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Month: April 2020

WhatsApp Alleges NSO Group Involved in Spying on Indians

WhatsApp Alleges NSO Group Involved in Spying on Indians

The Quint / by The Quint

WhatsApp has alleged in new court filings in a California court that Israeli surveillance company The NSO Group had controlled United States servers to deploy its spyware, Pegasus, in mobile phones of 1,400 individuals across the world, including over 121 Indians, The Guardian reported. …
Several Dalit rights lawyers and activists, including Anand Teltumbde, Bhima-Koregaon case lawyer Nihal Singh Rathod, Bela Bhatia, Jagdalpur Legal Aid group member Shalini Gera were among those targeted.
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NIA expands scope of its probe

NIA expands scope of its probe


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Hindustan Times / by Neeraj Chauhan

The probe by NIA also focuses on student leaders in various universities and non-government organizations that extended support to the activists.
… the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started looking at whether the 11 activists arrested in the case were involved in raising funds (for anti-national activities), brainwashing educated youth in urban centres, made international visits to get support from different organizations abroad, launched misinformation campaigns against the government, and met with overground Maoist leaders, two officials familiar with development told HT.
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PUDR: Release Vulnerable Prisoners Now!

PUDR: Release Vulnerable Prisoners Now!

By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)

PUDR expresses apprehensions over the health status of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha …
Both Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Mr. Gautam Navlakha were interrogated by the NIA and have been sent to judicial custody. It has come to light that one of the officers of the NIA, Mumbai has tested positive for Covid-19 in this period. Anand Teltumbde was subsequently tested for suspected exposure and his report is negative for Covid-19.
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IN PARALLEL WITH THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC, WE NOW HAVE A PANDEMIC OF ARRESTS

26/04/2020

The Wire/ by Pamela Philipose

Lockdown – the word that best describes our present physical and mental state – has now acquired a vicious new meaning. As if in parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic, we now have a pandemic of arrests, with prison gates clanging shut on those marked by the state as anti-nationals.
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Prominent Personalities: The Democratic Republic of India seems to be moving into a coma

Prominent Personalities: The Democratic Republic of India seems to be moving into a coma

National Herald / by NH Political Bureau

Thirteen days after political activists Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the UAPA, in connection with Bhima Koregaon case, as many as 52 prominent personalities including activists, intellectuals and MPs have issued a statement in support of the jailed activists.
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NIA Court Extends Anand Teltumbde’s Judicial Custody Till May 8

NIA Court Extends Anand Teltumbde’s Judicial Custody Till May 8

Live Law / by Nitish Kahyap

A Special court in Mumbai on Saturday rejected the bail application filed by academician and scholar Anand Teltumbde and remanded him to judicial custody till May 8. The 70-year-old Teltumbde is accused of having Maoist links and inciting the caste based violence which took place on January 1, 2018, in relation to the Bhima Koregaon incident.
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COURT RECECTS TELTUMBDE’S TEMPORARY BAIL PLEA

27/04/2020

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Teltumbde through his lawyers had moved a plea seeking temporary citing the Covid-19 outbreak and his susceptibility to it due to his health condition. The NIA, however, opposed the plea stating that the offence was serious.
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COURT DENIES TEMOPORARY BAIL
TO ANAND TELTUMBDE; SENDS HIM TO TALOJA JAIL

25/04/2020

Free Press Journal / by Bhavna Uchil

A special court in the city rejected the temporary bail plea on medical grounds filed by academic and activist Anand Teltumbde accused in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case and sent him to judicial custody to Taloja jail.
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Persecution of activists, scribes condemned

Persecution of activists, scribes condemned

The Hindu / by Special Correspondent

Fundamental rights, freedoms have been suspended in lockdown, alleges rights body.
The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) on Saturday condemned the NDA government’s persecution of activists, journalists and academics during the COVID-19 lockdown, which it said had been turned into an “insidious and undeclared emergency”, effectively suspending the fundamental rights and freedoms.
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Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

By Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves / Documented by Mumbai Rises To Save Democracy

22. April
It is my father’s birthday today. He turns 63. Due to the brutality of our government and the failure of our judiciary he will be spending his birthday in a prison cell. At the time of a serious global pandemic when he falls in the category of people most vulnerable he will be spending his birthday in an overcrowded prison with no adequate health facilities.
Today I thought of sharing a about how he has been spending his time in the the past year and a half in Yerwada prison, Pune.
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Stop the witch-hunt of activists and journalists in Delhi and Kashmir and elsewhere

Stop the witch-hunt of activists and journalists in Delhi and Kashmir and elsewhere

Groundxro.in / By Campaign Against State Repression

… it must be noted that the branding and targeting activists to demoralise and crush the movements they belong to is a tactic that the State is deploying with increasing frequency and intensity. Be it in the arrest of eleven academics, activists, lawyers, journalists and poets in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case or the incarceration of Akhil Gogoi, Chingiz Khan, Ishrat Jahan, Dr. Kafeel Khan, Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam and now several more, it is evident that the State is becoming more and more intolerant of any dissent or opposition.
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How the UAPA Repackages Ideas As Crimes

How the UAPA Repackages Ideas As Crimes

Article 14 / by Abhinav Sekhri

The provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act—that are at the heart of the ongoing Bhima Koregaon cases—are criminally overbroad, excessively vague, and short of a legislative carte blanche to state-sponsored violations of fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution
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