Repression – Page 47 – free them all

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

31/10/2019 Maya

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

31/10/2019 Maya

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

26/10/2019 Maya

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

22/10/2019 Maya

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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‘My life hangs by a thread’: Activist Stan Swamy on Bhima Koregaon, Adivasi resistance in Jharkhand

28/09/2019 Maya

Scroll.in / by Sneha Philip & Smarnita Shetty

Criminal justice procedures are being misused to repress undertrials in the state’s jails who are falsely accused of being Maoists.
In this interview Swamy discusses the emergence and growth of people’s movements, his work with young Adivasi undertrials who are falsely accused of being Maoists, the difficult choices that confront young Adivasis today and the ongoing case against him in connection with the Bhima Koregaon caste clashes near Pune in 2018.
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Supreme Court’s inconsistent stand on civil rights gives state a window to defeat them

23/09/2019 Maya

The Print / by Raju Ramachandran

As chief interpreter of Constitution, Supreme Court is required to demarcate with some clarity areas of permissible state action. And this is where it has been found wanting.
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A grim situation

12/09/2019 Maya

Millenniumpost / by Editorial Board

Maoism has been a persistent threat to India’s internal security and any effort to contain the menace is more than necessary. But recent times, however, have seen an apparent evolution of this idea to include unsuitable rebels and questioning voices that are boldly directed at the establishment. The Bhima Koregaon case comes back to highlight with the September 10 incident when a team of Pune police raided the home of Delhi University Associate Professor Hany Babu M T in Noida for more than six hours in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
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IDR Interviews Stan Swamy

12/09/2019 Rani

India Development Review (IDR) / by Sneha Philip and Smarinita Shetty

Stan Swamy [one of accused in the Bhima Koregaon case] is an activist, a social worker and a Jesuit priest who has spent many decades fighting for the rights of Adivasis in Jharkhand.
In this interview with IDR, Stan discusses the emergence and growth of people’s movements, his work with young Adivasi undertrials who are falsely accused of being Naxalites and the difficult choices that confront young Adivasis today.
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The Law Takes Its Slow Course

11/09/2019 Maya

Outlook / by Preetha Nair

Lawyers and kin of jailed activists allege pre-trial punishment.
“It’s tough without him around. I am not hopeful of any positive outcome now,” says Meenal Gadling, wife of human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling, who has been languishing in Pune’s Yerawada jail for more than a year now.
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When Judicial Process itself becomes a Punishment

01/09/2019 Rani

Groundxero.in / by P. Varalakshmi

The dictum of ‘natural justice’ that not a single innocent should be punished – is vanishing into thin air in gathering gales of fascism. Professor GN Saibaba is fighting death languishing in a dark and dingy cell, unable to procure legitimate medical requirements. Thousands of Adivasis are rotting behind the high walls of prison. While those actually involved in bomb explosions, murders and genocides, are coming out from within prison walls to be honoured with felicitations. Some are being given chance to be Parliamentarians too. Is India’s political power dictating what and how justice should be? Asks P. Varalakshmi.
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