Asha – Page 3 – free them all

The remedy of bail: From securing liberty to ‘digital jail’

21/08/2023 Asha

The Leaflet / by Ibad Mushtaq and Akansksha Bishtibad

In the pursuit of justice, the delicate balance between individual rights and societal interests often comes under scrutiny. In the case of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, their bail conditions, including the demanding round-the-clock location monitoring, have ignited a crucial debate that such stringent surveillance not only infringes upon their fundamental rights to life, liberty and dignity, but also undermines the essence of bail itself— to restore freedom.
Read more

Also read:
● NIA in a quandary as bail condition for mobile phone tethering turns out to be a tug (The Leaflet / Aug 2023)
● PUDR welcomes the release on bail of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira today, but protests onerous bail conditions (PUDR / Aug 5, 2023)

Birthday greetings to Jyoti Jagtap, who is spending her 3rd birthday in prison

20/08/2023 Asha

by InSAF India / @IndInsaf
On her 3rd birthday in prison we remember #JyotiJagtap who described #KabirKalaManch‘s songs as “grounded in our own life experiences to educate, give direction to laboring people and document their struggles …” #BhimaKoregaon16

by Meera Sanghamitra/ @meeracomposes

by Clifton D’ Rozario / @clifroz
The continued incarceration of Jyoti Jagtap and others arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, after judgement of the Supreme Court granting bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, is unconscionable. Free them all!

by Dissc-Jamia Millia islamia @Dissc_jmi
Release Jyoti Jagtap
Free all Political Prisoners

Also read:
● Supreme Court allows respondents to file counter affidavits to bail plea of Jyoti Jagtap (The Leaflet / Jul 2023)
● SC issues notice to Maha, NIA on activist Jyoti Jagtap’s plea for bail (The Print / May 2023)
● Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is Now the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)

Can Fr Stan Swamy’s PIL be the blueprint for justice to thousands of undertrials lodged under UAPA?

18/08/2023 Asha

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

Can the judgment which granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira form the basis for implementation of the same principles for granting bail to other accused in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad case as well as to the other 500 detenues in Jharkhand who are still at the pre- or post-trial stage?
… A public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the late Father Stan Swamy in 2017 in the Jharkhand High Court may serve as a path in the direction of ending incarceration of the disturbingly large number of those held in custody without a trial.
Read more

Also watch/read:
● Video: Vernon v. State of Maharashtra: A Breakthrough in Bail Jurisprudence under the UAPA? (PUCL India / Aug 2023)
● Even after Stan Swamy’s death, the fight to get justice for Jharkhand undertrials is still alive (Scroll.in / Dec 2021)
● In Jharkhand, Scheduled Tribes Still Battle Flimsy Criminal Cases Filed With Little Evidence (IndiaSpend / Oct 2021)
● Public interest litigation filed by Stan Swamy and Xavier Soreng in 2017 (CJP / 2017)
● A study of Undertrials in Jharkhand (Sanhati / by Bagaicha Research Team / Feb 2016)

Rebecca John: Supreme Court judgment has far reaching consequences

18/08/2023 Asha

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

‘Notwithstanding the seriousness of the allegations made, every accused had a right to a speedy trial and the court had to take into account long periods of incarceration without trial as an additional consideration for grant of bail.’
A Supreme Court Bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudanshu Dhulia last month granted bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Vernon Gonsalves, five years after he was arrested under the anti-terrorist legislation UAPA.
… Senior advocate Rebecca John, who argued the case, tells Jyoti Punwani how she approached this challenging case.
Read more

Also watch/read:
● Video: Vernon v. State of Maharashtra: A Breakthrough in Bail Jurisprudence under the UAPA? (PUCL India / Aug 2023)
● Why the SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is Significant – Various Statements (29 July – 5 August 2023 )

NIA in a quandary as bail condition for mobile phone tethering turns out to be a tug

17/08/2023 Asha

Vernon & Arun walk out of jail. Aug 5, 2023.

NIA in a quandary as bail condition for mobile phone tethering turns out to be a tug

17/08/2023

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The bail conditions set by the Supreme Court during the grant of regular bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira mandated pairing mobile phones of the duo with the devices of the investigating officers. Now the National Investigation Agency has said that the concerned investigating officers stand to lose their privacy.
“If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you,” wrote German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his book Beyond Good And Evil.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) seems to have discovered the meaning of the quote recently.
… The matter will be further heard on September 5.
Read more

NIA expresses concern over bail condition asking officers to pair phones with Bhima Koregaon accused

18/08/2023

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The central agency told a special court that the condition could infringe on the privacy of the investigating officers.
The National Investigation Agency on Thursday expressed concern about the Supreme Court’s bail condition that activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves pair their mobile phones with investigating officers.
Read more

Also read:
● PUDR welcomes the release on bail of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira today, but protests onerous bail conditions (PUDR / Aug 5, 2023)

