106 tribal students served notice after Oct 25 protest

Mumbai Police served notices to 106 tribal students booked after a Shivaji Park protest demanding safer schools and better hostel facilities.

MUMBAI: The state’s clampdown on youth-led protests continues, with the Mumbai Police serving a notice on 106 tribal students after they were booked for attempting to stage an agitation at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on October 25.

106 tribal students served notice after Oct 25 protest

The development mirrors the action taken against young protestors during a series of recent agitations led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) for educational reforms and against alleged irregularities in the special revision of the electoral rolls. These protests, some of them large gatherings in Mumbai, saw hundreds/thousands (pls check) being detained en masse, booked and served notice on similar grounds.

When tribal students, rallying under the Gen Z Jan Akrosh Morcha, attempted to protest on Sunday, they were met with the same response from the police. They were demanding the resignation of the Maharashtra tribal development minister and removal of key bureaucrats for reasons ranging from safety concerns, to the lack of basic facilities in government-run residential schools, abysmal hostels facilities, and the abolition of centralised kitchens.

These students have now been served notice under Section 35(3) of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), a procedural requirement that instructs them to appear before the police for an inquiry within 14 days and to appear before the court, if needed.

“Registering criminal cases against the students instead of resolving their grievances is a matter of grave concern,” says Rahul Pawara, tribal student activist and a prominent face of the Adivasi Gen-Z movement in Maharashtra. Pawara, who is also a member of the Sakal Adivasi Vidyarthi Andolan Kruti Samiti, adds, “I strongly condemn this action.”

Police have registered a single First Information Report (FIR) to book all 106 students. It states that when police instructed the protestors to disperse and leave the venue, they “argued and engaged in a scuffle/push-and-pull” with the police. Mild force was exercised and they were taken into custody, the FIR states.

The notice, served on them on Friday, states that “this legal complaint is filed on behalf of the State against the aforementioned persons under Section 189(2) unlawful assembly of the BNS, 2023, and various sections of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951”.

Sunday’s protest is part of a series of agitations by tribal students. Earlier, they had launched a 40-day sit-in at the Idgah Maidan in Nashik to press for the same demands.