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Category: Repression

First, They Came For the Lawyers…

First, They Came For the Lawyers…

The Wire / by Jhuma Sen

The Israeli spyware snooping scandal in the latest example of how India is no exception when it comes to common patterns of persecution and intimidation of lawyers working on human rights issues.
The relationship between civil liberties lawyers, more commonly identified by its universal moniker ‘human rights lawyers’ and repressive regimes globally demonstrate some common patterns of persecution and intimidation.
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Whatsapp Spyware Attack: Bhima-Koregaon activists being spied on by the Centre?

Whatsapp Spyware Attack: Bhima-Koregaon activists being spied on by the Centre?

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

The Whatsapp Snoopgate issue that spread like wildfire, not only had the general public under its attack, but lawyers defending the human rights activists arrested under the controversial Bhima Koregaon case have also confirmed that their phones were being targeted by Pegasus, a the surveillance software developed by Israeli company NSO group that came to be in question, The Huffington Post report.
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Spyware attack via WhatsApp: Activists say they will move court

Spyware attack via WhatsApp: Activists say they will move court

The Hindu / by Sharad Vyas, Ajeet Mahale

The spyware attack on WhatsApp users targeted over a dozen civil rights activists, lawyers and journalists in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Goa.
The activists connected to the Bhima-Koregaon and Elgar Parishad cases said they would be approaching the court for action, while the Nationalist Congress Party demanded that Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari institute a probe.
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Mockery being made of right to privacy: Kabir Kala Manch activist

Mockery being made of right to privacy: Kabir Kala Manch activist

The Hindu / by Shoumojit Banerjee

Canada-based Citizen Lab advised Kabir Kala Manch activist Rupali Jadhav to change Android phone.
Rupali Jadhav (32), an activist of the Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) – a predominantly Dalit and working class troupe using protest music — was contacted through WhatsApp by the Canada-based Citizen Lab on October 28.
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Video: WhatsApp, Big Brother And Bhima Koregaon

Video: WhatsApp, Big Brother And Bhima Koregaon


en | 22 min | 2019

The Wire / #BeyondTheHeadlines with Siddharth Varadarajan

Thanks to WhatsApp taking on the Israeli firm NSO for installing the ‘Pegasus’ malware on rights activists around the world, India’s dirty surveillance secrets are slowly tumbling out. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, Siddharth Varadarajan looks at the manner in which individuals connected to the Bhima Koregaon case have been targeted and asks what the legal basis for this snooping is?
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Bela Bhatia, Anand Teltumbde, Shalini Gera among Indians snooped on using Israeli spyware

Bela Bhatia, Anand Teltumbde, Shalini Gera among Indians snooped on using Israeli spyware

Newslaundry / by Prateek Goyal

WhatsApp has revealed that the messaging app was used to spy on at least two dozen journalists and human rights activists, likely by the Indian government.
In a bombshell revelation, WhatsApp has revealed that the messaging app was used to spy on at least two dozen Indian journalists and human rights activists earlier this year, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
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Pegasus Spyware: Lawyer Defending Bhima-Koregaon Activists Received Warning from WhatsApp

Pegasus Spyware: Lawyer Defending Bhima-Koregaon Activists Received Warning from WhatsApp

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Nihalsing Rathod says he was first contacted by CitizenLab researchers, who have done work on Pegasus, and then later by WhatsApp about his phone being compromised.
Mumbai: Over the last two years, Nagpur-based human rights lawyer Nihalsing Rathod has received receiving calls on WhatsApp from unknown numbers. These calls would be made from international numbers, and would invariably turn out to be a group call.
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WhatsApp spyware was used against Bhima Koregaon accused to plant evidence, claims Nagpur lawyer

WhatsApp spyware was used against Bhima Koregaon accused to plant evidence, claims Nagpur lawyer

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Nihalsing Rathod and Adivasi rights activist Bela Bhatia were among the targets of the security breach notified about the problem by the messaging platform.
The incriminatory letters cited as evidence in the Bhima Koregaon case may have been planted by government agencies through a spyware that targeted Indian journalists and human rights activists on WhatsApp, Nagpur-based advocate Nihalsing Rathod told Scroll.in on Thursday.
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Punishing dissent: NCRB data shows why sedition must go

Punishing dissent: NCRB data shows why sedition must go


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Financial Express / by The Financial Express

Cases recorded as offences against the state in the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB’s) latest Crime in India Statistics report (for 2017)—such offences were separately recorded by NCRB only since 2014—saw a jump of 23%, from 6,986 cases registered in 2016 to 9,013 registered in 2016.
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Father Stan Swamy’s property attached

Father Stan Swamy’s property attached

The Telegraph / by Raj Kumar

Ranchi: Police had to contend with a table, a steel almirah, three chairs and a bed
The police on Monday attached the property of priest-activist Father Stan Swamy at his Namkum home, as he had not appeared in court over a case concerning a Facebook post last year that upheld the demand of Sarna tribals for their own code in the Census.
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