It’s Not Impossible To Smash The Caste System: Prof. Anand Teltumbde

17/08/2023 Asha

Poster, Nov 2022

Outlook / by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Anand Teltumbde is a scholar and civil rights activist known for his extensive work on B.R. Ambedkar’s life and work as well as the caste issue. He was arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad case in 2020 and released on bail in November 2022 after spending 31 months in jail. The 72-year-old spoke to Snigdhendu Bhattacharya.
Read more

Also read:
● From the vault: Contemporary challenges before the anti-caste movement (The Leaflet | by Anand Teltumbde | April 2022)
● Anand Teltumbde Explains the Genesis of His Articles on Bhima-Koregaon (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | March 2023)
● The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Jan 2018)

There’s still hope for journalism: Media veterans on press freedom and technology

15/08/2023 Asha

The News Minute / by TMM Staff

While the speakers at the event expressed concerns about the misuse of technology as experienced in the Bhima Koregaon episode, where malware was used to trap activists, their speeches ended on a positive note.
In December 2019, a year and a half after the arrest of 16 activists in the Bhima Koregaon case, the then editor of the Caravan magazine, Vinod Jose, got a copy of the hard disk of the laptop used by Rona Wilson, from where an ‘incriminating’ email that led to the arrests was ‘found’. Vinod, sitting at a seminar on media freedom and technology at the Freedom Fest – a technology-related event organised by the government of Kerala – spoke of the Caravan’s discovery of a malware that was planted in Rona’s hard disk, which could plant or ferret out any information from the laptop, without his knowledge.
Read more

Also read:
● Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)
● Indian activist charged with terrorism was targeted by hackers linked to prominent cyber espionage attacks, new report finds (The Washington Post / Feb 2022)
● Prison-rights activist Rona Wilson’s hard disk contained malware that allowed remote access (The Caravan / March 2020)

Interview: Comprehensive review needed of cases like Bhima Koregaon, says former SC judge

12/08/2023 Asha

Scroll.in / by Smitha Nair

Courts should scrutinise the case of the investigating agency and if it lacks credibility, act against the investigating officer, said Justice Madan B Lokur.
On July 28, the Supreme Court granted bail to activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, who are among the 16 people arrested in the Elgar-Parishad Bhima Koregaon case in 2018. The Supreme Court’s significant observations include the “weak probative value” of primary evidence in the case and the “mere possession” of literature that inspires or propagates violence not being offences under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
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Also read:
● Gonsalves and Ferreira bail judgment: A step in the right direction but where will we go from here? (The Leaflet / Aug 2023)
● Why the SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is So Significant (The Wire / Aug 2023)
● Recovering the Basics: The Supreme Court’s Bail Order in Vernon Gonsalves’ Case (Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy / Aug 2023)

Made with fire: Review of ‘Varavara Rao: A Life in Poetry’

10/08/2023 Asha

Frontline / by Serish Nanisetti

Words speak the unvarnished truth in this anthology representing six decades of Varavara Rao’s career as a poet.
Telugu poet and activist Varavara Rao is a thin, wiry man with the kind of leanness that Julius Caesar found scary in Cassius in Shakespeare’s play. Rao was arrested in 2018 on charges of inciting caste violence and plotting to assassinate the Indian Prime Minister (and released on bail in 2022 on health grounds). The publication of this anthology of Rao’s poetry has been much delayed reportedly because of legal issues. Some words used by Rao have apparently been removed from the translation to avoid attracting the charge of sedition.
Read more

Also read:
● How Varavara Rao shaped Telangana’s sociopolitics: N Venugopal Rao interview (The Federal / Aug 2023)
● Tomorrow there won’t be any classes’: Activist Varavara Rao’s poems get an English translation (Scroll.in / by Varavara Rao, N Venugopal & Rohith / Jul 2023)
● Move Division Bench for permission to undergo cataract surgery in Hyderabad: Bombay High Court to Varavara Rao (India Legal / June 2023)
● Supreme Court grants permanent medical bail to P. Varavara Rao in Bhima Koregaon case (The Leaflet / Aug 2022)

Video: Vernon v. State of Maharashtra: A Breakthrough in Bail Jurisprudence under the UAPA?

08/08/2023 Asha

by PUCL India / @PUCLindia (Aug 7, 2023)

Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were released after 5 years in jail!
Join our discussion on their bail order and to understand its implications! How can we advocate for the release of all political prisoners arrested under UAPA?

en | 1:29:01 | 2023
Watch video

UAPA disproportionately targets religious, ethnic minorities: Activist

10/08/2023

News Trail / by Umar Sharieef | NT

Discussing the Supreme Court’s decision in granting bail to activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferriera accused in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case, members from People’s Union for Civil Liberties said the bail order has significant implications for bail jurisprudence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, UAPA, in the framework of criminal law.
The members highlighted the top court’s bail-granting powers under the UAPA, which flows from the Zahood Ahmad Watali judgment.
Read more

Also read/watch:
● PUDR welcomes the release on bail of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira today, but protests onerous bail conditions (PUDR / Aug 6, 2023)

● Video: Personal Liberty and the Indian Courts

en | 1h 42min | 2022
The discussion moderated by PUCL General Secretary, V Suresh, Arvind Narrain, VP Karnataka State PUCL and Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL

Watch video (PUCL fb page)

● Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution