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Bombay HC Benches Recuse From Hearing Plea To Clear Father Stan Swamy’s Name

Bombay HC Benches Recuse From Hearing Plea To Clear Father Stan Swamy’s Name

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

Last month, Bombay High Court judge Justice Revati Mohite-Dere recused from hearing a plea filed in December 2021 by the next of kin of Father Stan Swamy, who sought clearing the now deceased (Swamy’s) name from the Bhima-Koregaon case.
The plea filed by Father Fraser Mascarenhas, the former principal of Xavier’s College in Mumbai, recently came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan.
Read more


Also read/watch:
Indian court again refuses to hear Stan Swamy case (UCA News / Sep 2024)
When Push Comes to Shove: Tracking Judicial Recusals and Transfers (The Wire / Apr 2023)

▪ Video: Testimony of Stan Swamy, two days before his arrest on 8 October 2020.


en | 7:48 min | Oct 6, 2020
Watch video

Echoes of Authoritarianism: Modi’s Assault on Democratic Values

Echoes of Authoritarianism: Modi’s Assault on Democratic Values

Modern Diplomacy / by Summra Hamid

In the landscape of contemporary Indian politics, a significant transformation is underway, one that merits urgent attention and reflection. The current prime minister of India, Narendra Modi’s leadership, once seen as a beacon of hope and reform, has increasingly started resembling authoritarianism, jeopardizing the foundational tenets of democracy. This opinion piece digs into the dangers posed by Modi’s regime and the implications for the Indian society as a whole.
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Also read:
India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS / Jul 2024)
AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
Narendra Modi’s Government Is Using False Charges of Terrorism to Repress Its Opponents (Jacobinmag / April 2022)
Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)

Communal elements trying to wipe out Koregaon Bhima’s history of sacrifice, says Sharad Pawar

Communal elements trying to wipe out Koregaon Bhima’s history of sacrifice, says Sharad Pawar

Booklet: “Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein” (Access PDF)

Communal elements trying to wipe out Koregaon Bhima’s history of sacrifice, says Sharad Pawar

01/10/2024

The New Indian Express / by pti

Pawar also claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a threat to society and the thought in the latter’s mind was ‘detrimental to equality’.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has said the history of Bhima Koregaon, located in Maharashtra’s Pune district, is of sacrifices made by people but some communal elements are trying to wipe it out.
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Pawar says PM’s leadership detrimental to equality

30/09/2024

Times of India / by Anurag Bende

NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership detrimental to equality.
Pawar said, “People realised that Modi and his party do not believe in the Constitution. Hence, they did not give him a full mandate in the Lok Sabha election.” He was addressing his supporters at a public rally in Pune on Monday.
Read more


Also read:
‘Communal riot script… but Dalits target’: Ajaz Ashraf on Bhima Koregaon ‘myth’ and media (Newslaundry / Sep 2024)
One year of Bhima-Koregaon case: Part I | History of a 200-year-old battle and why it still matters (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)
Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati │ by Sudhir Dhawale │ March 2018)
The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | Jan 2018)
Why peoples’ coalitions are uniting against Hindutva — the ‘new Peshwai’ (Dailyo.in │ by Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves │ Jan 2018)

Bombay HC permits Mahesh Raut to take admission in 3 year law course

Bombay HC permits Mahesh Raut to take admission in 3 year law course

Imprisonment Does Not Restrict Individual’s Right To Pursue Education: Bombay High Court

25/09/2024

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court recently observed that imprisonment of an individual does not restrict his or her right to education.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Dr Neela Gokhale made the observation while ordering a Mumbai-based Law College, to admit Mahesh Raut, one of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, as a student for the LLB course for the academic year 2024-2027.
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Read/download judgment


Imprisonment Does Not Restrict An Individual’s Right To Pursue Education: HC Allows Elgar Parishad Accused To Take Admission In Siddharth Law College

25/09/2024

Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajani

Bombay High Court allows plea by Elgar Parishad accused to take admission in 3 year law course in Siddharth College.
Imprisonment does not restrict an individual’s right to pursue further education, observed the Bombay High Court while allowing Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case, to take admission to the 3-year law course at Siddharth Law College. He was arrested by the NIA for his alleged links with the CPI Maoists.
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Bombay HC permits Elgaar Parishad accused Mahesh Raut to take admission for LLB course

