lawyers fighting police atrocities in Bastar allege they are being forced to leave

Days after Scroll contributor Malini Subramaniam at Bastar in Chattisgarh came under pressure from local groups and the police following to her reportage on police atrocities, Isha Khandewal, the lawyer representing Malini and a member of legal aid group JagLAG, says they are being forced to leave Jagdalpur. JagLAG (Jagdalpur Legal Aid group), a non-profit that has been providing free aid to tribal communities in south Chhattisgarh’s five Naxal-affected districts, chose to legally represent Malini Subramaniam following a physical assault on her property in Bastar on February 8.

In an email release on Thursday, Isha Khandelwal of JagLAG wrote, “Late last night, police visited our landlord – who is a driver by profession, and took him away to the police station. He was kept there till wee hours of this morning, and dropped back in a police vehicle; his car having been impounded. Our badly shaken landlord informed us at 2:00 am this morning that he has no option but to ask us to vacate our house and office within a week.”“Our landlord’s car is still in the police station, as he struggles with another day of bewilderment. At the time of writing, even Malini’s husband, Ashim, is being held inside the police station and not being let out,” she writes further.