New Delhi: French film director Valentin Hénault was arrested last October after allegedly attending a Dalit march in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. He was subsequently released on bail but was unable to leave India even six months after release due to a look out notice (LOC) issued against him, Le Monde reported. Speaking about his ordeal, Hénault told The Wire that he found “the moral torture” the most difficult to deal with in the entire process. “The moral torture: you don’t know if you’re in jail for some days or some years. And technically it’s presumption of guilt,” he said.Hénault had arrived in India on August 10, 2023 to work on a film focussing on atrocities committed on Dalit women. He travelled in Bihar and Jharkhand before Uttar Pradesh. On October 10, 2023, Hénault had attended an “Ambedkar’s people’s march” led by peasant women in which they were demanding land rights for Dalits. As per the report, he was surrounded by “local intelligence agents” after a speaker at the podium who knew him for earlier mentioned his name to recognise the presence of “international observers”. While Hénault was allowed to leave the venue after a few “customary questions” by the “agents”, police took him to the police station on the same day from his hotel room, Le Monde wrote. The police reportedly accused him of “violation of visa conditions” under Article 14b of the Foreign Act which states that if a person knowingly uses a forged passport for entering into India or remains in the country without the authority of law shall be “punishable” with imprisonment for a minimum two-year term which many extend to eight years.While the law enforcement officers suggested that he had “indicated on his visa application a reference contact in Dhanbad and was not allowed to leave Jharkhand,” as per the report, “the accusation is totally far-fetched, his e-business visa, valid for one year, does not include any geographical restrictions”.A day after his arrest, Hénault was taken to a “parking lot” where a judge signed the documents relating to his arrest following which he was sent to Gorakhpur prison, as per Le Monde. “We slept on the floor, with so little space that it was impossible to turn around at night. The entire floor space was occupied by bodies,” the French daily quoted Hénault as saying while speaking about his jail term.Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath is the head of the Gorakhpur mutt. Previously, he was an MP from the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency for five consecutive terms, he is known to act as an all-knowing head of the region, propagating hardline Hindutva ideologies through policy and governance.As per the report, he was shifted to a cell meant for mentally unstable individuals. “There was physical abuse to make them stay quiet, but it was a privilege to be there, because there was a little more space on the ground,” Hénault was quoted as saying by Le Monde.Meanwhile, he managed to contact French embassy from jail on the first day. The embassy provided the contact of a lawyer. In the third week after his arrest, an embassy official met him at the prison. Next, his father came to visit him and changed his lawyer post which he managed to get a bail and was released on November 10, 2023.The LOC against Hénault was not lifted and his passport was with the police till May. He has now been able to return to France. The French embassy had, during the ordeal, informed his family that “the process was delayed due to elections,” as per the report. Hénault finally left India on May 4, he told The Wire.#India: Before being allowed to leave India & return to France in May, Valentin Hénault spent 1 month in prison in October & endured 7 months of administrative ordeal. RSF denounces the imprisonment of this filmmaker who was scouting for a documentary on the Dalits.… pic.twitter.com/xwABO4Qnkk— RSF (@RSF_inter) May 27, 2024India has been ranked 159 out of 176 countries in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index released by press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF).RSF has previously also said the Union government “arbitrarily exploit[s]” visa procedures to limit the work foreign correspondents can do in India and to exert pressure on them in an attempt to control how it is covered in the media.