24/04/2024

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

“Or in the alternative, we leave it to the college to take the signature of the Petitioner on the documents from the Taloja Central Prison (where he is presently lodged),” the bench noted and allowed the plea.
The Bombay High Court permitted activist Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, to take admission to the three-year LLB course at Siddharth Law College in Mumbai.
The bench said that imprisonment does not restrict prisoners’ right to pursue further education.
Read more


Also read:
Year after being granted bail, Mahesh Raut remains in jail as stay extended (The Indian Express / Sep 2024)
Bhima Koregaon case: Two prisoners pass law entrance test (Hindustan Times / May 2024)
Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)

Indian court again refuses to hear Stan Swamy case

Indian court again refuses to hear Stan Swamy case

Indian court again refuses to hear Stan Swamy case

23/09/2024

UCA News / by UCA News reporter

This is the eighth time that a judge has declined to perform the legal duties citing a conflict of interest
The top court of India’s Maharashtra state has, for an eighth time, refused to hear a plea seeking to clear late Jesuit Father Stan Swamy from an anti-terror case that includes a plot to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Justice Revati Mohite-Dere of the Bombay High Court recused herself from hearing the plea on Sept. 20 that wanted to remove Swamy’s name from the seven-year-old Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case filed against 16 leading activists in the country.
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HC’s Justice Revati Mohite-Dere Recuses Self From Hearing Plea For Late Father Stan Swamy

22/09/2024

Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajani

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere of the Bombay High Court recused herself from hearing the plea filed by Father Frazer Mascarenhas, former principal of St Xavier’s College, seeking clearance of Father Stan Swamy’s name from the 2018 Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
Justice Revati Mohite-Dere of the Bombay High Court recused herself from hearing the plea filed by Father Frazer Mascarenhas, former principal of St Xavier’s College, seeking clearance of Father Stan Swamy’s name from the 2018 Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more


Also read/watch:
Apologize for what happened to Father Stan Swamy: Ex-SC judge Kurian Joseph (The New Indian Express / Sep 2024)
When Push Comes to Shove: Tracking Judicial Recusals and Transfers (The Wire / Apr 2023)
Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)

▪ Video: Testimony of Stan Swamy, two days before his arrest on 8 October 2020.


en | 7:48 min | Oct 6, 2020
Watch video

Activists mark four years in jail under India’s UAPA without trial or bail

Activists mark four years in jail under India’s UAPA without trial or bail

Credits: @FreeUmarKhalid1

Activists mark four years in jail under India’s UAPA without trial or bail

20/09/2024

Peoples Dispatch / by Peoples Dispatch

Umar Khalid and more than a dozen activoists have spent four years in prison under India’s controversial Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), with no trial or bail. The cases are widely seen as politically motivated efforts to suppress dissent
… The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for the scrapping of the UAPA, claiming it has been used by the Narendra Modi led-BJP government to silence the opposition and to put its critics behind bars in cases such as Bhima Koregaon and Delhi riots.
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Umar Khalid’s Father Lambasts Misuse of Laws to Silence Dissent

20/09/2024

Clarion / by Team Clarion

Calls for judicial accountability as Umar Khalid and others languish in jail without bail or proper trial
Anti-terror laws are being systematically used to silence the dissenting voices in the country, the father of incarcerated JNU student and activist, Umar Khalid, has said.
“Laws like UAPA, TADA, and POTA were meant to combat terrorism, but they have been weaponised against ordinary citizens and activists,” Khalid’s father, Dr Qasim Rasool Ilyas, said. He was addressing an event ‘Curtailed Freedoms: A Travesty of Justice’ hosted by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and Concerned Citizens Delhi at the Constitution Club of India here earlier this week.
Read more


Also read:
Four Years of Injustice: Free Umar Khalid and All Political Prisoners (Hindus for Human Rights / Sep 2024)
Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)

Year after being granted bail, Mahesh Raut remains in jail as stay extended

Year after being granted bail, Mahesh Raut remains in jail as stay extended

PUDR campaign

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Family says extended stay on bail unprecedented delay in delivering justice
On September 21, 2023, the Bombay High Court granted bail to activist Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case. A year later, 37-year-old Raut remains in jail, with a stay granted then on his bail order by the High Court for three weeks, extended from time to time with no effective hearing so far on the appeal in the Supreme Court.
Read more


Also read:
The Supreme Court Is Making Bail Easier In Terrorism, Money Laundering Cases – Except When It Ignores Itself (article 14 / Sep 2024)
‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system

To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

The Polis Project / by Ramesh Gaichor

Jinhe naaz hai Hind par unko lao
Jinhe naaz hai Hind par woh kahaan hain?
(Bring those who are proud of this land
Where are they who are proud of this land?)

