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Citizens Appeal: Release Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen From Covid-19 Hit Byculla Jail [read letter]

Citizens Appeal: Release Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen From Covid-19 Hit Byculla Jail [read letter]

Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen

The Citizen / by Concerned Citizen

660 concerned citizens from all walks of life have written to the High Powered Committee comprising Justice AA Sayed, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sanjay Chahande, Director General of Prisons SN Pandey, Maharasthra urging them to temporarily release Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj and Professor Shoma Sen from Byculla Jail, Mumbai, due to rampant COVID-19 spread within the prison.
Read full letter

Media coverage of the letter

25/05/2020

Over 600 citizens call for temporary release of Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sena from jail

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

They have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for their alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
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Over 600 Citizens Call for Temporary Release of Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen From Byculla Jail

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The signatories pointed out that Bharadwaj and Sen were suffering from multiple ailments, making them vulnerable to COVID-19.
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Video: Angela Davis in Solidarity with UAPA Prisoners

Video: Angela Davis in Solidarity with UAPA Prisoners


en | 4:32 min | 2020

By Collective Delhi

The COVID 19 Lockdown has exposed how the ruling regime considers repressing democratic voices as an ‘essential service’. UAPA and Sedition laws have been used to for a witch-hunt of those who stand by secular, progressive ideals. Peasant and working class organizers, democratic rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and others have also been arrested under these colonial-era laws.
Angela Davis, activist in prison abolition movement and anti-racism revolutionary, speaks in solidarity with those being targeted today under UAPA.
Watch video

From the shadows of dissent – women engaged to free arrested family members

From the shadows of dissent – women engaged to free arrested family members

Mumbai Mirror / by Jyoti Punwani

Meet the women engaged in an endless battle with the state to free family members arrested under stringent laws.
On Friday morning, the Bombay High Court rejected the parole application of GN Saibaba, the Delhi University professor undergoing a life sentence in Nagpur jail since 2017 for “Maoist links”.
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Judicial custody of Anand Teltumbde extended till June 5

Judicial custody of Anand Teltumbde extended till June 5

The Hindu / by Special Correspondent

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday extended the judicial custody of Anand Teltumbde, an engineer and Indian Institute of Management graduate who used to teach at the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur), arrested by the agency on April 14 in connection with the Elghar Parishad case, till June 5.
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Delhi HC to Hear Gautam Navlakha Bail Plea

Delhi HC to Hear Gautam Navlakha Bail Plea

The Quint / by The Quint

The Delhi High Court on Friday, 22 May, issued notice in the interim bail plea filed by human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, who is in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Justice Anup J Bhambhani has directed the NIA to respond to the bail plea by the next date of hearing, which has been set as 27 May.
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Mumbai Police Quiz Jailed Activist’s Family About His Whereabouts

Mumbai Police Quiz Jailed Activist’s Family About His Whereabouts


Pic: Sagar, Vernon, Susan

The Quint / by Ankita Sinha

On 11 May 2020, two police officials with the Mumbai Crime Branch reportedly paid a visit to social activist Vernon Gonsalves’s home, with the intent of finding out Gonsalves’s whereabouts. They questioned his wife, Susan Abraham, who is also an advocate and his son Sagar.
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UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings

UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Leaflet / by Ujjaini Chatterji

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes, the World Health Organization, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have taken note of the spread of Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings. In this regard, they have issued a statement urging political leaders to undertake the necessary public health measures to counter and mitigate this threat.
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MAHARASHTRA RELEASES 7,200 PRISONERS TO CURB OVERCROWDING

17/05/2020

The New Indian Express / by PTI

In a bid to decongest state jails due to coronavirus outbreak, the state prisons department has so far released over 7,200 prisoners across the state on either temporary bail or parole.
PUNE: Authorities in Maharashtra have released over 7,200 prisoners so far to check overcrowding in jails amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Sunday.
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INDIA DECONTESTS ITS JAILS TO CHECK CORONAVIRUS BUT POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE STILL LOCKED UP

14/05/2020

Quartz India / by Manavi Kapur

Overcrowded Indian prisons have become hotbeds of coronavirus cases.
In March, India’s supreme court recognised this risk—total occupancy of India’s jails standing at 115% —and set down guidelines for releasing some prisoners on parole and bail.
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BJP rulers’ standard mode of operation amidst Covid-19: Turning ‘victims’ into accused

BJP rulers’ standard mode of operation amidst Covid-19: Turning ‘victims’ into accused

Counterview/ by Surabhi Agarwal, Sandeep Pandey, Shreekumar

At a time when there can be no mass mobilisations or street protests, and when so many people are distressed, anxious and distracted by the unprecedented challenges our country is facing due to the Covid-19 crisis, the government’s actions against activists, journalists, intellectuals and Muslims appear to be calculated and insidious.
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VINDICTIVE GOVT FINDS SEDITION UNDER EVERY STONE

14/05/2020

National Herald / by Ashlin Mathew

Even as the Government claims to be waging a desperate war against the coronavirus and the lockdown has crippled the economy, draconian laws are being invoked to punish protestors and stifle dissent.
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