Background – Page 19 – free them all

Police officer who probed case files affidavit before Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry

02/11/2022 Asha

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

Senior police officer Shivaji Pawar, who is currently the deputy director (administration) of Maharashtra Police Academy, Nashik, is likely to be called before the commission to record his evidence.
Senior police officer Shivaji Pawar, who had investigated the Elgaar Parishad case in Maharashtra, submitted his affidavit before the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry on Monday, advocate Shishir Hiray, who represents the state, said.
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Also read:
● Report links Pune cop to hacking bid on Bhima Koregaon accused (Hindustan Times / June 2022)
● Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)
● As Bhima Koregaon case completes its fourth anniversary, State reprisal is writ large in its twists and turns (The Leaflet / June 2022)

Report Release: In the Name of Development / Snooping on Civil Society

29/10/2022 Asha

India Trains Its Sights on Dissent in Chhattisgarh – Snooping on Civil Society

28/10/2022

Voelkerrechtsblog / by Allison West

Development in the form of profit-driven resource exploitation ventures in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh, led by corporations and facilitated by the state, have wreaked havoc on the lives and livelihoods of the region’s indigenous Adivasi peoples. In the face of widespread dispossession, corporate land grabs, environmental degradation and militarized policing in Chhattisgarh, Adivasi activists and organized civil society play a vital role in monitoring, documenting and challenging ongoing human rights violations on the ground…
In 2020, Amnesty International and Citizen Lab uncovered a coordinated spyware campaign targeting nine human rights defenders in India, including several active in Chhattisgarh. Between January and October 2019, the targets received spearphishing emails with malicious links that, if opened, would have installed NetWire, a commercially manufactured Windows spyware that monitors a user’s actions and communications..
The common link between the human rights defenders targeted in the NetWire attack seemed to be a record of speaking out on behalf of those imprisoned in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon Case.
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Report Release: In the Name of Development – Indigenous Rights Violations and Shrinking Space in Chhattisgarh

03/11/2022

By India Justice Project & ECCHR

The report presents insights into the ongoing assault by the Indian state and powerful corporations on the indigenous peoples of the country through a case study of Chhattisgarh. In particular, the report highlights the legal and institutional means through which powerful state, military and corporate actors appropriate land and shrink space for Adivasi rights and resistance in Chhattisgarh.
Read full report (PDF, 72 pages)

Also read:
● DISINHERITING ADIVASIS – THE GADCHIROLI GAME PLAN (KAFILA / June 2018)
● Mining In Gadchiroli – Building A Castle Of Injustices (Countercurrents / June 2017)

“Let there be Light”! India today, is enveloped in darkness

24/10/2022 Asha

Countercurrents / by Cedrik Prakash

India today, is enveloped in darkness! As the nation embroils itself from one issue to another, the burden is felt by the ordinary citizen, as never before and in more ways than one. Fascism throttles the country; at this juncture, one cannot help, but reminded of that immortal epigram composed by Bertolt Brecht in 1939. Brecht, a playwright and poet, who was vehemently anti-Nazi wrote, “In the dark times / will there also be singing? / Yes, there will also be singing. / About the dark times.”. In these dark times, the people of India cry out in one voice, from the depths of their being “Let there be Light”!
… At the same time, human rights defenders, those who have taken a visible and vocal stand for justice and peace, those who have taken up cudgels for the excluded and exploited, the marginalised and the minorities are at the receiving end of a brutal vengeful system. Many, as those in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case are still languishing in jail without trial.
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The End: Lessons from UAPA series

17/10/2022 Asha

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Midday / by Ajaz Ashraf

This draconian law is rarely invoked against the upper caste Hindus who are not communists or Ambedkarites or atheists, which is a commentary on the nature of the Indian state.
This column has featured, over the past five months, stories of those families whose members have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act—and persistently denied bail. They continue to languish in jail. With the exception of Fahad Shah, editor of The Kashmir Walla, the column focussed on the accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence and the 2020 Delhi riot cases. Their tragedy is compounded as the charges against them are widely believed to be imaginary.
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Also read:
● And the future of Stan Swamy (Midday.com / Oct 2022)
● And a place Sudhir Dhawale calls home (Midday.com / Aug 2022)
● And Ramesh Gaichor’s patriotic songs (Midday.com / Aug 2022)
● And prayers to Lord for Arun Ferreira (Midday.com / Aug 2022)
● And Vernon’s letters to his son (Midday.com / July 2022)
● And comrades admire Jyoti Jagtap (Midday.com / July 2022)
● And they wait for Mahesh Raut (Midday.com / Jun 2022)
● And the letters of Rona Wilson (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And Allah’s call to Hany Babu (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And Ma died waiting for Surendra (Midday.com / Jun 2022)
● And Ma can’t sing with Sagar (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / May 2022)