These lines of Sahir Ludhianvi, written shortly after the country gained independence, still strike a deep chord. But today, in what way will the neo-Peshwai government of this country receive these words, and what will it do to poets and song-writers like Sahir?
Perhaps it will put them behind towering impenetrable walls, erected over segregated acres of land, under the watchful eye of 24-hour security guards, armed with firearms, lathis, and belts.
Read more


Also read:
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: SAGAR GORKHE’S PARENTS ARE STRUGGLING IN HIS ABSENCE (THE POLIS PROJECT / JULY 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: RAMESH GAICHOR’S PARENTS JUST WANT TO MEET HIM AGAIN BEFORE THEY DIE (THE POLIS PROJECT / JULY 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: MINAL GADLING ON THE MANY CRUELTIES, IRONIES AND INJUSTICES OF SURENDRA’S IMPRISONMENT (THE POLIS PROJECT / JULY 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: RUPALI JADHAV TRAVELS TEN HOURS FOR FLEETING EXCHANGES WITH JYOTI JAGTAP (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: JENNY ROWENA ON THE FEAR OF PRISONS AND THE BRAHMINICAL SYSTEM BEHIND IT (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ANAND TELTUMBDE REFLECTS ON HIS ARREST AND INCARCERATION (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: STORIES OF LOVE, MURDER AND CHILD MARRIAGE FROM SHOMA SEN’S YEARS IN PRISONS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ARUN FERREIRA ON THE FARCE AND TRAGEDY OF THE PANDEMIC IN PRISON (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: VERNON GONSALVES ON THE STRUGGLE TO READ AND WRITE BEHIND BARS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

Video | Many Meanings of Bhima Koregaon: Ajaz Ashraf

Video | Many Meanings of Bhima Koregaon: Ajaz Ashraf

By Daanish Bin Nabi

en | 20:12min | 2024
Watch video:


Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Author: Ajaz Ashraf  
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Pages: 496
Challenging Caste reads the violence at Bhima Koregaon as a clash between two worldviews – one striving to flatten the social hierarchy, the other justifying and perpetuating it. This book rips apart the Maoist conspiracy theory and the Urban Naxal narrative.
Read more/order


Also read:
Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration (The Caravan / Jul 2024)
And the future of Stan Swamy (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / Oct 2022)
And a place Sudhir Dhawale calls home (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / Aug 2022)
And Ramesh Gaichor’s patriotic songs (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / Aug 2022)
And prayers to Lord for Arun Ferreira (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / Aug 2022)
And Vernon’s letters to his son (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / July 2022)
And comrades admire Jyoti Jagtap (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / July 2022)
And they wait for Mahesh Raut (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / Jun 2022)
And the letters of Rona Wilson (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / June 2022)
And Allah’s call to Hany Babu (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / June 2022)
And Ma died waiting for Surendra (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / Jun 2022)
And Ma can’t sing with Sagar (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / June 2022)
And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / May 2022)
And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf / May 2022)

‘How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?’: An investigation of how the state can stifle dissent brutally

‘How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?’: An investigation of how the state can stifle dissent brutally

Scroll.in / by Shevlin Sebastian

Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia also write about those who are battling to uphold individual and human rights.

Vijayan and Recchia talk at length about the notorious Bhima Koregaon case, where 16 activists, teachers, intellectuals, university professors, writers, and lawyers were arrested and charged with arms smuggling, for allegedly helping Maoists, and for hatching a plan to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apart from waging war against the state – Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, and Father Stan Swamy (who died tragically while imprisoned).
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How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners

Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247
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Also read:
Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration (The Caravan / Jul 2024)
Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Author: Ajaz Ashraf  
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Pages: 496
Read more/order
The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India

Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672
Read more / order