Context – free them all

Will anti-Naxal drive pave way for mining giants?

27/05/2025 Asha

The New Indian Express / by Gurbir Singh

Is the government campaign aimed at ‘finishing off’ the extremists, or are the larger goals to open up central India’s mineral and natural resources for exploitation? Or both?
… Over the years, Maoists, NGOs and even priests like Stan Swamy have mobilized these tribal communities to resist corporate expansion. The state forces, on the other hand, have intervened to crush the protests.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Three years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ Jharkhand police to probe into Maoist links with Stan Swamy’s ‘Bagaicha’, 63 other frontal organisations (The New Indian Express / Sep 2023)
▪ Statement against the drone bomb attacks in Chhattisgarh, India (India Matters / April 2023)
▪ DISINHERITING ADIVASIS – THE GADCHIROLI GAME PLAN (KAFILA / June 2018)
▪ The legal face of corporate land grab in Chhattisgarh (India Environmental Portal | by Sudha Bharadwaj | Feb 2018)
▪ Mining In Gadchiroli – Building A Castle Of Injustices (Countercurrents | by Neema Pathak Broome and Mahesh Raut | June 2017)

Inside the NIA’s ‘Perfect’ Conviction Record: How Coercive Detentions Are Driving Guilty Pleas

10/12/2025 Asha

Inside the NIA’s ‘Perfect’ Conviction Record: How Coercive Detentions Are Driving Guilty Pleas

10/12/2025

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

A year after the National Investigation Agency boasted of a 100% conviction rate, an investigation by The Wire finds that prolonged detention, near-automatic bail denials and pressure from investigators are pushing dozens of accused, mostly Muslims, to plead guilty before their trials have even begun.
…
After the NIA began registering cases in 2009, trials did not commence for the first six to seven years, except in a few cases. The restrictive bail clause, Section 43 D(5), introduced in the UAPA in 2008, making it virtually impossible for an accused person to be released on bail, ensured that those accused remained in jail during this time.
Read more

10,400 arrested under UAPA from 2019-2023, only 335 convicted

05/12/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Jammu and Kashmir had the highest number of arrests under the law, followed by Uttar Pradesh, data tabled in Parliament showed.
A total of 10,440 persons were arrested between 2019 and 2023 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Union government has told Parliament. Of these, only 335 persons were convicted under the anti-terror law.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Judicial Backlog: 90 Thousand Cases Pending in SC, Almost 5 Crore In District Courts (Outlook / Dec 2025)
▪ The Grammar of the Power to Arrest and Search under UAPA (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Jul 2025)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report
▪ Bhima-Koregaon case transferred to NIA to compromise independent probe: Front Line Defenders (SabrangIndia / Jan 2020)

‘A permanent surveillance backdoor’: Why Sanchar Saathi app order raises privacy fears

03/12/2025 Asha

Scroll.in / by Ratna Singh

Digital rights groups warn that forcing an app onto every device could allow the government to spy on Indians and even control their devices.
… On social media, founder and editor of technology policy website Medianama, Nikhil Pahwa, illustrated just what this ability to control a user’s mobile phone would look like. “A government application can also be used to implant files on your device,” he said. “[It] has happened before, in the Bhima Koregaon case where documents were allegedly put on laptops and used to frame a conspiracy.”
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘Malware Evidence in Their Own Reporting?’ Global Experts Reiterate Bhima Koregaon Reports, Seek End to Injustice (The Wire / Nov 2025)
▪ How an unsophisticated malware attack became India’s biggest state-sponsored cybercrime (The Polis Project / Mar 2025)
▪ Incriminating evidence planted in computers: The Trojan solved the Bhima Koregaon case! (Anchored Narratives / Jan 2023)
▪ Hackers Planted Files to Frame an Indian Priest Who Died in Custody (Wired / Dec 2022)
▪ 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)
▪ They were Accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government – The evidence was planted, a new report says (Washington Post / Feb 2021)

