Shivaam Ahare

14 November 2006
Maharashtra, India

“We showed our documents to the company for our rights to the land and the company then showed us the ‘deed of sale’ to the land. This document was signed by someone in Pune and it is a faulty document because no one in the village ever agreed to this or signed such a thing. All of us [from the village] tried to stop the construction and the company went to the police station in Tanali. The police would not accept their complaint so they went to the Umbras police station and filed charges against us for property damage of 50,000 rupees and other materials and for stealing windmill materials.

The police came at 2 am to take 15-20 of us to the police station. Most were held for three hours but they kept me for a day. The lawyer from the company went to talk to me at the police station but I refused to cooperate and the police got angry. They were going to beat me but I threatened the police and they let me go. The police said that they forgave me and let me free.

Later other police officers were sent by the company to the village to threaten my life so I fled the village for two months. The company then stopped work for 14 days and hired a lawyer and made new papers. The lawyer stated that in 1981 there was a new land accord that we didn’t know about. I went to the company with the documents and the company offered me 50,000 rupees for the land, but I got really suspicious and thought there was something bigger happening and then the company took me to court. I went to the lawyer and sent a notice to the company. They called me Satura and offered me 35 lakh rupees just to keep quiet, just to keep quiet! I refused and went to court but the company would not go to court and we are still waiting for the court decision.”