Will rely on ‘historic’ verdict to secure release of Elgar Parishad case accused: Lawyer

14/10/2022 Asha

Pic credits: Committee for the Defence and Release of GN Saibaba

● Supreme Court Stays Release Of Prof GN Saibaba & Others In UAPA Case, Suspends Bombay HC’s Acquittal Order (Live Law / Oct 15, 2022)

Will rely on ‘historic’ verdict to secure release of Elgar Parishad case accused: Lawyer

15/10/2022

The Times of India / by Vaibhav Ganjapure

After securing acquittal for Prof GN Saibaba and four others primarily based on absence of sanction under UAPA’s Section 45 (1), his lawyers now have plan to rely on the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court’s verdict for securing the release of several accused who are also behind bars in the Elgar Elgar Parishad case.
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As GN Saibaba gets bail in Maoist link case, let’s recall the Elgar Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case

15/10/2022

Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajan

More than eight years after his arrest, the Bombay High Court on Friday acquitted former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba in an alleged Maoist links case for want of valid sanction for prosecution under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA…
With GN Saibaba getting acquitted by the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench on Friday, here’s a look at the other Maoist-link case which is the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
In the Bhima-Koregaon case, the investigation was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2020, the initial probe being done by the Pune police. Most of the accused have spent years in custody, being arrested in August 2018.
Read more

Bombay HC Frees Saibaba, Others in ‘Maoist Link’ Case

14/10/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The Nagpur bench of the high court allowed the appeal of all six convicted persons, including Pandu Narote who died in August this year.
Former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba and five others were acquitted in the Maoist links case by the Bombay high court, allowing their appeal against conviction and life sentence…
After Saibaba’s conviction, his lawyer in the lower court, Surendra Gadling; his colleague Hany Babu; and his close friend Rona Wilson were also arrested in years to come under the UAPA charges. While Gadling fought his case in court, Babu and Wilson had run a campaign for his release. All three are named as prime accused in the Elgar Parishad case of 2018.
Read more

Also read:

● Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (PUCL / Sep 2022)
Download report
● Silencing critics: Apex Court view ‘brain is more dangerous’ revoking Saibaba acquittal (Counterview / Oct 16, 2022)
● “Urban Naxals” Are Making Frequent Requests For House Arrest: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta Tells Supreme Court [read order] (Live Law / Oct 15, 2022)

PUCL Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (#RepealUAPA campaign)

30/09/2022 Asha

PUCL Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (#RepealUAPA campaign)

28/09/2022

By V. Suresh, Madhura SB and Lekshmi Sujatha (PUCL)

Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009 – 2022
Published: Sep 28, 2022
41 pages
PUCL’s study on the use and abuse of UAPA covering the period between 2009 and 2022, with special emphasis on the NIA. A first in the series of a larger collaborative work as part of #RepealUAPA campaign.
Download report

PUCL report alleges abuse of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act

02/10/2022

The Hindu / by The Hindu Bureau

Report by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties says ‘suo motu power’ by Centre to transfer investigation from the State police was a ‘serious threat to federalism’
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has released a report titled ‘UAPA: Criminalising Dissent and State Terror’ on the alleged abuse of the legislation during 2009-22, and demanding the law be repealed.
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97.2% of UAPA accused jailed for long periods and eventually acquitted, study finds

02/10/2022

The News Minute / by Jahnavi Reddy

The PUCL study found that 8,371 persons were arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act between 2015 and 2020, while only 235 were convicted under the draconian anti-terror law in the same period.
A total of 8,371 persons were arrested in 5,924 cases under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) across India between 2015 and 2020, according to a report by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), which sheds light on the Union government’s alleged abuse of the anti-terror law and calls to repeal it. In the same period, however, only 235 persons were convicted under the UAPA.
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NCHRO calls for solidarity to Lawyers and Human Rights Defenders who are arbitrarily detained

27/09/2022 Asha

By National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO)