Counting the Caged: What India’s prison data refuses to see

03/11/2025 Asha

Sabrang / by CJP Team

Two years after NCRB’s Prison Statistics India 2023 report was published, the numbers still read less like history and more like prophecy
The NCRB Prison Statistics Report, 2023, detailed an already stressed carceral system, housing 5.82 lakh inmates in a system sanctioned for 4.25 lakh, with undertrial prisoners making up almost 78% of all prisoners. Other than numbers and statistics being added to the data, nothing changed substantively between the original numbers and now.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Notes From Inside Taloja Prison (Outlook | by Mahesh Raut | Jun 2025)
▪ Inside Taloja Prison: A Study | By Mahesh Raut (Outlook / May 2025)
▪ Many Prisoners at Taloja Jail Not Produced Before Court For Years, Reveals Survey by Surendra Gadling and Sagar Gorkhe (The Wire / Feb 2025)
▪ How Long is Too Long? – On the Maximum Period that an Undertrial Prisoner can be Detained (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)

Delhi University Vice Chancellor’s speech criticising ‘urban naxals’ draws ire

08/10/2025 Asha

PUCL condemns regressive and defamatory views of DU Vice Chancellor Prof. Yogesh Singh: At odds with Constitutional values

09/10/2025

Countercurrents.org / by People’s Union For Civil Liberties

People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India, is shocked at the troubling views expressed by Dr Yogesh Singh, professor and Vice Chancellor Delhi University on 28th September, 2025 in a speech titled “Naxal Mukt Bharat: Ending Red Terror Under Modi’s Leadership, Why Campuses are Targets?’
…
In the over 20 minute speech, replete with unsubstantiated and defamatory statements about alleged “urban naxals” on campus, Prof Singh named Delhi university’s professors and student activists charged and imprisoned under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, including members of the feminist student group Pinjar Tod (Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal), charged in the Delhi riots case and Prof Hany Babu and professors Dr Shoma Sen and Dr Anand Teltumbde (mispronounced by Prof Singh as Teltumbedke), charged in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

Delhi University V-C’s speech criticising ‘urban naxals’, Pinjra Tod movement draws ire

08/10/2025

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh’s speech alleging the presence of “Urban Naxals” in universities and criticising movements like ‘Pinjra Tod’ has triggered protests from students and faculty.
… Referring to the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, Singh named DU professor Hany Babu and academics Rona Wilson and Anand Teltumbde, saying, “And these are not isolated cases.”
Read more

Also read:
▪ As Maharashtra Govt Brings Bill Against ‘Urban Naxalism’, Activists Fear Criminalisation of Dissent (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ Insecurity By Law: A Critique of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill in the Context of India’s Banning Regime (PUDR / Jul 2025)
▪ McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey! (The Crossbill / Jul 2024)
▪ From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

The radical Hindutva links of the men arrested for lynching a Muslim man in Maharashtra

25/08/2025 Asha

Scroll.in / by Tabassum Barnagarwala

Social media accounts of four of the accused reveal they are members of an organisation founded by the hardliner Sambhaji Bhide.
On August 11, Suleman Rahim Khan Pathan was sitting with a Hindu woman in a cafe in Maharashtra’s Jamner town when a group of men forced him to go along with them.
The 21-year-old was driven around in a van and brutally assaulted before finally being dropped off at a bus stand in his village. Khan died of his injuries.
… Scroll’s analysis of their social media accounts showed that the four were active members of Shri Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, an organisation formed by the Hindutva hardliner Sambhaji Manohar Bhide, who was formerly associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
In December 2022, Dalit groups and political activists had accused Bhide of instigating violence in Bhima Koregaon village through provocative speeches.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Why caste Hindutva, not an Elgar conspiracy, is at the root of the Bhima Koregaon violence (The Polis Project / Feb 2025)
▪ Samabhji Bhide, Milind Ekbote instigated Bhima Koregaon riots: Accused event organiser tells Inquiry Commission (Bar & Bench / Sep 2021)
▪ India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)
▪ Bhima Koregaon violence: Dalit group demands action against Sambhaji Bhide (The Indian Express / Jan 2021)
▪ Casting a Veil – What we miss by ignoring Maratha caste politics in the Bhima Koregaon case (The Caravan, Dec 2020)

“Sorry, Stan!” / St Xavier’s College Cancels Stan Swamy Lecture After ABVP Protest

11/08/2025 Asha

“Sorry, Stan!”

