Shikha Rahi : Her Father's Daughter Prashant Rahi, a senior journalist of Uttarakhand, was arrested on 15th of December 2007 in Dehradun by the state police. He was allegedly charged of being a Maoist commander. The police secretly and illegally confined him and tortured him for five days after which he was shown arrested from the forests of Hanspur Khatta on 21st December. The police have charged him with various sections of IPC including 121, 121A, 124A, 153B, 120B. All the media carried the same version as stated by the police. Just to give you a background, Prashant Rahi had been working in close association with the local people’s struggles in Uttarakhand since last 17 years. He has been a fearless journalist by profession. Started his career from Himachal Times, moved on to The Statesman and worked many years covering people’s issues. He is a native of Maharashtra and pursued his education from Banaras Hindu University. This incident is in continuance of the trend set by many innocent arrests in the last few months including that of Binayak Sen and some journalists in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh of targeting pro-people intellegentsia. The trend has become increasingly apparent in those parts of the country where people’s movement is strong. We firmly believe that this state action is a part of the efforts being carried out by the various state governments to secure hefty amount of funds from the central government in the name of combating naxalism. For this, it becomes imperative for them to prove that the state is inflicted with this insurgency. We strongly condemn the arrest of Prashant Rahi and call upon all the concerned individuals, civil society organisations, Amnesty, journalist unions, writers unions, people’s movements and struggling groups to join hands in solidarity and support. His daughter, Shikha Rahi, is fighting a lone battle to secure his release. Shikharahi.com~Site InfoWhoisTrace RouteRBL Check
