New Delhi, 3 January 2026
The Central Committee of the CPI(ML) Liberation strongly condemns the arbitrary and authoritarian arrest of the Party’s Uttar Pradesh State Secretary and Central Committee member Comrade Sudhakar Yadav, and Uttar Pradesh State Committee member Comrade Jeera Bharti, by the Yogi administration in Mirzapur and demands their immediate release.
Today at around 3.30 pm, both comrades were detained by the police in the Adalhat police station area of Chunar, without stating any reason and without showing any arrest warrant. It is also not known where they have been taken. Both comrades were returning after attending the funeral of a departed comrade in Varanasi.
Comrade Sudhakar Yadav and Comrade Jeera Bharti have been leading struggles in Mirzapur district to restore the forest rights of Adivasis under the Forest Rights Act, to stop their displacement, and to withdraw bulldozer actions. Even early this morning, the Forest Department carried out a bulldozer operation in Tendua Khurd, an Adivasi settlement in Lalganj area of the district, in which some people have reportedly been injured.
Just a day earlier, a protest was held before the administration demanding the grant of land ownership to those who have filed claims under the Forest Rights Act, an end to the eviction of Adivasis and forest dwellers who have been living and cultivating the land for generations, and a stop to the harassment of activists by the Forest Department and the administration. Through this protest, opposition was also raised against the organised encroachment on forest land by land mafias with the connivance of the administration.
The Uttar Pradesh State Committee of CPI(ML) has reported that it is extremely unfortunate that despite assurances given by the Additional Commissioner of Vindhyachal Division at the Commissioner’s office, Forest Department personnel forcibly entered the Adivasi settlement at around 2 am to destroy standing crops. When villagers protested, they were attacked and women were misbehaved with. This happened even though the Additional Commissioner of Vindhyachal Division had assured that no bulldozer action would be carried out. Standing crops are being destroyed forcibly without any notice or prior information.
The CPI(ML) demands the immediate release of both comrades and an immediate halt to the bulldozer action.
-- Central Committee, CPI(ML) Liberation
