Asha – Page 48 – free them all

Elgaar Parishad activist questioned about Mohsin Shaikh murder case

09/11/2023

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

Replying to advocate Hiray, Harshali Potdar said she was aware that the accused in the Shaikh murder case were acquitted. When Hiray asked whether she made any attempt to appeal against the judgment, Potdar said, “No”.
While cross-examining activist Harshali Potdar before the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry, special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray on Thursday quizzed her about the 2014 Mohsin Shaikh murder case.
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Sambhaji Bhide: The BJP’s pet rabble-rouser in Maharashtra

30/09/2023

National Herald / by Sujata Anandan

Meet Manohar Kulkarni, alias Sambhaji Bhide, aka Guruji, who the BJP is banking on to deliver the Maratha vote in Maharashtra
After lying low for almost three years while Uddhav Thackeray was chief minister of Maharashtra, it is no coincidence that Manohar Kulkarni aka Sambhaji Bhide is back to stirring the communal pot with BJP-leaning Eknath Shinde in the driver’s seat.
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Also Read:
● Top Investigating Officer Admits Elgar Parishad Event ‘Had No Role’ in Bhima Koregaon Violence (The Wire / Dec 2022)
● Bhima Koregaon Violence: Four Different Theories, but No Justice in Sight (The Wire / Jan 2022)
● Ekbote instigated Koregaon Bhima violence, Elgaar Parishad organiser tells panel (The Indian Express / Sep 2021)
● India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)
● What is the Elgar Parishad and who Oganised It? (SabrangIndia / Sep 2018)

State-sponsored attacks of surveillance reveal an erosion on Indians’ right to privacy

09/11/2023 Asha

SabrangIndia / by Tanya Arora

Bringing back the ghost of Pegasus malware by the ruling regime, recent alerts from Apple throw up more instances of a state-sponsored surveillance attack on leaders of the opposition and journalists
On the morning of October 31, several journalists and politicians from the opposition parties in India woke up to alerts on their iPhones pertaining to a state-sponsored attack on their phones. The alerts were sent by Apple via message and email. The alert had also alleged that the reason behind the attempts to comprising the phones of the individuals might have something to do with who they are and what they do.
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Also Read:
● Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
● Incriminating evidence planted in computers: The Trojan solved the Bhima Koregaon case! (Anchored Narratives / Jan 2023)
● Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

NIA court directs prison authorities to provide Sagar Gorkhe treatment at J.J. Hospital

08/11/2023 Asha

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

An application was filed by Sagar Gorkhe, praying the court to direct urgent and necessary treatment for his mental and physical health. According to the application, the prison authorities have deprived Gorkhe of medicines and treatment for his psychiatric conditions.
Today, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria directed the jail superintendent of Taloja Central Prison to refer Sagar Gorkhe to J.J. Hospital, Mumbai to provide him with the required medical treatment.
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Also read:
● Securing the right to health of political prisoners (The Leaflet / Oct 2022)
● Relatives of BK16 Flag Prison Authorities’ ‘Criminal Negligence’ and Deteriorating Health of Undertrials (Newsclick / Sep 2022)
● Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
● Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 20, 2022)

Gonsalves and Ferreira application parses evidence supplied and not supplied per Section 207 CrPc

08/11/2023 Asha

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

On May 23, 2022, a National Investigation Agency court had directed the agency to furnish a chart consisting of the details of electronic devices seized in the case to be supplied to accused persons, which has not been complied with.
On Wednesday, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira filed an application containing a chart on the electronic evidence relied upon by the prosecution.
Read more

Also Read:
● What is Section 207 CrPC, an essential piece of the Bhima Koregaon case puzzle? (The Leaflet / Aug 2023)
● Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
● Prison-rights activist Rona Wilson’s hard disk contained malware that allowed remote access (The Caravan / March 2020)

Supreme Court seeks guidelines for search and seizure of electronic devices

08/11/2023 Asha

Supreme Court calls for norms on seizure of devices by probe agencies

08/11/2023

Hindustan Times / by Utkarsh Anand

A 2-judge bench of the apex court is hearing a petition demanding regulation of the police’s power to search or seize digital devices.
… The issue of seizure of digital devices like phones and laptops has become a flashpoint in the Bhima-Koregaon caste violence case with the accused alleging that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) planted evidence on the laptop of Rona Wilson.
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‘Incomplete reports’, ‘financial toll’: The burden of digital device seizures on journalists, outlets

08/11/2023

Newslaundry / by Tanishka Sodhi

Be it the searches at NewsClick, BBC, the Wire, or at the homes of journalists in several states over the last few years, the seizures of journalist’s digital devices have often underlined two issues – pertaining to journalistic privilege and the fundamental right to privacy.
… The Bhima Koregaon case is another prominent example in which activists have alleged violation of due process.
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Supreme Court seeks guidelines for search and seizure of electronic devices

07/11/2023

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The development gains significance in light of the crackdown on media such as Newsclick and the letter written by several journalists groups to the Chief Justice of India against it.
On Tuesday, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court batted for having guidelines in place to govern the search and seizure of phones or other digital devices belonging to media personnel.
Read more

