Mihir Desai is a human rights lawyer[1] in cases of mass murders and riots,[2][3][4] fake encounter and custodial deaths by the police,[5][6] police brutality, freedom of speech and journalists,[7][8] political activists and prisoners of conscience,[9][10] excesses by the state,[11] mass disappearances and deaths and genocide probes.
[17] In 2003 Desai was assisting the Asian Human Rights Commission in their fight on behalf of Adivasi people to remain on land claimed by the Maharashtra State Farming Corporation.
[18] Desai was co-convenor with Angana P. Chatterji of an IPT team that investigated communal violence in Orissa over a 20-month period in 2005/2006 and co-editor of the report that presented the findings.
[20] In April 2012 Mihir Desai won an unusually large award to the mother of a 2002 bomb blast suspect who had died in custody.
[22] On 4 February 2020, Mihir Desai was arrested along with 16 persons for alleged unlawful assembly in connection with the protest at the Gateway of India against the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University.