11/08/2025

Countercurrents.org / by Cedric Prakash

Dear Stan,
I write this to you with a heavy heart: shocked and saddened; upset and angry. This letter to you, is perhaps to ease the angst in me; I really don’t know what to say and how to say it!
…
On 9 August, St Xavier’s College(SXC) Mumbai, (through their Department of Inter-Religious Studies) was scheduled to hold ‘The Annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture’. The topic was ‘Migration for Livelihood: Hope Amidst Untold Miseries’. It was to be delivered virtually by Jesuit Fr. Prem Xalxo, currently Associate Professor of Moral Theology at the Gregorian University, Rome. The speaker was a renowned personality and the topic timely and relevant. On 4 August, representatives of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) met the SXC authorities, and in a written letter ‘strongly condemned’ the organising of the lecture and demanded its cancellation. Very sadly, the Jesuit management and other officials caved in to this pressure and cancelled the lecture. For this, “Sorry, Stan!”
Read more

St Xavier’s College cancels Stan Swamy lecture after ABVP protests

09/08/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Organising a lecture in memory of an accused in the Elgar Parishad case ‘is an attempt to glorify urban Naxalism’, the Hindutva group told the institution.
St Xavier’s College in Mumbai has cancelled its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture, which was to be held on Saturday, after protests by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, reported The Free Press Journal.
The ABVP is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Read more

St. Xavier’s Mumbai cancels Stan Swamy memorial lecture after protest

07/08/2025

Matters India / by Matters India Reporter

St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, has cancelled its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture scheduled for August 9, following protests from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organization affiliated with the RSS.
The lecture, titled “Migration for Livelihood: Hope amidst Miseries,” was to be delivered virtually by Father Prem Xalxo and organized by the college’s department of Inter-Religious Studies. It aimed to honor the legacy of the Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist who died in judicial custody in July 2021.
Read more

St Xavier’s College Cancels Stan Swamy Lecture After ABVP Protest

06/08/2025

Free Press Journal / by S Balakrishnan

The lecture, organised by the college’s department of inter-religious studies, was to have been delivered by Fr Prem Xalxo on “Migration for Livelihood: Hope amidst miseries.”
St Xavier’s College has cancelled its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture scheduled for August 9 pm following protest from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sangh (ABVP), an RSS affiliated. …
The ABVP told the college principal in a strongly worded letter that Fr Stanley was a prime accused in the Bhima Koregaon criminal case and was arrested under UAPA, an anti-terrorist law. Prashant Mali, ABVP secretary, Mumbai, alleged in the letter that Fr Stanley was linked to the CPI (Maoist).
Read more

Also read:
▪ Daring, Fearless and Kind, Father Stan Swamy Remains a Beacon of Resistance (The Wire | by Hany Babu, Jyoti Jagtap, Mahesh Raut, Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe, Surendra Gadling | Jul 2025)

▪ Video: Testimony of Stan Swamy, two days before his arrest on 8 October 2020.

en | 7:48 min | Oct 6, 2020
Watch video
▪ Bhima Koregaon: The man who lodged FIR against Mevani and Khalid is distancing himself from ABVP (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

When Najeeb meets Watali – On the statutory restrictions on grant of bail under UAPA

07/08/2025 Asha

Constitutional Law and Philosophy / by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling

This is a guest post by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling, who have been detained in prison as “undertrials” since 2020 and 2018, respectively. This piece is being published here simultaneously with The Proof of Guilt blog.

The judgement in the case of (2019) 5 SCC 1 [“Watali] was delivered by the Supreme Court on 02.04.2019. Ever since then, procuring bail for a person accused of an offence under Chapters IV or VI of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) has been, to borrow an illustrative simile used by Abhinav Sekhri, like asking a person to swim after throwing him in deep water with both his hands tied behind him.
Read more

Also read:
▪ The Grammar of the Power to Arrest and Search under UAPA (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Jul 2025)
▪ How Long is Too Long? – On the Maximum Period that an Undertrial Prisoner can be Detained (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)
▪ Why the SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is So Significant (The Wire / Jul 2023)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report

The Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill Perpetuates India’s Banning Regime

01/08/2025 Asha

The Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill Perpetuates India’s Banning Regime

01/08/2025

The Wire / by Harish Dhawan and Paramjeet Singh

The Bill strikes at the heart of the fundamental right to association.
The Maharashtra assembly has passed the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill (MSPSB), making it the latest addition to a growing arsenal of banning legislations that cloak sweeping state power to curb the fundamental right to freedom of association with the language of security.
From its title to its objective and provisions, the Bill is shrouded in layers of ambiguity.
Read more