Also read:
● NewsClick raids: Indian law has few safeguards when electronic devices are seized (Scroll.in / Oct 2023)
● Fabricating Evidence Against Life and Liberty: Tampering with Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer and its implications for Bhima Koregaon case (Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy / Dec 2022)
● 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)
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

Global Rights Groups Urge FATF to Call on the Indian Govt to Stop Alleged UAPA, PMLA, FCRA Abuse

04/11/2023 Asha

Global Rights Groups Urge FATF to Call on the Indian Govt to Stop Alleged UAPA, PMLA, FCRA Abuse

07/11/2023

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Three rights organisations – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Security Network – in a joint statement have said that India’s actions have flouted both FATF’s standards and international human rights law.
Recognising the alleged misuse of terror laws in India, several international human rights organisations have urged the global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to call on the Indian government to stop prosecuting, intimidating and harassing human rights defenders and activists.
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India urged to stop ‘weaponizing’ laws to crush dissent

07/11/2023

UCA News / by UCA News reporter

Counterterrorism law, financial regulations are used to target, intimidate, harass, and punish critics, rights groups say
Three global rights groups have urged the Indian government to stop targeting rights activists by abusing counterterrorism and financial laws and called on a major terror financing and money laundering watchdog to intervene.
The Indian government is “weaponizing” the laws to detain and punish rights activists, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and the Charity & Security Network said in a joint statement on Nov. 3.
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India’s anti-terror laws being used to target non-profits, activists, says report ahead of FATF visit

04/11/2023

Newslaundry / by Sumedha Mittal

The FATF will visit India this month for an ‘onsite evaluation’.
Ahead of the Financial Action Task Force’s India visit to probe alleged misuse of local laws to crackdown on non-profits, a report published by a US-based rights group has alleged that India’s expanding scope of anti-terror laws have “wide-ranging adverse impacts” on rights defenders and non-profit organisations.
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Read full report by American Bar Association

● The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon, Oct 2019

Read full report

Joint Press Release – India: Stop Abusing Counterterrorism Regulations

03/11/2023

By Amnesty International

Financial Action Task Force Review Should Document Crackdown on Dissent
The global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)opens in a new tab, should call on the Indianopens in a new tab government to stop prosecuting, intimidating and harassing human rights defenders, activists and non-profit organisations in the country on the pretext of countering terrorist financing, Amnesty International, Charity and Security Network and Human Rights Watch said today. FATF members are to start their fourth periodic review of India’s record on tackling illicit funding on November 6, 2023.
Read more

Also read:
● India: Arrests, Raids Target Critics of Government (Amnesty International / Oct 2023)
● AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
● Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (PUCL / Sep 2022)
Download report

Poet-activist Varavara Rao undergoes eye operation in Hyderabad

04/11/2023 Asha

Poet-activist Varavara Rao undergoes eye operation in Hyderabad

04/11/2023

Siasat.com / by News Desk

The Bombay High Court permitted him to travel to Hyderabad from Mumbai for the procedure last week.
Poet-activist Varavara Rao who was arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, successfully underwent intraocular lens implant (IOL) cataract surgery at Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital here on Saturday.
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Varavara Rao undergoes cataract surgery in Hyderabad

04/11/2023

Telegana Today / By Telegana Today

Surgeon and Superintendent, Dr V Rajalingam said Varavara Rao’s surgery was phaco with multifocal foldable IOL and it was successful
Poet-activist Varavara Rao underwent cataract surgery at Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital here on Saturday.
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Bombay HC allows Varavara Rao to undergo cataract surgery in Hyderabad

24/10/2023

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Varavara Rao had approached the high court with a plea to permit him to get cataract surgery in Hyderabad. He said he was entitled to free medical treatment of up to Rs 2 lakh in Telangana as he was a pensioner.
The Bombay High Court on Monday granted permission to Elgaar Parishad case accused Varavara Rao to visit Hyderabad for a week to undergo cataract surgery.
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Bombay High Court permits Varavara Rao to travel to Hyderabad for cataract surgery

23/10/2023

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

The permission would be for a week for surgery for one eye, a division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and SC Chandak said. He can later approach the Court for permission for surgery to the second eye, the bench said.
The Bombay High Court Monday granted permission to Bhima Koregaon accused Varavara Rao to travel from Mumbai to Hyderabad for a week to undergo cataract surgery.
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Bombay High Court Permits Accused Poet Varavara Rao To Travel To Hyderabad For Cataract Surgery

23/10/2023

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court has granted octogenarian Telugu poet Varavara Rao permission to travel to Hyderabad for seven days to undergo cataract surgery in one of his eyes.
Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam Chandak further asked Rao to seek permission afresh from the trial court to undergo surgery for the other eye.
Read more

Also read:
● Can Varavara Rao get free cataract surgery in Hyderabad? HC seeks NIA response (The Indian Express / April 2023)
● Can’t Allow Varavara Rao To Stay In Hyderabad For Three Months For Cataract Treatment, Will Delay Framing of Charges: NIA Court (Scroll.in / Sep 2022)

Supreme Court defers hearing on interim bail plea filed by Prof Shoma Sen

02/11/2023 Asha

The Siasat Daily / by IANS

It had said that it will proceed to hear both the applications seeking interim bail and the Special Leave Petition together on the next date of listing.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned, to November 24, the hearing of an interim bail application filed by Professor Shoma K Sen, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

by Bar & Bench – Live Threads / @lawbarandbench (Nov 2, 2023):
Supreme Court adjourns to November 24 bail hearing of accused in Bhima Koregaon violence case, Professor Shoma Sen.

