In March 2022, when police in Itanagar arrested two men for painting the words “No more dams” and a raised fist across a government-commissioned mural marking fifty years of Arunachal Pradesh, a third name entered the record without an arrest accompanying it.
The state alleged that a young Adi artist and lawyer based in Roing had incited and commissioned the act. She denied the allegation, as did the two men who had carried out the painting.
Four and a half years later, that third name is the one the Central Bureau of Investigation has entered into a first information report.
On 15 September 2026, it emerged that the agency had registered a case against Bhanu Tatak, legal adviser to the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum and coordinator of the civil society group Dibang Resistance, for allegedly receiving more than ₹17.6 lakh from foreign organisations and individuals in contravention of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.
The report names Tatak and unknown persons under sections 11(1), 17, 19 and 35 of the Act. The agency states that it acted on a reference from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The funds, the agency alleges, were used to organise and sustain protests against the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project and the Dibang Multipurpose Project, and in doing so adversely affected the economic and strategic interests of the country.
That final assertion is what distinguishes the case. It converts a question of financial compliance into one of national security.
The allegations
The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act requires that anyone accepting foreign funds for a defined set of activities first obtain registration from the Ministry of Home Affairs or secure prior permission.
Such funds must be received into a designated account rather than a personal one. The agency alleges that Tatak did neither.
According to the first information report, more than ₹17.6 lakh was received from foreign organisations and individuals directly into her personal savings account without the required registration or permission.
A wider figure of ₹20.94 lakh is cited as having been credited through foreign exchange transactions into her State Bank of India account at the Roing branch between 2022 and 2025.
The agency further alleges that she filed no income tax returns between the assessment years 2017-18 and 2025-26, and therefore made no declaration of the receipts.
Four entities are named as sources: the Philippines-based Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy; Indigenous Peoples Rights International; the Ireland-based Front Line Defenders; and the United Kingdom-based Human Rights Resource Centre.
Three of these are human rights organisations whose declared purpose is the protection of activists, and whose established practice includes emergency grants and legal or travel support for individuals facing precisely the kind of proceedings Tatak now faces.
Indigenous Peoples Rights International is the same organisation that issued a public statement in her defence in September 2025.
The projects at the centre of the dispute
Bhanu Tatak is from the Dibang valley and lives in Roing, the headquarters of Lower Dibang Valley district.
She belongs to the Adi community and is a practising lawyer and an artist. By most accounts, she has become the most visible figure in the opposition to large dams across two river valleys that receive little national attention.
Her two principal affiliations correspond to two projects. Dibang Resistance, which she coordinates, emerged from opposition to the 2,880 megawatt Dibang Multipurpose Project, approved by the Union cabinet in 2019 and, if constructed, the largest dam in India by installed capacity.
By the time Bhanu Tatak became prominent, that campaign had already weakened considerably. Compensation had been disbursed to affected families, and local opposition among the Idu-Mishmi had receded to social media activity and occasional press statements. A long-standing opponent of the Dibang project, interviewed in Roing in 2022, said that active opposition on the ground had ceased altogether.
At the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum, where she serves as legal adviser, the organisation represents thousands of Adi families opposing the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project.
The forum contends that the project could submerge 27 villages and displace more than 1.5 lakh people, and notes that the site lies in seismic zone V. Unlike the Dibang campaign, this one remains active. NHPC has yet to complete its pre-feasibility survey, as villagers have prevented it from proceeding at Ugeng, Dite Dime and Parong.
In November 2023, Tatak and Dibang Resistance were jointly awarded the Bhagirath Prayas Samman at India Rivers Week in Pune, presented by the ecologist Madhav Gadgil. The citation credited them with bringing together the communities of the Dibang basin to protect the ecosystems of the upper Brahmaputra.
A history of resistance
The first information report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation is not the first action taken against Bhanu Tatak, and reading it in isolation obscures the pattern.
In March 2022, the lawyer Ebo Mili and the Assam-based artist Nilim Mahanta were arrested for painting “No more dams” and a raised fist on the state secretariat wall in Itanagar, beneath a painted dam on the government-commissioned mural known as the Wall of Harmony.
Both were released on bail within two days and directed by a court to repaint the section, which they did. The state accused Tatak of inciting and commissioning them. All three denied the allegation, and she was not arrested.
Escalating pressure on a dam opponent
In May 2025, Central Armed Police Force personnel were deployed at Beging, Geku and Jengging, and at the district headquarters of Pasighat, Boleng and Yingkiong, to enable NHPC to conduct its pre-feasibility survey for the Siang project. Villagers responded with an indefinite sit-in protest, and international rights organisations issued statements of solidarity.
In August 2025, Bhanu Tatak was summoned by the special investigation team of the crime branch to appear on 30 August in connection with a case registered at Boleng police station. By that point, multiple first information reports had been lodged against her in connection with the protests against the Siang project.
On September 7 2025, she was prevented from boarding a flight to Dublin at Delhi airport, where she was to join a three-month programme at Dublin City University as a visiting specialist. Immigration officials cited a lookout circular issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Bhanu Tatak stated that she had been given no written order and no hold-departure order, and that had she been informed in advance, she would have complied. Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Chukhu Apa confirmed that the state police had requested the circular on the basis of several police complaints, in order to protect the investigation.
Tatak named the Siang legislator and minister Ojing Tasing and Deputy Commissioner P.N. Thungon for filing what she described as false charges, arising from an alleged attack on Tasing.
Indigenous Peoples Rights International described the episode as a dangerous escalation in a long-running effort to silence her. The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee described it as a misuse of government machinery to harass a young woman activist.
Later that month, the senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing Bhanu Tatak, was initially refused an inner line permit to enter Arunachal Pradesh to meet his client. Police at the Assam border subsequently permitted him entry for twenty-four hours.
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