Bastar-based tribal activist arrested by Chhattisgarh Police

Suneeta Potam — a tribal activist from Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region — was arrested here by the State police on Monday.

The police said she was an accused in nearly a dozen cases, including murder and attempt to murder, reported between 2020 and 2024. Contradicting these claims in a statement, the NGO People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) identified Ms. Potam as one of its members and a human rights defender who had been raising her voice against atrocities, “especially against women, committed by the police in Bijapur”. It also said that she had filed a petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court against the “extra-judicial killings” of six persons in 2016 in different villages of Bijapur district.

Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Yadav told The Hindu that the arrest was made in Raipur, executing a court warrant issued against her for her previous cases. Asked if she was a member of any banned organisation, Mr. Yadav said that she was the link between “banned organisations and their urban network”.

“She was a member of Moolwasi Bachao Manch and many of its other members have been arrested at different times because they were actively involved in the murder of security forces and civilians. We were trying to arrest her for the past many months but she was untraceable. She was staying in Raipur using different names and mobile numbers,” he said.

In its statement, the PUCL said that Ms. Pottam had gone to Raipur to complete her class 10 by Open School and was staying with colleagues of a women’s collective to prepare for her entrance test.  The Moolniwasi Manch, it added, was an Adivasi Youth Forum formed by Ms. Pottam, along with other young villagers.

“At the local level, she has been leading several ongoing protests against widening of roads piercing through several villages, cutting hundreds of fruit-bearing trees without holding any Gram Sabha, in complete violation of the PESA Act. Pottam has been in the forefront of holding the government accountable to the Adivasis of Bastar, in bringing real development to Bastar such as schools, hospitals and forest-based livelihood options rather than opening mining lease to private companies to extract the mineral resources under their dense forests,” the statement said.