Navleen Kumar

Who is Navleen Kumar?

Navleen Kumar was a human rights activist in Maharashtra state, India who was murdered on 19 June 2002 in her apartment building in the state capital Mumbai.

When murdered, Navleen had been working for more than a decade to protect and restore the lands of Adivasis in the Thane district through legal interventions at different courts. Places in the district, including Nalasopara, Virar and Vasai, at the time were witnessing rapid expansion being a suburb of India's financial capital Mumbai. It is alleged that land and property developers were using coercion and intimidation to get land transferred from locals. During the course of her work, Navleen too received numerous threats, including one some months before the killing at the Nallasopara Railway Station.

On the fateful morning of 19 June, at around 7:30 AM Indian Time, while she was walking her two dogs on the terrace of her apartment building, she was attacked by a group of men with knives. She was inflicted with 19 stab wounds and subsequently died on the spot. One of her dogs also sustained knife injuries as it tried to save her. The dog however survived. It is reported that the assailants had been keeping an eye on her activities for some time before the incident.