Also read:
● SC adjourns hearing on bail plea by Bhima Koregaon case accused Prof Sen (Odishatv.in / Oct 2023)
● Shoma Sen moves Supreme Court seeking bail (The Leaflet / April 2023)

Sudha Bharadwaj | ‘A lot of democratic space has been lost’ / ‘Social contradiction get magnified inside prisons’

02/11/2023 Asha

Sudha Bharadwaj: ‘A lot of democratic space has been lost’

02/11/2023

Frontline / by Shreevatsa Nevatia

The human rights lawyer and activist says that while in jail, she saw the human cost of a dysfunctional justice system.
The lawyer and activist, spent three years and three months in jail following her arrest under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on August 28, 2018. Her book From Phansi Yard isabout her days in Pune’s Yerawada Jail.
As a trade unionist, Bharadwaj has seen police heavy-handedness up close, but she did “not envisage the kind of thing” that happened to her. The charges against Bharadwaj, one of the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, include a plot to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But the 62-year-old is confident she will be acquitted; her bail conditions disallow her from saying anything more.
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Video: Sudha Bharadwaj: ‘A lot of democratic space has been lost’

By Frontline

en | 1:05:41 | 2023
Watch video

Video: Sudha Bharadwaj interview: ‘Social contradiction get magnified inside prisons’

By The Federal

en | 37:33 | 2023
Sudha Bhardwaj (62), trade-unionist, human rights activist and lawyer, lived and worked in Chhattisgarh for over three decades. On August 28, 2018, she was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, and was released on bail in December 2021. Her book, From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada (Juggernaut Books), is an account of women prisoners (their suffering as well as the solidarities they have forged behind bars) in Pune’s Jail, where she was incarcerated in a high-security wing called Phansi Yard from November 2018 to February 2020. In this interview to The Federal, Bhardwaj, whose bail conditions do not allow her to talk about the case, and leave Mumbai, recounts her journey, and what gives her hope after a lifetime of struggle.
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Video: Sudha Bharadwaj on life in jail, importance of being a dissent and her hopes for justice

By Times of India

en | 4:20min | 2023

Sudha Bharadwaj was born in 1961 in the US and spent the first 10 years of her life on the University of Cambridge campus in England. After her parents returned to India, she grew up on the then newly created Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus and then spent decades working as trade unionist and human rights lawyer in Chhattisgarh. Bharadwaj is among the 16 persons arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case. She and the others were arrested for allegedly having links with Maoists, and for allegedly plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They are accused of conspiring to spark caste-based violence that erupted at the Bhima Koregaon memorial in Maharashtra in 2018. Between 2018 and 2021, she was housed in the Yerawada and Byculla jails in the state. In this interview with TOI+, Bharadwaj who is out on bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, talks about her experience of being an undertrial, how it inspired a book and why democracy needs dissidents.
Watch video

From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada

Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
Order

● Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism

Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Sudha Bharadwaj’s interview by: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here:
Sudha_Bharadwaj_speaks (2,1 MB)

Will See If Jyoti Jagtap’s Bail Plea Will Fit In Formula Of ‘Vernon’ Judgment, Says Supreme Court

01/11/2023 Asha

Will See If Jyoti Jagtap’s Bail Plea Will Fit In Formula Of ‘Vernon’ Judgment, Says Supreme Court

01/11/2023

Live Law / by Awstika Das

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 1) adjourned until November 30 the hearing of activist and Bhima Koregaon-accused Jyoti Jagtap’s bail application.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Karol was hearing Jagtap’s petition challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to reject her bail application. She has been lodged in jail since September 2020 for offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 after being arrested in connection with the 2018 caste-based violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon in Pune, and for having alleged links with the proscribed far-left outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoists).
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SC says principles of Arun and Vernon bail judgment to apply to Jyoti Jagtap

01/11/2023

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

A division Bench of the Supreme Court today observed that as per the parameters set in the bail judgment of co-accused Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, the contents of the recovered electronic evidence will be analysed to check whether it constitutes an offence under Chapters V and VI of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Today, the Supreme Court observed that the parameters set in the judgment granting bail to co-accused Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira will be applied to the bail plea of anti-caste activist and musical performer, Jyoti Jagtap.
Read more

Also read:
● Supreme Court allows Jyoti Jagtap time to file rejoinder in support of her bail plea (The Leaflet / Sep 2023)
● Supreme Court asks whether Gonsalves and Ferreira judgment “formula” can be applied to Jyoti Jagtap (The Leaflet / Aug 2023)
● Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)