Silencing dissent: Adivasi activist Raghu Midiyami jailed under false charges in Chhattisgarh
Raipur: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested prominent Adivasi activist Raghu Midiyami from Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, accusing him of Maoist links in what rights groups are calling a politically motivated crackdown. Midiyami, a vocal critic of militarization and corporate exploitation in the region, has been at the forefront of the movement to protect Adivasi land and rights.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the 23-year-old activist, belonging to the Gond Adivasi community, was presented before an NIA special court and subsequently sent to Jagdalpur jail. The agency has accused him of being a top leader of a banned organization allegedly linked to the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist), a charge widely dismissed by human rights groups as fabricated.
Midiyami was the president of the now-banned Moolwasi Bachao Manch (MBM), an umbrella organization formed by the Adivasi peasants to demand the implementation of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) and the Fifth Schedule—constitutional provisions meant to safeguard the rights of indigenous communities. The MPM also demand the stopping of unregulated mining and displacement, the cessation of mass killings by Indian forces, and the rampant militarization of Bastar.
The activist has repeatedly spoken out against the systematic targeting of Adivasis since the BJP has come to power, particularly the rise in fake encounters and state-sponsored repression. In one of his last statements before his arrest, Midiyami had warned of the existential threat faced by his community: “Corporations are coming for our land, and the government is backing them with guns. If standing against this means they’ll label us as ‘Naxals’ and execute us in staged encounters, then so be it. We will not surrender our land.”
Midiyami, along with other Adivasi youth, had also led peaceful sit-in protests in Bastar, demanding an end to the militarization of the region.
Human rights group, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has strongly condemned the arrest, calling it an attempt to silence democratic dissent. The organization emphasized that demanding constitutional rights cannot be equated with being “anti-government” or “anti-development.”
“PUCL demands that the false charges against Raghu Midiyami be dropped, the unjust ban on Moolwasi Bachao Manch be revoked, and all detained Adivasi activists be released immediately,” the PUCL statement read. The organization also criticized the misuse of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and UAPA—draconian laws frequently used to target indigenous activists.
Similarly, the Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM) has denounced Midiyami’s arrest, calling it part of a broader state campaign to criminalize Adivasi-led resistance movements.
