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Category: Repression

Despite Court Order, Sudha Bharadwaj Denied Basic Right of Phone Calls in Jail

Despite Court Order, Sudha Bharadwaj Denied Basic Right of Phone Calls in Jail

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

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.
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UPDATE, June 10: After nearly 3 months, jail authorities allowed Sudha Bharadwaj to call her daughter & speak to her for 2 minutes.

Second Anniversary of June 6 Arrests – Who are these Activists?

Second Anniversary of June 6 Arrests – Who are these Activists?

By Concerned Citizens

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.

Who are these activists?

Who is Surendra Gadling?
All posts related to Surendra Gadling
Who is Shoma Sen?
All posts related to Shoma Sen
Who is Rona Wilson?
All posts related to Rona Wilson
Who is Sudhir Dhawale?
All posts related to Sudhir Dhawale
Who is Mahesh Raut?
All posts related to Mahesh Raut

Solidarity Statements of June 2018

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

Bhima Koregaon Case: A glaring example of Hindutva lies

Bhima Koregaon Case: A glaring example of Hindutva lies

Siasat.com / by N Venugopal

New Delhi: Hindutva – the official guiding principle of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and all the members in its parivar – is an embodiment of lies, fabrication, distortion, deception, obfuscation, hatred and unleashing violence. If one thought that this characterization is an ideological subjective opinion, it is better to look at this glaring example of Bhima Koregaon violence case, a subject of gross obfuscation of facts and inhuman incarceration of public-spirited individuals over the last two years.
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Covid cases in jail where Shoma lodged worry kin

Covid cases in jail where Shoma lodged worry kin

The Times of India / by Shishir Arya & Sarfaraz Ahmed

Nagpur: Two years after activists — Nagpur University professor retired) Shoma Sen and lawyer Surendra Gadling – were arrested in Bhima-Koregaon case, their kin say the lockdown has left them clueless about their well-being in jail. They were already complaining of a slow progress in the case.
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Injustice In The Courts: Four Indian Laws That Should Have Never Existed

Injustice In The Courts: Four Indian Laws That Should Have Never Existed


Drawing by Fathima Z. B.

Maktoobmedia.com / by Mrinal Sharma, Amnesty International India

First published May 6, 2020
The criminal justice system loses credibility when people are detained for no good reason. In India, this happens frequently under many laws, where journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and students are arrested just for being critical of the government.
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Denial of bail: Will courts inquire into their writings, speeches?

Denial of bail: Will courts inquire into their writings, speeches?

Counterview / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

It is deeply disturbing that 81-year-old poet Varavara Rao has been denied bail and has now been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai. Reports suggest that the prison in Taloja, Navi Mumbai, where he was lodged, has several Covid-19 patient. The family and friends of Varavara Rao have protested in Hyderabad, as they were not even allowed to visit him.
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EU sub-committee expresses serious concerns about recent arrests [read letter]

EU sub-committee expresses serious concerns about recent arrests [read letter]

Scroll.in / by Malini Subramaniam

The subcommittee also questioned India’s use of UAPA to silence activists such as Safoora Zargar, Khalid Saifi, Meeran Haider and Sharjeel Imam, among others.
The European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah expressing concern about the recent arrests of activists Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha by the National Investigative Agency, and urged India to immediately release all political prisoners in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The activists are accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Amit Shah’s ‘Bhima Koregaon Model’ Used For Anti-CAA Protests

Amit Shah’s ‘Bhima Koregaon Model’ Used For Anti-CAA Protests

Campaign poster, 2020

NDTV / by Nandini Sundar

The recent arrests of Jamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha and two JNU students, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, both activists with Pinjra Tod, shows that the union home ministry is convinced the ‘Bhima Koregaon model’ works and must be replicated.
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DELHI RIOTS, BHIMA-KOREGAON, GUJARAT RIOTS SAME PATTERN, SAY ACTIVISTS

23/05/2020

Times Now News / by Muhammad Wajihulla

New Delhi: A group of activists led the charge against the state government over the recent arrests of students and activists by the Delhi Police. In an online press conference held on Thursday, the activists claimed that the Delhi riots, Bhima-Koregaon violence and Gujarat riots have a similar pattern – of silencing the voice of dissent and brutal repression by the state.
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Video: Angela Davis in Solidarity with UAPA Prisoners

Video: Angela Davis in Solidarity with UAPA Prisoners


en | 4:32 min | 2020

By Collective Delhi

The COVID 19 Lockdown has exposed how the ruling regime considers repressing democratic voices as an ‘essential service’. UAPA and Sedition laws have been used to for a witch-hunt of those who stand by secular, progressive ideals. Peasant and working class organizers, democratic rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and others have also been arrested under these colonial-era laws.
Angela Davis, activist in prison abolition movement and anti-racism revolutionary, speaks in solidarity with those being targeted today under UAPA.
Watch video

UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings

UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Leaflet / by Ujjaini Chatterji

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes, the World Health Organization, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have taken note of the spread of Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings. In this regard, they have issued a statement urging political leaders to undertake the necessary public health measures to counter and mitigate this threat.
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MAHARASHTRA RELEASES 7,200 PRISONERS TO CURB OVERCROWDING

17/05/2020

The New Indian Express / by PTI

In a bid to decongest state jails due to coronavirus outbreak, the state prisons department has so far released over 7,200 prisoners across the state on either temporary bail or parole.
PUNE: Authorities in Maharashtra have released over 7,200 prisoners so far to check overcrowding in jails amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Sunday.
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INDIA DECONTESTS ITS JAILS TO CHECK CORONAVIRUS BUT POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE STILL LOCKED UP

14/05/2020

Quartz India / by Manavi Kapur

Overcrowded Indian prisons have become hotbeds of coronavirus cases.
In March, India’s supreme court recognised this risk—total occupancy of India’s jails standing at 115% —and set down guidelines for releasing some prisoners on parole and bail.
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