Background – Page 40 – free them all

Explained: Bhima Koregaon Commission

05/11/2021 Asha

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

The panel set up to inquire into the 2018 violence has suspended work till provision of suitable accommodation.
On January 1, 1818, a battle between the Peshwas and the British resulted in the overthrow of the Peshwas. To honour the valour of the soldiers, a Vijay Stambh, a war memorial was built Bhima Koregaon village. In 1921, on January 1, Dr B.R. Ambedkar visited the site which resulted in the initiation of an annual tradition to commemorate the occasion. Thereafter every year on January 1, large numbers of Bahujan gather at the Vijay Stambh to pay tribute to Dalits.
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Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon Judicial Commission Suspends Hearing After Maharashtra Govt Fails to Provide Accommodation In Mumbai (Live Law / Nov 2, 2021)
● Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati, March 2018)

A new imagination in Dalit-Bahujan politics – social differences and economic inequalities

03/11/2021 Asha

The Telegraph / by Ajay Gudavarthy

… The Dalit intellectual and activist, Anand Teltumbde, had lamented for long that reservation has benefited about 6 per cent of Dalits, leaving the rest in abject poverty. One of the consequences of this is that this privileged minority among Dalits begins to be characterized more by its new-found class mobility rather than by caste-based concerns. It is not surprising that Anand’s incarceration has not mobilized Dalit-Bahujan organizations; most of them believe that articulating such ‘abstract’ structural issues brings no concrete benefits to the Dalit-Bahujan cause.
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Also read:
● Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati, March 2018)

Home dept offers room to Bhima Koregaon panel / Panel suspends hearing until govt provides suitable premises

02/11/2021 Asha

Home dept offers room to Bhima Koregaon panel at Sahyadri guest house

02/11/2021

Hindustan Times / by By Nadeem Inamdar

A day after the Bhima Koregaon Commission announced suspension of its functioning due to a lack of space, the state home department informed the panel that one room would be made available in Mumbai to conduct the hearings.
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Bhima Koregaon Judicial Commission Suspends Hearing After Maharashtra Govt Fails to Provide Accommodation In Mumbai

02/11/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The two-member judicial commission appointed by the Maharashtra Government to probe the caste-based violence at Koregaon-Bhima on January 1, 2018, has indefinitely suspended its function due to the State government’s apathy to provide proper accommodation for proceedings.
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Koregaon-Bhima probe panel suspends hearing until Maha govt provides suitable premises

01/11/2021

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

The Koregaon-Bhima Inquiry Commission, probing the January 2018 violence near a memorial in Maharashtra’s Pune district, has told the state government that it is suspending all scheduled hearings till the government does not provide it a “suitable accommodation” in Mumbai to conduct the probe into the case.
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Pegasus: The Supreme Court’s order may well be a case of too little, too late

30/10/2021 Asha

Free Press Journal / by Anil Singh

Ultimately, all depends on the ability of the SC’s three-member probe panel to find incontrovertible evidence of snooping on citizens in the name of national security.
… The Pegasus episode is likened to Watergate but that was just a break-in ordered by the Nixon administration at the rival party’s office to get some ‘incriminating evidence’. Today, not only can such evidence be stealthily extracted from the mobile phone of the target, it can also be planted in their phone or laptop. Tests conducted by Arsenal, an independent US lab, on the laptops of two tribal rights activists arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon case show that the ‘incriminating evidence’ was planted in them.
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Also read:
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / Jul 2021)

In Jharkhand, Scheduled Tribes Still Battle Flimsy Criminal Cases Filed With Little Evidence

27/10/2021 Asha

Indiaspend / by Riddhi Dastidar

Among undertrials charged with being Maoists under stringent, non-bailable offences in Jharkhand, high numbers are Adivasis, Scheduled Castes and OBCs, a study led by late Fr. Stan Swamy had found in 2015. An alleged encounter during an Adivasi festival six years later shows not much has changed.
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Trying Without a Trial Is the Intent of Draconian UAPA Law

25/10/2021 Asha

The Wire / by Rajshree Chandra

‘Trial by process’ is the political and organisational logic of the UAPA.
An 84-year-old Jesuit Father, Stan Swamy, charged for inciting violence in Bhima Koregaon (BK), died inside the panoptic walls of the Taloja jail on July 5. Despite his age, despite his Parkinson’s-ravaged body, despite his tremors, despite his Covid infection, despite all his frailties, he had been denied bail repeatedly. Rather than his ailing, failing body becoming a ground for bail and appropriate medical care, his body became yet another ground on which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) waged its vicious war.
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Probe panel summons police officers Param Bir Singh, Rashmi Shukla as witnesses

