The Human Rights Forum (HRF) strongly condemns the arrest of Dr Randall Sequeira, a member of Medico Friend Circle (MFC) who has spent years providing healthcare to Adivasis in remote parts of Odisha and is also associated with the Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Manch and Laxman Naik, a Dalit leader of the Manch. These arrests are the latest instance of the Odisha government’s attempt to suppress democratic resistance to attempts at bauxite mining in the Sijimali and Kutrumali hills in the Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of South Odisha. HRF demands their immediate release.
The two were picked up from their homes at night and detained without basic legal safeguards that must govern exercise of police power. They have since been booked under grave charges, including attempt to murder, dacoity, rioting and offences under the Arms Act. The invocation of such serious provisions against people associated with an anti-mining movement raises serious questions about the use of criminal law to silence dissent.
Dr Sequeira’s arrest is particularly disturbing. A person who has worked to make healthcare accessible to people resident in remote areas is now being treated as a criminal for his association with a struggle for Adivasi rights. Clearly, such action is intended to send a message to those who stand in solidarity with marginalised Adivasis and Dalits, document their difficulties and support their resistance that they too risk facing the coercive power of the State.
These arrests cannot be viewed in isolation. It is evident that they are part of a wider pattern of sustained repression of the movement opposing the leasing of hills in Sijimali and Kutrumali areas to Vedanta Ltd and Adani Group’s Mundra Aluminium Ltd for bauxite mining. In recent times, scores of Adivasis, Dalits and others involved in the anti-bauxite movement have faced repeated arrests, serious criminal charges and prolonged incarceration. The practice of implicating activists in successive cases, even after they secure bail, exposes how criminal proceedings are being used to keep the leadership of a popular movement behind bars and intimidate those who continue to resist.
The targeting of key functionaries such as Lada Sikaka, an Adivasi leader associated with the resistance to bauxite mining, who is implicated in around 15 cases and Lingaraj Azad, a prominent activist in the anti-mining movement, who has been implicated in multiple cases despite not being named in the original FIRs, illustrates the systematic nature of this repression. Hiramal Nayak, another activist involved in the resistance, was arrested again after spending six months in jail.
The filing of multiple cases against movement leaders, with further arrests following the grant of bail, points to a disturbing pattern in which criminal proceedings themselves become instruments of prolonged punishment. The cumulative effect is to exhaust the local people, disrupt their organisation and deter others from asserting their rights. This revolving door of arrests and prosecutions is clearly designed to break the movement’s key activists and wear down the people sustaining it.
HRF reiterates that constitutional protections for Adivasis and democratic freedoms cannot be subordinated to the commercial priorities of mining companies. The people of Sijimali and Kutrumali have every right to question projects that threaten their land, livelihoods and future. Their resistance demands engagement and accountability, not police action and false cases. The Odisha government must ensure that the law is not used to manufacture a climate of fear around a legitimate democratic movement.
HRF demands the immediate release of Dr Randall Sequeira and Laxman Naik, the withdrawal of the patently fabricated cases against them and an immediate end to the criminalisation of the anti- bauxite movement. All other activists and villagers incarcerated for participating in this struggle must also be released and the cases against them withdrawn. The repeated misuse of criminal law against them must cease.
The State cannot be permitted to deploy criminal law in the service of powerful commercial interests and against those who defend democratic rights. The pursuit of corporate mining interests cannot take precedence over the constitutional rights of the people. The Odisha government must end this repression and engage with the legitimate demands of affected people rather than use the police and criminal justice system in an attempt to crush their resistance. Defending people’s rights is not a crime and criminalising those who do so is an assault on democracy.
S Jeevan Kumar
VS Krishna
HRF AP & TG Coordination Committee members
19-10-2026
Visakhapatnam.