By People’s Union for Civil Liberties – Chhattisgarh
Release All Political Prisoners!
Repeal Draconian Laws!
Stop Gagging the Media!
June 25th, 2020: On this day in 1975, the then-Indian Government imposed the State of Emergency in India, suspending all fundamental rights and commencing one of the darkest periods of Indian democracy. Today, after a span of forty-five years, we the people of India find ourselves in a similar situation, living in a de facto state of emergency, which has not been officially declared, where scores of ordinary citizens to who dared to criticize the government are being arbitrarily arrested under draconian laws meant only for rarest cases of international terror. The Chhattisgarh chapter of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties is observing this day as the Anti-Emergency Day –to demand the release of arrested human rights workers, and to renew our pledge to uphold the Constitution of India, with all its promises of freedom and equality, in its true spirit. …
On June 16, MediaNama conducted a telephonic interview with Etienne Maynier, a technologist at Amnesty International, who was part of the team that investigated the coordinated spyware attack against at least nine human rights activists in India, eight of whom have called for the release of eleven activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case. Read more
On August 28, 2020, the respected lawyer and human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj will complete two years in jail …
“If somebody is working for poor people, then does it mean they are criminals?”, Maaysha, Bharadwaj’s daughter who got to speak with her mother after four months on June 9, asks Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com. Read more
Spyware attacks on rights defenders show continuing attempt to fix case
On Monday, an Amnesty International report, put together with digital activist group Citizens Lab, pointed to targeted spyware attacks last year against nine human rights defenders who were helping the people arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case in Maharashtra.
The report is the latest chapter in a case in which it seems an array of forces are at work to plant evidence against 11 human rights activists and lawyers arrested in connection with violence that erupted between Marathas and Dalits in the village of Bhima Koregaon outside Pune on January 1, 2018. Read more
Things Getting Really Bad in Overcrowded Maharashtra Prisons
Even after 2 deceased inmates were found COVID-19 positive, testing is not being done in Taloja where rights activists, mostly 60+, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case have been lodged. Read more
OF 269 PRISON INMATES WHO TESTED POSITIVE IN MAHARASHTRA, 115 RECOVERED
The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal
As of June 13, 17, 695 screenings and 1681 swab tests were conducted in 10 Central Prisons in Maharashtra and in the Additional Director General, Prisons (ADGP) office of which 269 tested positive, 115 recovered and four died, the Bombay High Court was informed on Monday. Read more
The Day Justice Hosbet Suresh Was Threatened With Arrest
The police’s relentless pursuit of human rights activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence did not spare judges either.
The Bhima Koregaon case, in which 11 prominent human rights activists, lawyers and academics languish behind bars, that too during a pandemic, has now become the template for similar arrests taking place in different parts of the country 2014 under the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah regime. Read more
Human Rights Defenders Targeted by a Coordinated Spyware Operation
Amnesty International / By Amnesty Internatioanl & Citizen Lab
Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab have uncovered a coordinated spyware campaign targeting at least nine human rights defenders (HRDs) in India. Eight of the nine HRDs have been calling for the release of other prominent activists, popularly known as the Bhima Koregaon 11, most of whom have been imprisoned in Maharashtra, India since 2018. Read more
Registering their protest against an increasingly “authoritarian” state, users on social media in India used the hashtag #LalSalaamComrade on Twitter this evening. The hashtag also comes about days after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) held that the use of “lal salam” and “comrade” meant that one is a Maoist. Read more
Selection of posters @ #LalSalaamComrade (click to enlarge)
Despite Court Order, Sudha Bharadwaj Denied Basic Right of Phone Calls in Jail
While others who have been accused in the case have managed to stay in touch with their families and lawyers, Bharadwaj’s daughter and lawyers have not been able to do so despite multiple requests and a court order.
Mumbai: Maaysha saw her mother, Sudha Bharadwaj, last on February 22. It was a day after Maaysha’s birthday; she turned 23 this year. In the mulaqaat (meeting) at Yerwada prison in Pune, Bharadwaj – an academic and human rights activist – was barely given five minutes to talk to her daughter who had travelled from Delhi just for this meeting. Read more
June 6 marks the second anniversary of the nation-wide onslaught on and implication of activists and their arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case. Exactly two years ago, Pune police conducted simultaneous raids on five houses in Nagpur, Delhi and Mumbai and arrested Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawle and Mahesh Raut. The case has not moved an inch in the last two years and they are still languishing in Maharashtra jails.
Statement by Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL):
IAPL CONDEMNS ARREST OF ACTIVISTS Read full statement
Statement by Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS):
ON THE ARBITRARY ARRESTS OF SHOMA SEN, SUDHIR DHAWALE, SURENDRA GADLING, RONA WILSON, AND MAHESH RAUT BY THE MAHARASHTRA POLICE Read full statement
Statement by People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Maharashtra:
PUCL CONDEMNS THE ARREST OF SURENDRA GADLING, SUDHIR DHAWALE, RONA WILSON, SHOMA SEN, MAHESH RAUT AND RANA JACOB Read full statement
