Half-Freedom

In Jharkhand, thousands of Adivasis have been arrested on Maoist allegations. They have spent years in prison before being declared innocent

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RATIRAM Manjhi was acquitted of Maoist charges in May 2022, but the shadow of those allegations has not lifted.

A civil court in Bokaro cleared him in the Mahuatand police station case in which he had been booked on charges of murder, rioting and offences under the Arms Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act. The verdict ended a long legal process, but it did not restore his life to what it had been. What remained were years of humiliation, shaped as much by police harassment as by social stigma. The consequences extended beyond him to his family. His two young daughters were denied schooling after a school withdrew their admission, thereby stalling their education for years.

Recalling the episode, Ratiram breaks down. In 2021, while he was out on bail, his daughters were selected for admission to a government residential school. “The school management told us to send them. But someone went there and told them I am a Maoist. After that, the school refused admission. My daughters’ education was derailed for three years,” Ratiram says.

Ratiram, a Santhali Adivasi, lives in Dakasadam village in Bokaro district, surviving on daily-wage labour. His wife sells vegetables in local markets.

After eight months in jail, Ratiram secured bail from the High Court, but the memory of his arrest continues to haunt him. He recalls being picked up in the early hours of January 14, 2015, when Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel raided his home, accused him of killing a chowkidar in Mahuatand and subjected him to custodial torture before handing him over to the local police and sending him to Tenughat jail. He says the harassment continued beyond prison, with repeated CRPF raids on his home before and after bail, targeting his family.