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Category: Repression

‘If they open their mouths in protest, they are labelled as Maoists’

‘If they open their mouths in protest, they are labelled as Maoists’

Rediff News / Interview with Anand Teltumbde

‘…incarcerated in jails, ruining their entire families.’
‘You would see that Dalits who displayed so much agitation over the Bhima-Koregaon issue are effectively silenced by the arrests of their activists by the police.’
‘What can be a more pitiable state than this for a people who had just seen a ray of hope after darkness of millennia?’
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Jailbird Jabbar

Jailbird Jabbar

First published: Feb 1, 2013

The Caravanne Magazine / By Vernon Gonsalves

In 2007, the Naxal activist Vernon Gonsalves was arrested by the Maharashtra Police and charged on 18 counts, including that of waging guerilla war against the Indian state. Six years on, though now acquitted in many of these cases, Gonsalves continues to languish as an undertrial in Nagpur Central Jail, after a stint in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail. If something fruitful has emerged from his long incarceration, it is words. In Gonsalves’s short story “Jailbird Jabbar”, the narrator—an “old class-strugglewalla”—tells us the story of Jabbar, one of the thousands of adolescents in Mumbai who live freestyle on the street, make a living from its many systems of trade, bootlegging, and barter, and sometimes fall foul of the law.
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Video: Arun Ferreira – Life in an Indian Prison

Video: Arun Ferreira – Life in an Indian Prison

en | 12:51 min | 2014

youtoube / produced by Faiza Khan

Arun Ferreira was arrested in May 2007 on fabricated charges under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act (UAPA). As soon as he was acquitted in a case, a new one would be conjured up. Finally out on bail in January 2012, Arun talks about life in prison and torture they were subjected to, through his sketches.
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‘UPA and NDA are two sides of the same coin’: Sudhir Dhawale

‘UPA and NDA are two sides of the same coin’: Sudhir Dhawale

First published: May 27, 2014

Round Table India / Interview with Sudhir Dhawale by Round Table India

Round Table India spoke to writer and political activist Sudhir Dhawale in Mumbai last week, after his release from a long term spent in prison due to false charges of being involved in Naxal activities. Arrested in January 2011, he was acquitted last week by Gondia’s sessions court after the police failed to produce substantial evidence against him.
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Why Sudhir Dhawale’s acquittal in a 2014 case of Naxal involvement is relevant to the Bhima Koregaon arrests

Why Sudhir Dhawale’s acquittal in a 2014 case of Naxal involvement is relevant to the Bhima Koregaon arrests

The Caravan Magazine / By Arshu John

On 6 June, in a joint operation across Delhi, Nagpur and Mumbai, the Pune Police arrested five individuals for allegedly being “top urban Maoist operatives” who incited the violence in Bhima Koregaon—a town in Maharashtra—this January. Sudhir Dhawale, one of the five accused, is a prominent Mumbai-based activist who has worked extensively on Dalit rights. He has previously been arrested, and subsequently acquitted, in another case of alleged involvement with Maoist rebels.
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