Filing of police cases against 6 residents unfortunate: Auroville Working Committee

The committee also categorically denied the charges listed against the residents

A day after the police booked six Aurovilians, including five foreign nationals, on a break-in complaint by the Auroville authorities, the Working Committee (WC) on Saturday issued a statement deploring the filing of First Information Reports (FIRs) as “a very unfortunate and avoidable action” and denied all charges.

On Wednesday, following a complaint lodged by the Auroville undersecretary about an “illegal takeover of records and communication systems” of the WC office, the Auroville police had filed cases against Hemant Lamba, Sauro Mezzetti (Italian), Lisa Neogy aka Renu (Swedish), Michel Grnoff aka Wazo (French), Suryan Stettner (British) and Chali Grinnell (American). They were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, including rioting, forgery and computer-related offences.

In the press statement, the WC of the Residents’ Assembly (RA) of the Auroville Foundation said the filing of police cases against residents, including the three duly ratified members of the WC, for an internal dispute went against the very spirit of Auroville. Terming it a very unfortunate and avoidable action, the committee also categorically denied the charges listed against the residents.

The new crisis had been precipitated after a recent split in the seven-member WC into two factions. After a group backed by the Auroville Foundation removed three members ostensibly for working against the foundation, the decision that was contested on the grounds it was irregular as only the RA was authorised to remove/elect members to the WC.

In spite of a directive from the Auroville Foundation to pause the RA’s decision-making until a Register of Residents was updated to reflect the current demographics of the Auroville township, on May 10, a Residents’ Assembly convened and voted to retain the three ousted residents Chali Grinnell, Sauro Mezzetti and Hemant Lamba while removing and replacing the four members backed by the foundation.

The seven-member WC had been elected by the Residents’ Assembly in accordance with the provisions of the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988, the WC statement said. The decision was challenged by the office of the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, but the term of office and the governance of the working group has to be decided only by the residents as it is mentioned also in a note of the Ministry of Human Resources of February 2020, it said.