People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has demanded release of activist Medha Patkar, lawyer Aradhana Bhargava and 21 others, who they allege have been illegally arrested and confined in Chhindwara Jail in Madhya Pradesh.

In a letter to National Human Right Commission on Monday, PUCL expressed its anger on the arrest of Patkar and demanded immediate intervention from the commission.

PUCL says they are shocked to learn that renowned social activist Patkar of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and the Narmada Bacaho Andolan (NBA) was arrested from the house of Aradhana Bhargava in Chhindwara, on Sunday.

Aradhana Bhargava had gone to Chhindwara to participate in the death rituals of her mother. But she was picked up from her house and booked under the 151 Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). When Medha and others on Sunday had gone to pay their condolences to the family of Aradhana, they were first detained inside the house and later picked up at 10.30 pm and were sent into the Chhidwara jail.

Kavita Srivastava, national secretary, PUCL writes, “We are shocked at the paranoic manner in which the MP government through its district collector Mahesh Chaudhary and SP Purshottam is behaving. They are not even allowing lawyers to meet them. The misuse of the law and illegal detention of senior activists in completely unacceptable. This action of the administration and the police is violative of Article 19 and 21.”

She further adds that Dr Sunilam, former MLA and leader of the present struggle against the Adani Peench Power Plant coming up in Chhindwara has been put behind bars for the 14 year old Multai Firing case, the MP government, the administration and the police want to speed up the process of eviction of the people who are living in the area where the government plans to have the Peench Water Diversion Project and Power Plant. She says anybody going into the area is seen as a moral booster to the farmers who do not wish to be evicted.