The recent arrest of Hany Babu, a professor at Delhi University for his alleged association and participation in the Bhima Koregaon case has been gaining widespread attention on alternative media platforms and while many have shown no signs of surprise at the event, many have come forward to condemn the act.
Hany Babu is a Professor at Delhi University and has been arrested by the NIA in the Bhima Koregaon case. It is in this context that more than 2,000 scholars and activists from different parts of the country and the world have come together to extend their support and goodwill towards him.
He has been arrested by the National investigation Agency(NIA)in the Bhima Koregaon case, he was taken into custody on July 28,2020. The scholars who have come together to raise a voice against the arrest of Hany Babu have said that the final arrest was the culmination of a year long process of harassment that had begun with a raid of his house in 2019.
Hany Babu has time and again come up in the limelight and asserted that he is in no way involved with the incident and that his participation in any manner is fabricated and a plot against him. Many activists and scholars including Sudha Bhardwaj, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao have been arrested in connection to the Brim Koregaon case. In total, 12 activists, scholars and Dalit academics have been arrested in context of the Bhima Koregaon case.
The scholars who have come forward to speak in favour of Babu have argued that his arrest is a way of dismissing Dalit voices and penalise the community for speaking against casteist exploitation. They have said that a professor such as Hany Babu has been an ardent critique of casteism and has wanted equal rights and dignity for the Bahujan community and this has been at the heart of his works and thought process as a scholar, they said that Hany Babu is being punished for being vocal.
The arrest has been condemned and a concern has been raised about making the arrest amid the coronavirus pandemic and the risks it may pose for his wellbeing. The thinkers, scholars and activists have come together to make an appeal to the government to release him and preserve once again, democratic values and human rights.
Another malafide arrest by the NIA in the Bhima Koregaon case: Hany Babu, a professor of Delhi University. The NIA ‘Pressured Him to Implicate Colleagues, Others,’ Says Wife https://t.co/hLXeblajXy
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) July 29, 2020
#Breaking Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu M.T has been formally arrested by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case today. He was being questioned at the NIA’s Mumbai office since July 23. He is the 12th person to be arrested.#ReleaseHanyBabu pic.twitter.com/Riu1auZTvV
— The Dalit Voice (@ambedkariteIND) July 28, 2020
Hany Babu: Portrait of a Professor as an Activist https://t.co/Mhso79wTcP
— ParanjoyGuhaThakurta (@paranjoygt) August 1, 2020
