The Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) may have closed its mines in Kudremukh, but for environment activist Niren Jain the struggle for justice has just begin.
Nearly 13 years after Mr. Jain’s offices were raided, computers seized and emails “hacked” when he was campaigning against the iron ore project, the Judicial Magistrate First Class II in Mangaluru ordered the registration of a criminal case against the then Deputy Conservator of Forests (Kudremukh) Anita S. Arekal. In July, the KMFC II had ordered for registration of a case under Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
The issue stems from April 2004, when forest officials raided and seized digital material from his office. “There was no case and no offence filed against me then. Forest officers just barged in and took my laptops to check the mails we were sending as part of the campaign against the mining operations,” said Mr. Jain.
While he filed a private complaint with the local court in 2005, it was only in 2010 that an FIR was filed. By 2015, the Mangaluru police submitted a ‘B’ Report (closing of a case owing to lack of evidence). Mr. Jain had then challenged this report in the court.
Eventually, the Forest Department filed cases of trespassing against Mr. Jain, for his work within the Kudremukh National Park, and which were later squashed in court. In 2011, the High Court deemed the searches illegal, even saying: “...the proceedings is maliciously instituted with the ulterior motive of wrecking vengeance”.
‘Doing my duty’
Ms. Arekal, who is now Additional Chief Conservator of Forests (Social Forestry), called the case “false” and said she was only doing her duty as a government officer.
“Defamation cases against me failed to stand in court, while the police gave me a clean chit...I took action against him because they were conducting projects, rehabilitation of forest dwellers without permission and their activities had also lead to an increase in Naxalism in the area,” she said.
