Advocate Ebo Mili and artist Nilim Mahanta granted bail over the anti-dam graffiti in Itanagar

Itanagar: The Yupia court, has granted bail to advocate Ebo Mili and Assamese artist Nilim Mahanta on Tuesday. The duo was arrested on Monday for defacing the newly painted wall mural near Arunachal Pradesh Secretariat depicting the hydro project.

Both of them have been asked to repaint the wall back to its same form before the defacement within 10 days.

On Sunday night, Mili and Nilim painted an artwork protesting the construction of a mega-dam project with the anti-dam message ‘No more dams’.

While interacting with media personnel after getting the bail, Nilim said, “We are not against the development, but the development should be in a sustainable way.”

Commenting on the issue Mili said, “The present government is glorifying the development of dam which we disliked. We already have many dams in the state, we don’t need new dams.”

Since the arrest of the duo, there have been mixed reactions from the citizens of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. While some criticized their act of defacing the artwork of fellow artisans, others equally supported their act of pretest against the construction of dams in the state.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the state government clarified that there was no intention to curb the freedom of expression. “The arrest had not been made against any kind of anti-dam or any other protests,” the notification read.

Both Mili and Nilim have been voicing actively against the issue of climate change, global warming, and plastic pollution.