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Month: August 2019

Koregaon Bhima Inquiry Commission plans to examine Dhawale and Gadling in Yerwada jail

Koregaon Bhima Inquiry Commission plans to examine Dhawale and Gadling in Yerwada jail

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

Dhawale and Gadling had earlier filed affidavits before the Commission of Inquiry, which is looking into the sequence of events that led to the violence in Koregaon Bhima on January 1 last year, in which one person died and several others were injured.
The Commission of Inquiry intends to examine Sudhir Dhawale and Surendra Gadling, two of the nine arrested accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, in the first week of September. Both Dhawale, an activist, and Gadling, a lawyer, are currently lodged in Yerwada Central Prison.
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Analysis | UAPA: Updated anti-terror law is likely to weaken Indian democracy

Analysis | UAPA: Updated anti-terror law is likely to weaken Indian democracy

pic: The Leaflet

The Leaflet / by Nivedhitha K

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 has been passed by the Parliament despite searing opposition to the inclusion of new provisions in the existing law. The Bill drew flak on two accounts. One, the new changes undermine human rights. Secondly, the amendments undermine the structure of Indian federalism.
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UAPA Amendment 2019: Petition challenges unilateral power to declare Individuals as Terrorists

UAPA Amendment 2019: Petition challenges unilateral power to declare Individuals as Terrorists

pic: sabrangindia

sabrangindia.in / by Sabrangindia

Just a week after the amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 was notified giving the Central Government power unilateral to designate an individual as “terrorist”, a Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court praying that it be declared unconstitutional.
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Bombay HC Allows Sudha Bharadwaj To Attend Her Father’s Post-Funeral Rituals

Bombay HC Allows Sudha Bharadwaj To Attend Her Father’s Post-Funeral Rituals

Live Law / by Nitish Kashyap

Lawyer and civil rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj has been granted temporary bail by the Bombay High Court to attend her father’s post-funeral rituals and rites at Bangalore for a couple of days. Bharadwaj has been in Pune’s Yerwada Central Jail since last October in relation to allegations for inciting the caste-based violence that took place at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018.
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Activist Sudha Bharadwaj Out On Bail To Attend Late Father’s Final Rites

She The People / by Poorvi Gupta

The Bombay High Court permitted civil rights activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj to visit her family in Bengaluru to attend post-funeral rites after her father’s death. Bharadwaj was arrested by Pune Police about a year ago for alleged links with Maoists in Elgar Parishad- Bhima Koregaon case.
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Dissecting the ‘Maoist document’ about Gautam Navlakha

Dissecting the ‘Maoist document’ about Gautam Navlakha

Newslaundry / by Prateek Goyal

Rather than establish Navlakha’s ‘connections’ with Hizbul Mujahideen, the document highlights his government connections and is vehemently critical of the Maoist party and movement.
On July 24, the Pune police told the Mumbai High Court that activist Gautam Navlakha had connections with militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. Sections of the media were quick to brand him a “terrorist” in primetime shows and reports. Tagging these as “exclusive” reports, the stories were based solely on what the police said and images of a “documents” linking Navlakha with Hizbul.
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Sudha Bharadwaj urges court to stop harassment of her visitors

Sudha Bharadwaj urges court to stop harassment of her visitors


pic: Sudha Bharadwaj addressing a program in Chhattisgarh (CMM archive)

Hindustan Times / by Shalaka Shinde

Pune: A lawyer and civil rights activist, Sudha Bhardwaj was arrested from her house in Faridabad in August 2018 on charges of being an ‘urban Maoist’.
Sudha Bhardwaj, 58, one of the nine people arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, appealed to a court here on Monday to direct the police to stop “harassing” her visitors.
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Law to brand individuals terrorists gets Rajya Sabha approval

Law to brand individuals terrorists gets Rajya Sabha approval

DNA / by Manan Kumar

The amendments have brought UAPA close to the USA’ Patriot Act that was enacted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
The Rajya Sabha passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, which empowers the government to designate individuals as terrorists, on Friday as the Opposition lost yet another battle in Parliament. Until now, the government could only designate organisations as terrorists.
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Allowing the State to Designate Someone as a ‘Terrorist’ Without Trial is Dangerous

Allowing the State to Designate Someone as a ‘Terrorist’ Without Trial is Dangerous

The Wire / by Siddharth Varadarajan

The UAPA Amendment Bill is the single most dangerous piece of legislation the country has ever seen.
Should government officials and politicians – even upstanding democrats with a long record of respecting the rule of law like home minister Amit Shah – be trusted with the power to designate an individual as a “terrorist”, that too, without that person being tried and convicted?
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Front Line Defenders expresses concern on “Imminent arrest” of Fr. Stan Swamy and other Jharkhand activists

Front Line Defenders expresses concern on “Imminent arrest” of Fr. Stan Swamy and other Jharkhand activists

Sabrang India / by Sabrang India

On Tuesday, while hearing a petition filed by human rights defender, Jharkhand activist and a Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, the Ranchi High Court refused to grant him and others protection from arrest and scheduled the next hearing for August 7.
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