Medical Negligence: NHRC Seeks Action Taken Report from Taloja Jail on Stan Swamy
Medical Negligence: NHRC Seeks Action Taken Report from Taloja Jail on Stan Swamy
01/07/2021
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
The NHRC’s move came after a Jesuit lawyer sought its intervention, saying that an Ayurveda doctor had treated the severely ailing activist at a time when he had showed several symptoms of COVID-19.
The National Human Rights Commission has asked for an ‘action taken’ report from the Taloja jail superintendent in connection with allegations that 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy was denied medical facilities.
The Telegraph newspaper has reported that NHRC assistant registrar of law, Subhra Tyagi, sent the email to jail authorities on June 26.
Read more
NHRC seeks report on Stan Swamy jail care
01/07/2021
The Telegraph / by Animesh Bisoee
The octogenarian was allegedly denied medical facilities at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought an action taken report from the superintendent of prisons in connection with the alleged denial of medical facilities to octogenarian Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.
Read more
Court allows ED to record Navlakha’s statement in NewsClick money laundering probe
Newsclick / by Express News Service
Navlakha, who was arrested last year by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Elgaar Parishad case, is currently lodged in Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.
A special court on Wednesday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record the statement of activist-journalist Gautam Navlakha in connection with its money laundering probe against online news portal NewsClick.
Read more
Appeal for the immediate release of human rights defenders in jail
Prison diaries. Drawing by Arun Ferreira
theworldiswatchingindia.com / by CIVICUS, World Organisation Against Torture, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch
The undersigned organisations wish to draw the Human Rights Council’s attention to the health and safety of Indian human rights defenders in prison, detained on politically motivated charges, and at grave risk due to Covid-19. The human rights crisis unfolding in India, including the jailing of defenders, has been met with relative silence from the international community. The use of counter-terror legal provisions to incarcerate defenders has taken a serious turn with the impact of Covid-19. As India struggles to cope with a new and deadly wave of the virus, jailed defenders are at serious risk, many of whom have tested positive for Covid-19 or are showing symptoms. The denial of medical bail, basic medical facilities, and communication or access to families even in the midst of the current surge in cases and deaths in India, is an act of cruelty, and a violation of their right to life and dignity.
Read full statement
Keeping Quiet is Not an Option: Nayantara Sahgal on „Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks – A Life in Law and Activism“
Feminist Dissent / by Nayantara Sahgal
From a speech given on January 24, 2021
Keeping quiet is not an option. We must speak, write, paint, sing, dance for the freedom to dissent, and for our human rights.
Let me take a moment to explain why I am especially glad and proud to be releasing this book about Sudha Bharadwaj. I grew up to the sights and sounds of revolution. My family fought for freedom under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership and my father died of his 4th imprisonment during British rule. The only mantra I learned was ‘Ishvar Allah tere nam, sabko sammati de Bhagvan’ (one of Gandhi’s favourite devotional hymns about the oneness of god). And the slogan of that long hard struggle for freedom was Inquilab Zindabad (long live the revolution).
Read more
Also read:
● Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks – A Life in Law and Activism (PUCL, Jan 2021)
Access PDF copy of the book here
Rally for jailed Indian scholars held in Surrey, Canada
Surrey, June 27
Countercurrents.org / by Countercurrents
Close to the birthday of George Orwell and the 46th anniversary of Emergency in the world’s so called largest democracy, activists came together in Surrey on Sunday, June 27, to raise their voices against the incarceration of thinkers by the Indian authorities.
Organized by Radical Desi publications, the rally was held right outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center. The participants carried placards with pictures of jailed scholars who are being detained under trumped up charges for merely questioning the power and standing up for the poor and marginalized.
Read more
There is freedom, but no mercy
The Indian Express / by T J S George
People are getting arrested as in the days of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency.
Freedom is a funny thing. When it is there, we don’t notice it. When it is not there, we don’t notice anything else. In a country as populous as India, half the people can take their freedom for granted without knowing that the other half is denied basic freedoms. This half-half reality is the defining feature of Narendra Modiji’s India.
Read more
Special court rejects pleas for cloned copies of digital hard disc recovered by investigating agency
The Times of India / by Swati Deshpande
A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday rejected applications made by few of the 2018 Elgar Parishad case accused for cloned copies of digital hard disc recovered by the investigating agency.
The special National Investigation Agency Judge court said it heard arguments advanced for and against grant of such clone copies and by a common order rejected five applications.
Read more
Also read: In Bhima-Koregaon Case, More Damning Signs of Planted Evidence (article14, April 2021)
Bail after 3 years for the incarcerated Mumbai Electric Employees Union Workers
tnlabour.in / By Thozhilalar Koodam
After 3 long years, the five workers of Mumbai Electric Employees Union are out on bail. The State which arrested these workers under UAPA in the aftermath of Bhima Koregaon incident has not been able to prove any of its charges. These workers were guilty of one thing only, they were to organise contract workers against their mighty owner Reliance. As they could not be charged of these activities as treason, the State keeps finding flimsy charges to keep hundreds of activists and workers in jail under other pretexts.
While they still have a long way to go to clear the charges against them, their union Mumbai Elecrtic Employees Union has released the following pamphlet in solidarity with the arrested workers and to continue the struggles of exploited contract workers against their management. This pamphlet was translated in hindi, tamil and telugu and was distributed among workers.
Read more
UAPA bail orders come down hard on attempts to equate protest with “Terrorism” / A Cry for Justice
Delhi HC UAPA bail orders come down hard on attempts to equate protest with “Terrorism”
21/06/2021
The Leaflet / by Kavita Krishnan
The Delhi HC bail orders vindicate what pro-democracy activists have been saying since last year: The Delhi Police investigation is blatantly biased and has spun a fantastic conspiracy theory to falsely accuse anti-CAA protestors, especially those of the minority Muslim community, of the very “riots” that was planned and targeted against them making them the victims, says Kavita Krishnan.
…In the Bhima Koregaon case, and the Delhi riots case, as well as several cases involving unarmed protestors all over India, we have seen how the UAPA is used to criminalise protest and punish protestors.
Read more
A Cry for Justice that Keeps Getting Louder
21/06/2021
The Leaflet / by Cedric Prakash
A regime that oppresses the weak and suppresses those who speak against it will always have to deal with more and more dissent. The key to peace and justice in India lies in following the Constitution, writes Cedric Prakash.
… From Aisha Sultana to Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha. From Khori to Lakshadweep. From Tihar Jail to Taloja Jail. From Fr Stan Swami to Umar Khalid. From the Bhima-Koregaon sixteen to the other UAPA-incarcerated. From Sulabh to Siddique, from farmers to workers, from the unemployed to the refugees, from minorities to the marginalised, from the caregivers to the academics, from the toolkits to the brazen headlines, from rising costs to lack of vaccines—the cries for justice in India have never been so shrill and clear!
Read more