Asha – Page 70 – free them all

Court asks Taloja jail authorities again to take steps to keep prison mosquito-free

22/12/2022 Asha

Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaychor. Poster by #bakeryprasad

Court asks Taloja jail to follow order on tackling mosquito menace

22/12/2022

Free Press Journal / by Staff Reporter

A special court has directed Taloja jail authorities to conduct periodic fumigation, spray insecticides and take necessary precautions to keep the jail premises free of mosquitoes.
A special court has directed Taloja jail authorities to conduct periodic fumigation, spray insecticides and take necessary precautions to keep the jail premises free of mosquitoes. The direction came in response to a plea by Bhima-Koregaon case accused Sagar Gorkhe who sought a mosquito net and an explanation by jail authorities for dereliction of duty in not following the court’s July order giving directions to tackle the mosquito menace.
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Court asks Taloja jail authorities again to take steps to keep prison mosquito-free

22/12/2022

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Rejects plea by Elgaar Parishad accused asking for mosquito net.
In a recent order, a special court again directed Taloja jail authorities to take necessary steps to keep the prison premises mosquito free. The court was responding to a plea by Sagar Gorkhe, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case. However, the court did not allow his plea for a mosquito net.
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Also read:
● Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 20, 2022)
● by PantherAjay (May 27, 2022):
Jailed Shahir Sagar Gorkhe is not the only under trail prisoner who has been continually harassed and whose ‘Machchhardani’ stolen by the insolent jail administration. This is an attempt to condemn the unlawful treatment meted against the under trial prisoners and to safeguard their rights. Following is the account of a similar incident that was faced by another imprisoned writer and poet Ramesh Gaichor translated from the original written in Marathi.

Why the Bombay High Court granted regular bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde: An explainer

19/12/2022 Asha

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The high court noted that the prosecution fails to show that the accused has been involved or has indulged in a terrorist act.
On November 18, a division bench of Bombay High Court, comprising Justices A.S. Gadkari and Milind N. Jadhav, granted bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde, the 73-year-old Dalit scholar, academic and activist charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (‘UAPA’) for allegedly being a senior member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) (‘CPI (Maoist)’).
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Also read:
● Will the bail granted to Anand Teltumbde help others in the Bhima Koregaon case to get out of jail? (Scroll.in / Nov 2022)
● Supreme Court dismisses NIA’s petition challenging bail granted to Dr. Anand Teltumbde (The Leaflet / Nov 2022)
● Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each (The Leaflet / June 2022)

Life and liberty in the Bhima Koregaon case / Report points to a conspiracy

17/12/2022 Asha

Life and liberty in the Bhima Koregaon case

17/12/2022

The New Indian Express / by Pratik Kanjilal

Father Stan Swamy’s computer was compromised from 2014, the longest period that an accused has been targeted in Arsenal’s experience, suggesting institutional hacking.
Once, twice, three times—twice too often to attribute to chance—a digital security consultancy has found that NetWire malware was used to drop incriminating files on the computers of detenus in the Bhima Koregaon case. It is obviously no case because hearings have not even begun, though the first suspects were arrested in June 2018 for a nebulous conspiracy to assassinate the prime minister, who had earlier expressed nebulous anxieties about his person.
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Stan Swamy: Report points to a conspiracy

16/12/2022

Stan Swamy and 15 others, including academics, lawyers, activists, and journalists, had been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case.
A fresh revelation that incriminating material was planted in the laptop of Stan Swamy, who was named an accused in the Elgar Parishad case and who passed away last year in prison in Mumbai, points to a conspiracy, which was planned and executed at high levels, to frame him in a false case.
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Also read:
● Hackers Planted Files to Frame an Indian Priest Who Died in Custody (Wired / Dec 13, 2022)

Supreme Court to take up bail pleas of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in January

16/12/2022 Asha

India Legal Live / by India Legal

The Supreme Court on Friday posted the bail application of academician Vernon Gonsalves, accused in the Elgar Parishad case, for hearing in the second week of January.
The Bench led by Justice Ravindra Bhat ruled that it will take up the bail petition of Gonsalves along with the bail plea of Activist Arun Ferreira, also an accused in the Elgar Parishad Maoist link case.
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Bombay High Court allows Hany Babu to undergo cataract surgery at Mumbai’s Saifee hospital

16/12/2022 Asha

Bombay High Court allows Hany Babu to undergo cataract surgery at Mumbai’s Saifee hospital

16/12/2022

Bar & Bench / by Narsi Benwal

The Bench also allowed the accused to meet his family members while in hospital.
The Bombay High Court on Friday allowed Delhi University professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, to undergo cataract surgery at his own cost, in Mumbai’s Saifee Hospital.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Prakash Naik while permitting him to undergo the surgery, ordered the Superintendent of the Taloja Central Prison to transfer him to Saifee hospital by Monday morning.
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Bombay High Court Permits Former DU Prof Hany Babu To Undergo Cataract Surgery At Private Hospital In Mumbai