27/09/2022

This letter elaborates our concerns about the unlawful detention of lawyers and other human rights defenders who were arrested on September 22nd, 2022 in an early morning raid along with over 100 others across the country by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the principal counter-terrorist task force of India and Enforcement Directorate. The activists have been arbitrary detained under repressive laws including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Such detentions have become a regular practice of the present government…

The Bhima Koregaon case is just one emblematic example of the Indian authorities’ increasing use of anti-terror legislation, particularly the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to punish those who ask questions about the illegitimate anti-minority and anti-poor stances.
Read full statement

The National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO) halts its work in the country

28/09/2022

By National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO)

The National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO) halted its work in the country as the news came that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had banned the organisation. This is a reprisal for the organization’s human rights work. The NCHRO is very proud of the vital human rights work carried out by the confederation.
As a result, we are suspending all our activities. Effective immediately, NCHRO halted all its programmes and we are not engaged and responsible for any posts on social media.
We will pursue legal remedies against this injustice.

Sincerely,
Prof A Marx

Prisoners of Conscience Under Modi Regime

25/09/2022 Asha

By Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation

Since the BJP’s rise to power in 2014, the list of people -ranging from human rights activists to lawyers, and journalists to students – being persecuted for their identity and their fidelity to fighting for democratic and progressive rights, has grown rapidly. Starting from the arrests related to Bhima Koregaon in 2018 and protests against CAA in 2020 to the recent arrests of activist Teesta Setalvad and journalist Mohammad Zubair, the current regime is bent on imprisoning any person who speaks uncomfortable truths and exposes their lies.
Read full statemnt

Click to enlarge

Also visit:

● Prisoners of Conscience in India. The Prisoners of Conscience in India (PoCI) documents and highlights the cases of people who have been imprisoned in India because of their peaceful expression of political, religious, or other conscientiously held beliefs.

Political Prisoners Unite the British Raj and ‘New India’

13/09/2022 Asha

The Wire / by Partho Sarothi Ray

Just as the British rulers used to refer to political prisoners during their rule as ‘terrorists,’ the rulers of today also call people imprisoned for opposing them ‘terrorists’.

Today, September 13, is Political Prisoners Day.

“Ora Bhagat Singher bhai, ora Khudiramer bhai,
Samasta rajbandider mukti chai, mukti chai”
(‘They are the brothers of Bhagat Singh, they are the brothers of Khudiram,
We want the freedom of all political prisoners’)
– Popular Bengali song by Bipul Chakraborty

On September 13, 1929, Jatin Das, the 24-year-old revolutionary freedom fighter, died in Lahore Jail after a 63-day long hunger strike, demanding humane treatment of political prisoners under the British Raj…
The current government has similarly instituted cases like the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case and the Delhi riots case to allege ‘conspiracies’ and thereby imprison a large number of activists and critics and demonise them as ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘terrorists’.
Read more

Video: Custodial Violence, Judicial Negligence and State Apathy

12/09/2022

en │ 52min │2022

By The Polis Project

On 5 October 2020, Atikur Rahman, journalist Siddique Kappan, student Masood Ahmad, and taxi driver Mohammad Alam were arrested in Mathura, in Uttar Pradesh in, India They were on their way to meet the family of a Dalit woman who was raped and murdered by a group of men from the dominant caste in Hathras…
The denial of medical treatment and bail must be seen as a part of a larger pattern of abuse of power directed toward dissenters and political prisoners in India. On 5 July 2021, 84-year-old Jesuit priest and human rights defender Father Stan Swamy died in judicial custody at the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai, India.
Watch video

“Was Stan Swamy a Maoist?” By A Fellow Traveller

13/08/2022 Asha

Academicfreedomindia.com / by a Fellow Walker

In this post, a fellow traveller of Stan’s in prison shares his reflections about the Jesuit priest who became one India’s foremost human rights defenders: the background to Stan’s own awakening and then participation in the continuing resistance movements among the most marginalised of Indian citizens, its indigenous peoples, the Adivasis:

People call him Father Stan Swamy. This way of addressing is different from the Maoist usage. He opted for the Christian way of life in the Jesuit order when he was an adolescent. He migrated from Tiruchirappalli in Madras State to Jamshedpur which was, at that time, part of the undivided Bihar State. Jamshedpur is the habitat of tribal people. The people who work in the coal reserves and steel factories, and the people who live in the nearby forests are all tribals. Being idealistic from a very young age, Stan was influenced by the preaching and practice of Jesus Christ.
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