The Times of India / by Jaideep Deogharia
US representative Juan Vargas has urged US secretary of state Antony J Blinken to take up the matter of octogenarian Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, who is in Tajola jail in Maharashtra on charges of terrorism, with the Indian government as part of US foreign policy. Blinken has assured the Congressman to look into the matter.
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The News Minute / by Balakrishna Ganeshan
Varavara Rao, who was released on conditional bail, was discharged from Nanavati Hospital on March 6.
82-year-old Varavara Rao, who lost about 20 kgs in prison, according to family members, is slowly recovering from physical weakness. Rao, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, who was discharged from hospital on March 6, is out on interim-bail for six months considering his frail health.
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10/03/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
Researcher Rona Wilson, the first person to be arrested in the Bhima Koregaon Case, on Wednesday, approached the Bombay High Court seeking the formation of a Special Investigation Team to inquire into the planting of fabricated documents in his computer over a course of around 22 months.
Wilson, as well as 15 other civil rights activists and academics, in India, are incarcerated, facing charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) based on letters primarily retrieved from his and co-accused Surendra Gadling’s computer, to claim a conspiracy to kill the Minister and overthrow the government.
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11/03/2021
by Bar & Bench:
Rao also filed an affidavit placing on record his place of residence, his contact numbers as also of those relatives residing with him in compliance with the #bombayhighcourt order +++
by Bar & Bench:
#VaravaraRao has filed an application for exemption from personal appearance in the Special NIA Court as permitted in the #bombayhighcourt court order granting him temporary bail of 6 months. NIA has sought time to respond to the same +++
by Bar & Bench:
The #bombayhighcourt’s order imposed a condition that the undertrial shall attend proceedings of trial before the NIA Court as and when summoned however he may apply for exemption +++
11/03/2021
News Click / by News Click
According to the data, 30 cases were lodged on charges of sedition in 2015 followed by 35 in 2016, 51 in 2017, 70 in 2018 and 93 in 2019.
As many as 5,128 cases under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA and 229 on charges of sedition have been lodged across the country in a five-year period from 2015, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
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10/03/2021
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
Data revealed by the home ministry earlier showed that just 2.2% of the cases under the Act ended in court convictions.
There has been a 72% increase in the number of arrests made under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 2019 in relation to those made in 2015, according to data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Lok Sabha.
According to The Hindu, the MHA revealed that as many as 1,948 persons were arrested under the UAPA in 1,226 cases that were registered across the country in 2019. Between the years 2015 and 2018, 897, 922, 901 and 1,182 cases were registered and 1,128, 999, 1,554 and 1,421 people were arrested, Union minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy said in a written reply.
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10/03/2021
Edex Live / by Edex Live
In July 2019, the ambit of UAPA was expanded. It was amended allowing the government to designate an individual as a terrorist without trial.
The Ministry of Home Affairs told the Lok Sabha that there has been over 72 per cent increase in the number of persons arrested under the anti-terror law UAPA.
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The Caravan / by Anand Teltumbde
Anand Teltumbde, a professor and writer, is currently incarcerated in the Taloja prison in Maharashtra, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He is awaiting trial in what is broadly termed the Bhima Koregaon case.
The ongoing debate on the Narendra Modi government’s programme to privatise public sector enterprises, or PSEs, has a certain ring of déjà vu. The proponents of privatisation argue, in support of the government, that private sector has always been more efficient than the public sector. Unbeknownst to them, this argument in its logical extension might lead to a preposterous but valid question: Why not privatise the government itself?
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by Bar & Bench (March 11):
Anand Teltumbde, accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence, has produced before the Special NIA Court, Mumbai the report filed by the Massachusetts-based firm Arsenal Consulting in his pending bail application +++
10/03/2021
Free Press Journal / by Bhavna Uchil
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its reply filed recently objecting to the bail application filed by professor and activist Anand Teltumbde, has cited electronic evidence seized from the co-accused Rona Wilson.
This assumes significance in the backdrop of a report of US-based digital forensics firm Arsenal Consulting which stated in its report based on analysis that the incriminating evidence found on Wilson’s computer was ‘planted’ through a cyber attack.
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10/03/2021
Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi
The NIA opposed Teltumbde’s bail application claiming that Teltumbde guided his younger brother Milind to expand ‘urban naxal movements of Maoism’.
Anand Teltumbde, accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence, was an active member of banned political organisation, Communist Party of India (Maoist), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) told the special court, opposing his bail application (National Investigation Agency v. Anand Teltumbde).
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09/03/2021
The Times of India / by Swati Deshpande
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), while opposing a bail plea by Elgar Parishad accused Anand Teltumbde, has claimed that he “was in touch with wanted accused Milind Teltumbde and had a secret meeting with him”.
Milind is his brother who, the NIA said, had inspired to join and expand the Maoist movement.
The bail plea will be heard on March 11.
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09/03/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
The National Investigating Agency has said that former IIT professor and academic, Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case, inspired his brother, a wanted Maoist leader, to join the movement and shared “banned literature” from his international conferences with him.
Even though the two brothers have led entirely separate lives, Teltumbde as a professor at IIT-Kharagpur and later at the Goa Institute of Management, and Milind as an alleged Maoist leader carrying a bounty of Rs 50 lakh, the agency has said that Milind used literature from Teltumbde’s conferences to expand the banned organisations movements in urban areas.
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The Leaflet / by The Leaflet
A group of former civil servants has expressed concerns at reports alleging the planting of incriminating material in Rona Wilson’s computer, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
“The reports that the police and other investigative agencies may have violated constitutional guarantees and judicial pronouncements in the practices adopted in search and seizure operations, as well as the possibility that they may have been party to planting incriminating material in personal digital devices and harvesting evidence therefrom, have caused us grave concern”, the statement signed by former civil servants reads.
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09/03/2021
Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi
Usmani is accused of making hateful speeches before a gathering organised on January 30, 2021 to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon at Pune.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed activist Sharjeel Usmani to appear before the Pune Police after being assured by the State that no coercive steps will be taken against him if he appears for interrogation.
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05/03/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
Former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) student leader, Sharjeel Usmani (23) has approached the Bombay High Court for quashing the FIR registered against him, in Pune, for his speech at the Elgaar Parishad.
On February 2, 2021, the Swargate Police station, Pune, registered an FIR against Usmani under section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place..) of the IPC on a complaint by the secretary of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha, Pradeep Gawade. Gawde is a former member of ABVP.
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The Leaflet / by Shoma Sen
While the High Court of Bombay granted medical bail to Varavara Rao who is now free for the next six months to be with his family and take care of his health, Kanchan has not been so lucky. Shoma Sen, an undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon case understands what it means as she is also battling with several ailments. Here, she explains how the husband of Kanchan’ Nannaware, her co-accused who was in the male section of the same Yerwada Jail was not consulted nor was his consent taken before her surgery. It ultimately proved fatal:
While the Elgar Parishad case received wide and detailed media coverage and many columnists, shocked by the Kafkaesque absurdities of this case were analysing and commenting on it, a political prisoner in Pune Women’s Central Jail was suffering immense hardship due to ill health, till she finally passed away in early February.
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en | 5:07min | 2021
By The Polis Project
Sixteen individuals across India have been arrested since 6 June 2018 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). They are human rights defenders working for the democratic rights of India’s poorest and most oppressed: Dalits, Adivasis, indigenous people, and women. All of them have been outspoken critics of Hindutva.
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