Farmers’ body condemns suspension of advocate by Bar Council

The Federation of Farmers’ Organisations and the State Sugarcane Growers’ Association have strongly condemned the suspension of advocate V. Ravikumar by the State Bar Council.

Expressing anguish over the suspension of Ravikumar, an environmental activist, Baradanapura Nagaraj, organising secretary of the Federation Attihalli Devaraj and the district general secretary of the Sugarcane Growers’ Association, in a joint statement here, described the suspension of Ravikumar by the Bar Council as a “conspiracy aimed at suppressing his ongoing struggle to protect Kabini backwaters and to oppose land grabbers and resort mafia”.

Mr. Ravikumar, a Mysuru-based advocate, has been relentlessly fighting for the protection of land, water, forests, wildlife, and the environment while standing firmly for farmers’ cause, the statement said.

They said Mr. Ravikumar was not just a lawyer, but also a farmer and a valuable asset to the State. “Silencing a lawyer, who raises his voice for truth and justice amounts to an insult to the democratic system,” they said in the statement.

Issuing a warning that the farming community will not tolerate it, the farmers’ bodies demanded that the State Bar Council immediately revoke the suspension order against advocate Ravikumar.

“If the order is not withdrawn, the State Sugarcane Growers’ Association, along with other farmers’ organisations and environmental groups, will launch an indefinite sit-in protest and satyagraha in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue near Mysuru court complete,” they said in the statement.

“We will not stop our struggle till justice is delivered to Ravikumar,” Mr. Devaraj and Mr. Nagaraj said in the joint press statement.