Tabrez Sayed is a gentle environmental warrior who has been a key member of the Save Aarey Forest agitation in Mumbai.  He is being unjustly targeted by the Mumbai Police for his peaceful and lawful role in this protest movement. 

 

What is the Save Aarey Movement?
The Save Aarey community came together through voluntary and wide public participation. It seeks to raise awareness about this rare and precious urban ecological resource and of the need to protect it to defend the city against the ravages of climate change. 

The focus of the protest is the decision taken by the local government to encroach upon this green oasis to build a car shed for the city's under-construction metro network. It has been successfully established that there are cheaper, longer lasting and less ecologically damaging options available and even the highest court of the country has taken cognizance of this fact. However, seven years into the matter, and after a series of flip-flops, the effort to invade the forest has returned on a war footing. 

 

How is Tabrez involved? 
Tabrez and a large cohort of concerned citizens have held the line through sustained protest, especially at the popular (and legally sanctioned)  Sundays for Aarey gatherings which escalated in July 2022 after a new government announced its intention to shift the car shed back to Aarey Forest. 

At these meetings, Tabrez can be seen raising the pertinent issues through thought-provoking poetry and slogans and rallying the attendees with his lively tambourine beats. He is a popular figure on both sides of the picket fence.

 

Is it reasonable or justifiable to prosecute Tabrez?
Recently, there has been a campaign of intimidation against him, including unlawful detention, menacing police visits to his home, repeated orders to present himself at the local station for questioning and now, a trumped up charge of being a Tadipaar or public nuisance, for which the local authorities want to invoke an archaic law sanctioning his expulsion from city limits.

The Supreme Court has just this year frowned upon the overzealous use of this code by police forces across the country, who appear keen to reduce the space for legitimate dissent and quash free speech using disproportionate and unjust means.

 

We reject this insidious travesty of justice and demand that the authorities uphold our constitutional right to peaceful protest.

 

 

We also appeal for an immediate cessation of the state campaign against Tabrez Sayed in light of his noble and righteous contribution as a vigilant petitioner for the sensible and sustainable future of our city.