Filmmaker jailed for a ‘letter’

Released from jail on Tuesday after 93 days, filmmaker Ajay TG is still not a free man. Police have not closed Ajay’s case, reports Paramita Ghosh.

Released from jail on Tuesday after 93 days, filmmaker Ajay TG is still not a free man. Police have not closed Ajay’s case. He has to appear at a police station every fortnight and can’t travel outside India without permission.

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“He was granted statutory bail as the Chattisgarh police failed to file a chargesheet,” said his lawyer Mahendra Dubey.

Ajay crime: In 2004, he accompanied a People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) team to Bastar and his camera was forcibly taken away by Maoists. This January, the police arrested a Maoist and claimed to have found a copy of a letter, allegedly written by Ajay to a Maoist, requesting that his camera be returned.

In May, Ajay was arrested under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, by which ‘any contact’ with a banned organisation is a criminal offence. He is also accused of sedition.

“Ajay has denied writing this letter,” said Dubey, who is also PUCL general secretary Binayak Sen’s counsel. Sen has been in jail for 15 months now.

Sources say police put pressure on Ajay to sign a damning statement against the PUCL. Had he done so, it was suggested his case would be closed. He declined.