Top advocacy group Right to Food Campaign has condemned the arrests of physician Dr. Randall Sequeira and Dalit activist Laxman Naik in Odisha, describing the police action as part of a broader pattern of criminalising dissent against mining-induced displacement.
The two were picked up around 10:45 pm on October 16 from Dr. Sequeira’s home in Hill Town, Bhawanipatna, without a warrant or explanation, and kept overnight at the Bhawanipatna Town police station, activists alleged. They were produced before the SDJM in Rayagada the next evening and sent to Rayagada Sub Jail. Their mobile phones were seized, and families and lawyers struggled to locate them overnight, raising due-process concerns.
The arrests stem from Kashipur Police Station Case No. 85/2026, linked to a violent clash in Kantamal (Kutamal) village, Rayagada district, on the night of April 6-7, 2026. Police had entered the village over a road project for Vedanta’s proposed Sijimali bauxite mine; villagers alleged lathi-charges and tear gas, while police claimed protesters attacked them. Neither Sequeira nor Naik was named in the FIR, but police said their involvement emerged during investigation. They have been charged with attempt to murder, rioting, and offences under the Arms Act.
South Western Range DIG Akhileshvar Singh justified the arrests, alleging the two “instigated tribals to attack police” and that Sequeira was “not providing medical services” but “instigating tribals against the State government”. The RTFC rejected this framing, noting that Sequeira has provided free healthcare to Adivasi communities in Kalahandi and Rayagada for years, and that the Orissa High Court had previously quashed a district order barring him from entering Rayagada. Naik is associated with the Ma Mati Mali Suraksha Manch and the Samajwadi Jan Parishad.
The RTFC also demanded the immediate release of Lingraj Azad, national president of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad, who was arrested on March 25, 2026, and has reportedly been in jail for six months. The campaign linked the arrests to the wider struggle over jal, jangal, jameen (water, forest, land), arguing that for Adivasi and Dalit communities these are the material basis of food and livelihood, and that mining and displacement are therefore also attacks on the right to food.
“People who raise their voices against displacement and the destruction of their resources should not be intimidated or criminalised,” the RTFC statement said, demanding a fair inquiry into the detentions and the villagers’ complaints about police action. The arrests have also drawn condemnation from the Concerned Citizens Committee, Odisha, and the Medico Friend Circle.
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