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Category: Repression

250 cases of killings in alleged fake encounters registered from 2014 to January 20, 2019: MoS Home Kiren Rijuju tells Parliament

250 cases of killings in alleged fake encounters registered from 2014 to January 20, 2019: MoS Home Kiren Rijuju tells Parliament

The Leaflet / By The Leaflet

MoS (Home) informed Rajya Sabha that a total of 250 cases of killings in alleged fake encounters have been registered from 2014 upto January 20, 2019. In this category, Andhra Pradesh has maximum number of 58 cases followed by Uttar Pradesh and Odisha with 43 and 28 cases respectively in which complaints of alleged fake encounters have been received.
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Women prisoners recount Jail Horror Stories: Rape and torture common in jails

Women prisoners recount Jail Horror Stories: Rape and torture common in jails

Citizens for Justice and Peace / By Teesta Setalvad

Over the past 15 years, India’s jails have seen a rise in women inmates by 61 per cent, even though they constitute only 48.18% of the national population (according to the World Bank, 2017). Moreover, the Indian prison system has failed to respect their rights. From custodial torture, rape, denial of health services, lack of clean food and water and sheer ignorance on behalf of the state, women inmates languish amidst inhuman conditions in Indian jails.
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India doesn’t have enough legal safeguards to protect expression of healthy criticism, but a recent Kerala High Court judgment might go a long way to change that

India doesn’t have enough legal safeguards to protect expression of healthy criticism, but a recent Kerala High Court judgment might go a long way to change that

The Leaflet / By Raja Dandamudi

When governments, both central and state, are not tolerating genuine criticism of governmental actions, and the courts are not doing much to protect the freedom of expression, a recent judgment by the Kerala High Court introduces a fresh breeze in an otherwise tense environment, where the voices of only some kinds of majorities are being entertained, while voices of minorities are being suppressed. Also, the judgment goes a long away in furthering the labour rights of employees, to express their opinion, even if it amounts to criticism of their employer or superiors.
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‘By Instilling Fear the Govt Is Trying to Muzzle the Marginalised’: Justice Kolse Patil

‘By Instilling Fear the Govt Is Trying to Muzzle the Marginalised’: Justice Kolse Patil

The Citizen / by Ribhu Ranjan

Retired Justice Kolse Patil, one of the conveners of the Elgar Parishad had been a lawyer as well as a public prosecutor before he became a High Court judge. He retired at the age of 47, and for the past three decades he has been associated with various social movements, particularly for the marginalized sections of the society and trying to fight the communal forces.
The Citizen (TC) interviewed Justice Patil in the light of Bhima-Koregaon violence that happened exactly a year ago.
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Statement on release of four Reliance workers – First to be falsely implicated in Bhima Koregaon case

Statement on release of four Reliance workers – First to be falsely implicated in Bhima Koregaon case

Sanhati-india / by People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)

PUDR welcomes the release on bail of four workers of Reliance Energy/ Infrastructure Ltd. (REIL) and trade union activists implicated under numerous sections of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged Maoist links. The workers were released on 26 December 2018 on default bail after the 17 December order of the Bombay High Court setting aside the extension of time granted to ATS Mumbai to file the chargesheet in April 2018. Months before 6 June and 28 August, when 10 rights activists were arrested under UAPA on fabricated connections to the Bhima Koregaon violence, workers at RIEL were the first to be targeted for alleged ‘Maoist’ links at Elgaar Parishad.
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Report: Free Speech in India 2018: The State Rolls On

Report: Free Speech in India 2018: The State Rolls On

FreeSpeechCollective / By the FreeSpeechCollective

The range of curbs on free speech, with unreasonable and often illegal clampdowns from various quarters – the State, both at the Centre and respective state governments; non-state actors and vigilante groups; corporations and industrialists, provides a glimpse of the challenges ahead as India heads into a national election that promises to be one of the most fiercely contested amid an increasingly polarised polity.

Table of Contents
I Killings of journalists
II Attacks
III Detention and Arrests
IV Threats
V Censorship
VI Online Media: Arrests, Shutdowns and Regulation
VII Defamation suits
VIII Contempt of court
IX Sedition
X Privacy and Surveillance
XI Government Control, Policy and Regulation XII Judicial orders
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Even prison walls have not been able to stop Varavara Rao from writing

Even prison walls have not been able to stop Varavara Rao from writing

The Leaflet / By N Venugopal

Prison walls cannot stop imagination and expression, however much they try to curb freedom of expression. Varavara Rao, the renowned poet and public intellectual, is again behind bars, this time round as an under-trial prisoner in Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison in the infamous Bhima-Koregaon or Urban Naxal case. In his public life spanning about 60 years, the 78-year-old poet spent more than seven years in various prisons in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, beginning with his first arrest in 1973.
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