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Opposition MPs urge Narendra Modi to free jailed activist / Full statement

Opposition MPs urge Narendra Modi to free jailed activist / Full statement

MPs write to PM, asking for immediate release of all arrested in Bhima Koregaon case

01/02/2022

By CPI (M)

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Bhima Koregaon case: Opposition MPs urge Narendra Modi to free jailed activists

07/02/2022

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The MPs alleged that evidence was planted against the accused persons.
Members of several Opposition parties have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate release of academicians, lawyers and activists detained in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Grant Bail to Activists Arrested in Elgar Parishad Case, MPs Say In Letter to Modi

07/02/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The letter, signed by 20 MPs, expresses “deep concern at the media and cyber-forensic expert reports indicating that Indian citizens have been attacked with illegal cyber weapons”
Read more

Also read:
● Arsenal Report No. 4 Confirms Pegasus Attack on IPhone of Rona Wilson, Key BK Accused (PUCL / Dec 2021)

Koregaon Bhima panel to call Mumbai police JCP to depose as witness / Panel visits locations seen in footage of violence

Koregaon Bhima panel to call Mumbai police JCP to depose as witness / Panel visits locations seen in footage of violence

Inquiry panel visits locations seen in footage of violence

06/02/2022

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The two-member commission, headed by retired High Court Justice J N Patel and comprising former chief secretary Sumit Malik, is probing factors that led to the Koregaon Bhima violence of January 1, 2018, in which one person died and several others were injured.
Members of the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry on Saturday visited the Jaystambh at Perne village along with various sites in Vadhu Budruk and Koregaon Bhima in Pune district.
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Koregaon Bhima panel to call Mumbai police JCP to depose as witness

05/02/2022

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

Nangare Patil was the special inspector general, Kolhapur Range, at the time of the incident
Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry will call IPS officer Vishwas Nangare Patil to depose as a witness in the case, the panel’s lawyer has said….
Lawyers B G Bansode, Kiran Channe and Rahul Makhare submitted an application before the commission seeking a probe into an audio clip, which purportedly dates back to January 1, 2018. The lawyers claim it was a mobile phone conversation between a police officer and a Shiv Sena office bearer held in a traffic jam while going to Pune from Aurangabad.
Read more

Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon: Is Milind Ekbote Being Protected? (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)
● Sambhaji Bhide & Milind Ekbote instigated the Bhima Koregaon Violence,” an accused deposes as witness before Inquiry Commission (LawBeat / Oct 2021)

Bombay HC extends Varavara Rao’s bail till February 28

Bombay HC extends Varavara Rao’s bail till February 28


VV Rao, Feb 2021, leaving hospital

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The Bombay High Court on Friday extended till February 28 the time allotted to Elgaar Parishad case accused P Varavara Rao to return to jail.
The octogenarian had been granted medical bail for six months on February 22, last year, and was later allowed to extend it till February 5, 2022.
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‘The State snatched away my time with my daughter’ / ‘My greatest strength were prison inmates’

‘The State snatched away my time with my daughter’ / ‘My greatest strength were prison inmates’

Part III: ‘The State snatched away my time with my daughter’

04/02/2022

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘It’s little things like these – sharing medicines, consoling each other after a mulaqat (meeting) or a tearful phone conversation with your loved ones or when we would return, dejected, when our bails were rejected – that made our time in jail bearable.’
Creativity, says Sudha Bharadwaj, is a vital lifeline for those who find their freedom taken away for crimes they may, or may not, have committed.
Survival as a prisoner during the last three years has been difficult, both emotionally and physically, but her brilliant smile makes light of it.
There were times however, she tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar, when she too felt devastated.
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Part IV: ‘It is my love for the people of this country’

04/02/2022

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘I can’t help it if people don’t love the minorities, the Dalits and Adivasis; they are as much of this country as any other Indian.’
‘If I love them, it does not mean I do not love my country.’
‘It is ironic and funny that they have laid such severe anti-national charges against me.’
Good memories. And bad.
Difficult moments. And memorable ones.
Trade union leader, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj has gathered them all in her challenging walk through Life.
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Part II: ‘My greatest strength were prison inmates’

03/02/2022

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘You are with each other 24×7, so how can you ignore someone crying next to you?’
‘How can you not share a piece of chicken with someone who is sitting next to you and watching you eat it?’
‘Of course, you will share.’
‘And you become friends with the kind of people you never thought you’d even know.’
In a conversation with Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar, Sudha Bharadwaj explains how she kept her spirits up.
Read more

Also read:
● Part I: ‘I was imprisoned in the phansi yard’ (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)

Bhima Koregaon: Is Milind Ekbote Being Protected? / Commission of Inquiry hearings

Bhima Koregaon: Is Milind Ekbote Being Protected? / Commission of Inquiry hearings

Bhima Koregaon: Is Milind Ekbote Being Protected?