16/12/2022

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court on Friday allowed Delhi University (DU) associate professor Hany Babu, accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgaar Parishad case to undergo cataract surgery at a private hospital in Mumbai.
A division bench led by Justice AS Gadkari directed Babu, currently lodged in Taloja Prison, to be escorted to the private hospital on Tuesday, further permitting hospitalisation for four days. During this time, he would also undergo diagnosis for upper abdominal pain and osteoarthritis.
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Hany Babu gets temporary bail to undergo cataract surgery

16/12/2022

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The Bombay High Court also allowed the former Delhi University professor to meet his close family members during his stay in the hospital.
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted a temporary bail to former Delhi University professor Hany Babu, one of the accused persons in the Elgar Parishad case, to undergo cataract surgery, PTI reported.
A bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Prakash Naik passed the order. They also directed the Superintendent of the Taloja Central Prison to transfer Babu to Mumbai’s Saifee Hospital by December 19, according to Live Law.
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Also read:
● Relatives of BK16 Flag Prison Authorities’ ‘Criminal Negligence’ and Deteriorating Health of Undertrials (Newsclick / Sep 2022)

Indian government asked to apologize for framing Stan Swamy / Govt to ‘take full responsibility’

15/12/2022 Asha

by Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur HRDs / @MaryLawlorhrds (Dec 15, 2022):
Extremely distressing new report by @ArsenalArmed which finds that fake evidence was planted on Stan Swamy’s computer. Stan’s detention & death are a stain on India’s human rights record. Charges against the other HRDs in Bhima Koregaon case must be dropped

Indian government asked to apologize for framing Stan Swamy

15/12/2022

Matters India / by Matters India Reporter

Catholic Church leaders have sought an “unconditional apology” from the Indian government for the custodial death of Father Stan Swamy after a US based digital forensic firm has found that the late Jesuit was falsely implicated in a sedition case.
“At least at this stage, the government and its probe agency should tender an unconditional apology to people for the unjust arrest, inhuman incarceration and custodial death of Father Swamy for no fault of his,” says Jesuit Father A Santhanam, convener of the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests (NLFRP).
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Planting of evidence against Stan Swamy ‘blot on justice system’, say politicians, social bodies

14/12/2022

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

A news report claimed that a hacker planted evidence on a device owned by the tribal rights activist, who died in July last year.
Hours after a report claimed that a hacker planted evidence on a device owned by tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, several politicians, academics, activists and social organisations on Tuesday denounced the incident and described it as a “blot on the justice system”.
“Is this how a democratic country treats its own?” Congress leader Salman Anees Soz tweeted. “The courts must introspect. Is this the best they can do?
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Indian govt ‘must come clean on Fr Stan Swamy’s death’

14/12/2022

UCA News / by UCA News Reporter

Evidence ‘planted’ on the late Jesuit priest’s computer to ‘falsely’ implicate him in the Bhima-Koregaon case, US agency says.
Catholic activists and priests want the Indian government to “take full responsibility” for the custodial death of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy after latest findings by US-based digital forensic experts that false evidence was planted on the priest’s computer by hacking it.
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by CPI (M) @cpimspeak (Dec 14, 2022):
CPI(M) demands that all the Bhima Koregaon accused be immediately released from jail; NIA should not deny their bail applications and or discharge appeals; an expert, fair re-examination taking into account the forensic evidence available should be made in a timebound framework.

Click to enlarge

Also read:
● Hackers Planted Files to Frame an Indian Priest Who Died in Custody (Wired / Dec 13, 2022)
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

Long forgotten: India’s pretrial and undertrial prisoners

15/12/2022 Asha

Frontline / by Ashutosh Sharma

The country’s jails teem with poor and marginalised people detained without justification.
Since there was no one to furnish a Rs.30,000 surety bond, Jai Parkash, 47, spent over 22 years in judicial custody without a trial. On November 21, Parkash, a stout man with swollen hands and a puffy face, was finally released on bail as part of the remissions granted under “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”.
… Quoting the Prison Statistics India report, Raghavan said: “Nearly 85 to 90 per cent of prisoners are SCs, STs, OBCs and Muslims. There is no data available on their socio-economic background, but our work with prison populations in Maharashtra shows that more than 60 per cent have a monthly family income less than Rs. 10,000.
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Also read/watch:
● The Burgeoning Share of Undertrial Prisoners in India’s Jails (The Wire / Oct 2022)
● Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
● 4,484 People Died in Police Custody Since 2020: Govt Data (The Swaddle / Jul 2022)

● Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails

By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022

en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails.
Watch video

● Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling

By The Wire

hindi | 11min | 2021
In August, when human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling was released on interim bail for a week, he made a quick visit to the Nagpur sessions court to meet his colleagues and friends. 51- year-old Gadling, a well-known criminal lawyer in Nagpur, was once a cultural activist, who sang songs of political resistance. The 11- minutes-long rendition tells you what it means to be incarcerated in Indian prisons. From food, water, to medical care, everything is a struggle, Gadling narrates.
Watch video