Insecurity By Law: A Critique of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill in the Context of India’s Banning Regime

July 2025

PUDR / by People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)

The Maharashtra Bill, which has been designed specifically to target the ‘spread of Naxalism in urban areas,’ as evident in its ‘Object and Reasons’, is an offshoot of a popular narrative, a social media hashtag- the ‘Urban Naxal’, popularised by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri.
…
Particularly in the wake of Elgar Parishad in 2017, the term became a common political lexicon used to describe anti-establishment protesters and dissenting voices. The term ‘Urban Naxal’ formed the backstory for the FIR filed against the people implicated for the Bhima Koregaon case, it even became a synonym for the case itself.
Read full report

Also read:
▪ Maharashtra’s Urban Naxal Bill and its New War on Civil Society – Criminalizing Dissent (Countercurrents / Jul 2025)
▪ As Maharashtra Govt Brings Bill Against ‘Urban Naxalism’, Activists Fear Criminalisation of Dissent (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ Maharashtra Assembly passes bill to curb ‘left-wing extremism‘ (Scroll.in / Jul 2025)
▪ Maharashtra: Top Cop Accuses Decades-Old Cultural, Rights Orgs of Working as ‘Naxal Fronts’ (The Wire / Feb 2022)

When the Law Becomes a Weapon: India’s Broken Promise of Justice

21/07/2025 Asha

Countercurrents.org / by Dr Ranjan Solomon

“Innocence, once lost to the gallows or a prison cell, can never be returned. Who pays for that injustice?”
Today, the Bombay High Court overturned what had once been touted as a major victory in India’s fight against terror: the conviction of 12 men in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, in which 189 people died. Five had been sentenced to death. The other seven, to life in prison. They had already spent over 18 years behind bars.
The High Court has ruled that the prosecution “utterly failed” to prove its case.
…
We must ask: What kind of justice system jails people without trial for 5, 10, 15 years—and then quietly lets them go when the truth catches up?
Do we even pause to think of the lives destroyed?
– Father Stan Swamy, 84 years old, arrested under UAPA, denied a straw for his Parkinson’s, died in custody without trial.
– Professor G.N. Saibaba, wheelchair-bound, imprisoned for years, only recently acquitted.
– The Bhima Koregaon 16—intellectuals and lawyers framed with tampered evidence, still awaiting justice.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Supreme Court stays HC verdict acquitting 12 in 2006 Mumbai train blasts case (Scroll.in / Jul 24, 2025)
▪ 7/11 Judgment Fails to Hold Police Accountable For Custodial Torture, Lost Time of Those Acquitted (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ Police torture, ill-treatment make India ‘high risk’: Report (Newslaundry / June 2025)
▪ Read India report: INDIA – COUNTRY FACTSHEET 2025 (World Organization Against Torture / Jun 2025)
▪ G.N. Saibaba’s Lifelong Campaign Was Against the Violence of Silencing (The Wire | by Rona Wilson | Oct 2024)
▪ ‘It Is Only by Chance That I Came Out of Prison Alive’: G.N. Saibaba (The Wire / March 2024)

UN experts, Freedom House, USCIRF call to designate India as “Country of Particular Concern”

19/07/2025 Asha

Maktoobmedia.com / by Maktoob Staff

Senior officials from the United Nations and the United States, along with leading human rights experts, urged the US government to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) due to its serious and ongoing human rights and religious freedom violations.
…
Ed O’Donovan also spoke about arrests of activists, academics and lawyers in the Bhima Koregaon case, shuttering of thousands of NGOs by revoking their Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licenses “to stifle dissent and restrict civil society space.”
Read more

Also read:
▪ Civil society group submits memorandum to Vatican on ‘targeted violence’ against Christians in India (Scroll.in / Jul 2025)
▪ Read India report: INDIA – COUNTRY FACTSHEET 2025 (World Organization Against Torture / Jun 2025)

▪ The State of Religious Freedom in India (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom / May 2025)
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS / Dec 2024)
▪ Pegasus Reports Highlight Need for Better Regulation of Spyware: UN Rights Chief (The Wire / Aug 2021)