03/02/2022

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

The former BJP corporator was named by a villager in a police complaint made three days before the January 1, 2018 violence at Bhima Koregaon.
Yet, the police did not include his name in the FIR.
Jyoti Punwani reports.
Once again, Milind Ekbote’s name cropped up in the hearings of the Bhima Koregaon Commission of Inquiry.
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Ekbote named, not chargesheeted in case of desecration in 2017: ACP Galande

03/02/2022

Hindustan Times / by Shalaka Shinde

Assistant commissioner of police Ramesh Galande, 57 – who was in charge of the Shikrapur police station in 2018 when the Bhima-Koregaon riots took place – deposed before the Bhima-Koregaon Inquiry Commission on Thursday.
During his deposition, it was established that the tension in the Vadhu Budrukh region began after installing a board mentioning Govind Gopal Gaikwad (Mahar) while the name of Milind Ekbote of the Samasta Hindu Aghadi was dropped from the FIR as he was found to have no connection with vandalising the board.
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Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry hearings: IPS officer deposes before panel; some lawyers seek more time to examine videos of violence

03/02/2022

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The two-member commission is investigating the factors that led to the violence, in which one person died and several others were injured. Satpute’s chief examination was recorded by commission’s lawyer Aashish Satpute.
IPS officer Tejaswi Satpute, the superintendent of Solapur Rural Police, deposed as a witness before the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday. On, January 1, 2018, when violence broke out in Koregaon Bhima, she was the additional SP (Pune division) of Pune Rural Police.
Read more

Also read:
● Sambhaji Bhide & Milind Ekbote instigated the Bhima Koregaon Violence,” an accused deposes as witness before Inquiry Commission (LawBeat / Oct 2021)
● Proposal to Chargesheet Hindutva Leaders in Bhima Koregaon Violence (Gauri Lankesh News / Jan 2021)
● Casting a Veil – What we miss by ignoring Maratha caste politics in the Bhima Koregaon case (The Caravan / Dec 2020)

Pegasus scandal shows how lawless India’s ‘lawful interception’ has become / India’s 2017 Pegasus Deal

Pegasus scandal shows how lawless India’s ‘lawful interception’ has become / India’s 2017 Pegasus Deal

Pegasus scandal shows how lawless India’s ‘lawful interception’ has become

02/02/2022

The Print / by Praveen Swami

Many democracies understand the need for lawful surveillance against serious crimes. Few provide the executive such sweeping powers like India does.
At once unconstitutional, ungenerous and un-English,” raged the London Times in summer of 1844, as the world’s first great surveillance scandal exploded inside the halls of parliament…
Technical evidence suggesting at least some of the Bhima Koregaon case was planted on suspects—using a relatively crude and unsophisticated malware called Netwire—shows what happens when intelligence services operate unregulated and without accountability.
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Transcript: India’s 2017 Pegasus Deal With Israel Involved Top Intel Leaders

02/02/2022

The Wire / by Siddharth Varadarajan

Israeli investigative reporter Ronen Bergman speaks at length about the explosive story he co-authored in the New York Times on the sale of Pegasus spyware around the world, including to India.
Read more

Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon accused and their counsel write to SC’s Pegasus technical committee alleging snooping (The Leaflet/ Jan 2022)
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

‘I was imprisoned in the phansi yard’ – Sudha Bharadwaj speaks to Neeta Kolhatkar

‘I was imprisoned in the phansi yard’ – Sudha Bharadwaj speaks to Neeta Kolhatkar

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘I was told to go to the next room and strip — that’s when it really hits you for the first time… that you are a criminal and you are being treated like one.’
‘It comes as a shock when, instead of your name, you hear, “Yeh naya Maowadi aaya hai (A new Maoist has arrived)”.’
Sudha Bharadwaj speaks to Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar about her experiences in jail. Considering prisoners are denied basic human rights – mulaqatein (meetings) with her daughter were tough – the coping mechanisms adopted by women, she says, are fascinating and have kept her going.
Read more


E-Book: From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada
By Sudha Bharadwaj (Author)

Publisher : ‎ Juggernaut (10 October 2023)
Language‏ : ‎ English
Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put down their heads and work themselves weary. Sudha Bharadwaj watched through the bars of her cell, and she wrote. This is her remarkably granular account of the world of women prisoners in Yerawada Jail in Pune. Bharadwaj was incarcerated here, in a high-security wing called Phansi Yard, from November 2018 to February 2020. She takes us through jail life, her own and the other women’s, from one season to the next, weaving in lively portraits of her fellow prisoners, their children and even their pets, and reflecting on everything from absurd rules, caste hierarchies, food, fistfights and friendships, to the dismal absence of legal aid for the most defenceless of women.
Pre-order

Ex-Pune police chief submits affidavit to Bhima Koregaon commission; hearings from Jan 31

Ex-Pune police chief submits affidavit to Bhima Koregaon commission; hearings from Jan 31

Ex-Pune police chief submits affidavit to Bhima Koregaon commission; hearings from Jan 31

30/01/2022

Hindustan Times / by Shalaka Shinde

Senior IPS officer and former police commissioner Rashmi Shukla has claimed in her affidavit submitted before the Bhima Koregaon inquiry commission that the city police handled the situation “tactfully” during the 2018 Bhima Koregaon clashes, preventing a major untoward incident in the city.
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Pune Police took all possible measures to contain violence: IPS officer to Inquiry Commission

30/01/2022

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

The former Commissioner of Pune Police stated in her affidavit that because the police handled the situation, there was neither any loss of human life or major untoward incident during the Koregaon Bhima riots in Pune.
Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla who was Commissioner of Pune Police, has filed an affidavit before the Bhima Koregaon Inquiry Commission probing the violent clashes between Dalit and Maratha groups on December 31, 2017 around the time of the Elgar Parishad event.
Read more

Also read:
● “Sambhaji Bhide & Milind Ekbote instigated the Bhima Koregaon Violence,” an accused deposes as witness before Inquiry Commission (LawBeat / Oct 2021)