Number of Jailed Journalists at New Global Record, Seven Behind Bars in India

14/12/2022 Asha

Number of Jailed Journalists at New Global Record, Seven Behind Bars in India

14/12/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Six out of the seven jailed journalists are being investigated under or charged under the anti-terrorism law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The number of journalists across the world who have been put behind bars for practising their profession has reached a record high this year, said the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), adding that seven Indian reporters remain behind bars – a record high for the country.
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As seven journalists remain jailed, India continues to draw criticism over treatment of media: CPJ

15/12/2022

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

In its annual report, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that across the world, a record number of 363 journalists were behind bars as of December 1.
As seven journalists remain imprisoned in India as of December 1, the country continues to draw criticism over its treatment of the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday. The press body made the comment in its annual census of jailed journalist across the globe.
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Incriminating document found in Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused

13/12/2022 Asha

Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm

14/12/2022

The Leaflet / by Gursimran Kaur Kakshi

Previously, similar evidence of planting have also been found by the same firm, Arsenal, in the computer of mobile devices of Rona Wilson and Surendra Gadling, two other accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
ON December 11, Arsenal Consulting, a United States-based digital forensic analysis firm, revealed that tribal rights activist and one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, the late Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer was compromised over the course of three distinct campaigns, beginning on October 19, 2014, and ending with the seizure of his computer by the Pune police department on June 12, 2019.
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Hackers planted evidence on computer of jailed Indian priest, report says

13/12/2022

The Washington Post / by Niha Masih

Father Stan Swamy died after spending more than eight months in jail on terrorism charges
For months, Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, claimed his innocence in courts and pleaded for medical care, but Indian authorities denied him bail. He died at a hospital in July 2021 after spending more than eight months in jail on terrorism charges.
Now, an examination of an electronic copy of his computer by Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, concludes that a hacker infiltrated his device and planted evidence, according to a new report by the company.
Read more

Hackers Planted Files to Frame an Indian Priest Who Died in Custody

13/12/2022

Wired / by Andy Greenberg

And new evidence suggests those hackers may have collaborated with the police who investigated him.
The case of the Bhima Koregaon 16, in which hackers planted fake evidence on the computers of two Indian human rights activists that led to their arrest along with more than a dozen colleagues, has already become notorious worldwide. Now the tragedy and injustice of that case is coming further into focus: A forensics firm has found signs that the same hackers also planted evidence on the hard drive of another high-profile defendant in the case who later died in jail—as well as fresh clues that the hackers who fabricated that evidence were collaborating with the Pune City Police investigating him.
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Evidence Planted On Activist Stan Swamy’s Laptop, Claims US Report

13/12/2022

NDTV / by Aruveetil Mariyam Alavi, Sreenivasan Jain

The report blasts a hole in the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) charges against Stan Swamy.
A new report by an American forensic firm shows that multiple incriminating documents were planted in the computer of Father Stan Swamy, the 83-year-old activist-priest who was arrested for alleged terror links in 2020 and who died in custody a year later.
Read more

Also read:
● Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)

SC extends interim order granting house arrest to Gautam Navlakha till second week of January

13/12/2022 Asha

Bombay High Court seeks response from NIA on regular bail plea by Gautam Navlakha

14/12/2022

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

The Bombay High Court on December 12 issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the regular bail plea filed by Delhi activist Gautam Navlakha who is one of the accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.
Navlakha moved the High Court after a special NIA court rejected his bail plea on September 5 this year.
A bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik sought the response of NIA and posted the matter for further consideration on January 9, 2023.
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Supreme Court extends interim order granting house arrest to Gautam Navlakha

14/12/2022

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The Court allowed its grant of house custody to extend till the second week of January.
ON Tuesday, a division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna, in its review of the interim order granting house arrest to Gautam Navlakha, extended the grant of house custody until the second week of January.
Journalist and human rights activist Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, is charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. During his custody as an undertrial prisoner, a charge sheet was filed on October 9, 2020, and charges are yet to be filed by the court.
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SC Extends House Arrest of Activist Gautam Navlakha Till Second Week of January

13/12/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The 70-year-old was named as an accused in the Elgar Parishad case by the National Investigation Agency, which has also arrested several activists, scholars and lawyers in connection with it.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 13, extended till second week of January its interim order placing activist Gautam Navlakha under house arrest.
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SC further extends activist Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest

13/12/2022

India Today / Maneesha Mathur

Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest has been extended till the second week of January. He is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
The house arrest of human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, has been extended till the second week of January. The matter was listed before the Supreme Court for interim orders.
Read more

Also read:
● Gautam Navlakha moves HC seeking regular bail (Hindustan Times / Dec 13, 2022)
● Activist Gautam Navlakha Walks Out of Prison, Put Under House Arrest (The Wire / Nov 2022)