22/10/2021 Asha

Probe panel summons police officers Param Bir Singh, Rashmi Shukla as witnesses

22/10/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Singh was additional director general (law and order) of the Maharashtra Police at the time of the violence, and Shukla was the Pune Police chief.
A judicial commission investigating the Bhima Koregaon case on Friday summoned former chiefs of the Mumbai and Pune Police, Param Bir Singh and Rashmi Shukla, to appear as witnesses in the matter, Live Law reported.
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Koregaon Bhima: Commission summons DCP (Crime) for police station records

22/10/2021

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

A two-member commission headed by retired judge justice J N Patel is probing into the causes of violence in Koregaon Bhima area on January 1, 2018, in which one person had died and several others were left injured.
Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry on Thursday issued summons to the deputy commissioner of police (crime) of the Pune city police asking for various records from Vishrambag police station between November 2017 and February 2018.
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Will Bhima Koregaon Commission wind up on December 31?

21/10/2021

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

‘Not giving the Commission space in Mumbai is an insult to Maharashtra’s Dalits who are waiting for the inquiry report.’ Jyoti Punwani reports.
Will the Bhima Koregaon Commission wind up by December, when the current extension granted to it expires?
That was suggested at Wednesday’s hearing by retired Justice J N Patel, who heads the two-member judicial inquiry into the violence that shook Maharashtra on January 1, 2018.
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Bhima Koregaon: Outcome of a ‘Larger Conspiracy’?

05/10/2021

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

Testimony presented before the Bhima Korgaon Commission over the last two months reveals the background to the violence that broke out on January 1, 2018.
As the Bhima Koregaon accused continue to struggle for bail, important information about the violence that they are accused of instigating is emerging before the judicial commission that’s investigating the violence.
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Also read: Witness Before Probe Panel Accuses Sambhaji Bhide & Milind Ekbote Of Instigating Bhima Koregaon Riots (Live Law / Sep 2021)

Video: The Digital Surveillance Crisis and Threats to Human Rights Defenders

21/10/2021 Asha

By Access Now

This event discusses how states, facilitated by private companies, are unlawfully deploying targeted surveillance technologies against civil society around the world.
The biennial General Assembly resolution on human rights defenders that will be considered at its 76th session offers is an opportunity to discuss the effects of digital surveillance on the activities and safety of human rights defenders and their rights to privacy and freedom of expression, and to adopt measures that would allow defenders to continue exercise their human rights unhindered.

Video: UN General Assembly Side Event

en | 1h 33min | 2021

Watch at YouTube

Also read:
● Pegasus Project: 161 Names Revealed By The Wire On Snoop List So Far (The Wire, Aug 2021)
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / Jul 2021)

Bail is Not Impossible in UAPA Cases: Courts Can Shine a Path to Justice

19/10/2021 Asha

Bail is Not Impossible in UAPA Cases: Courts Can Shine a Path to Justice

19/10/2021

The Quint / by Vakasha Sachdev

Despite strict bail conditions & the SC’s Watali judgment, courts can still apply their mind to see if charges fit.
India has for many years had a major problem when it comes to pre-trial incarceration. 70 percent of prisoners in India are undertrials, according to the latest available NCRB data (from 2019) – that’s 3,28,000 people in jail without ever being convicted.
… The Bhima Koregaon accused are the best example of this, with bail denied to them despite incriminating evidence appearing to be planted on their computers (Rona Wilson), the material against them being dubious (Sudha Bhardwaj) and having severe illnesses (83-year-old Father Stan Swamy, who eventually died in jail).
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Kappan’s Chargesheet and Threat to Reporters Covering Minority Issues

19/10/2021

Newsclick / by Hana Vahab

An independent journalist in India has been behind the bars for one year. His crime, as per the chargesheet filed is, reporting and writing stories only for “inciting” the Muslim community.
… The number of journalists charged with UAPA in the past five years add up to over 5,000 with a hike of 162% in sedition cases between 2016- 2019 as per the National Crime Records Bureau. Those who were incarcerated under UAPA include … human rights lawyers Arun Ferreria and Surendra Gadling, Dalit rights activists Sudhir Dhawale and Mahesh Raut, women’s rights activist Shoma Sen among others.
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Koregaon Bhima Inquiry Commission Witness from Vadhu Budruk questioned about village history

19/10/2021 Asha

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The village also has a disputed tomb-like structure, which, according to the Dalit Mahar community, is the samadhi of Govind Gopal Dhegoji Meghoji, a 17th-century Dalit figure.
The cross-examination of Sambhaji Shivale (51), a resident of Vadhu Budruk village in Pune district, continued before the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry on Monday.
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