Release sought of right activist, adivasis implicated in YSRCP leader’s death

Human rights activists and social workers wrote to Kumar Vishwajeet, Principal Secretary, Home Affairs, and Director-General of Police Harish Kumar Gupta on January 1, seeking justice for P.S. Ajay Kumar and the Chatterjipuram Adivasis “falsely implicated” in a criminal case in Anakapalli district.

According to a note issued to the media about the letters on Monday, the land rights issue of Chatterjipuram’s Gadaba Adivasis (PVTG tribe) is representative of several cases, where the land being cultivated by adivasis is being threatened with alienation and occupation by locally powerful and politically connected persons.

They said Mr. Ajay Kumar, an advocate and a land rights activist, has been implicated in the criminal case related to the death of a YSRCP leader, Vara Nookaraju, on October 20, 2025. Even though the FIR itself mentions that he was not present at the time of the alleged incident, he is being accused as an instigator and conspirator, the activists said.

The activists said Mr. Ajay Kumar has been pursuing peaceful, legal struggles for many Adivasi communities across the combined Visakhapatnam district, trying to protect their legal rights over land that they have been cultivating for generations.

In the letters written to the DGP and the Principal Secretary (Home), they asked for an impartial truthful investigation into the case. They added that Mr. Ajay Kumar and the Chatterjipuram adivasis should be immediately released on bail, considering that they have cooperated with the investigation and have been in prison for several weeks already.

The signatories of the letter include intellectual and human rights activist G. Haragopal; social activist Medha Patkar of National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM); former dean of social sciences, the University of Hyderabad, D. Narasimha Reddy; activists S. Jeevan Kumar, V.S. Krishna and Vasanta Lakshmi of Human Rights Forum; Kanneganti Ravi, Vissa Kirankumar and S. Ashalatha of Rythu Swarajya Vedika; Rukmini Rao, C. Bhanuja and Usha Seethalakshmi of Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch; advocates Vasudha Nagaraj, Ravi Chaparala and P. Chennaiah, P. Shankar of Dalit Bahujan Front; Meera Sanghamitra of NAPM; B. Chakradhar of Samalochana; and forest rights activists B. Girija Devi and K. Bhanumathi.