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Category: Persecuted

Who is Stan Swamy?

Who is Stan Swamy?

By India Civil Watch

On the morning of August 28, 2018 Maharashtra police raided the one room home of Fr.Stan Swamy, who lives on the outskirts of Ranchi on Bagaicha campus, under suspicion of him being involved in the violence at Bhima Koregaon. The police confiscated his laptop, mobile phone and several CDs, and a recent press release on the Pathalgadi movement by Women against Sexual violence and State repression (WSS).
What does an 82 year old Jesuit priest has got to do with Bhima-Koregaon case? Everything, if he is a stalwart of people’s causes.
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Who is Gautam Navlakha?

Who is Gautam Navlakha?

By India Civil Watch

Gautam Navlakha is a Delhi-based veteran journalist, author, civil liberties, human rights and peace activist best known for his fierce and sustained critique of the Indian state’s militarism against its own citizenry in three broad zones – the northeastern states, Kashmir valley, and the central Indian forested zone in Chhattisgarh. He has been actively involved with the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) – one of India’s leading civil liberties and democratic rights defence organizations- working to protect, extend and help implement fundamental rights as guaranteed in the Indian constitution.
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Still in Jail, Inspite of Bail: The Case of Reliance Workers

Still in Jail, Inspite of Bail: The Case of Reliance Workers

Thozhilalar Koodam / By Thozhilalar Koodam

In January 2018, 5 electricity workers from Bombay were arrested on fabricated charges under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). After the police failed two deadlines for filing a chargesheet against them, and the prosecution did not even notify them of the extensions to their imprisonment, the High Court of Maharashtra ordered the sessions court to grant them bail on procedural reasons. This order was served in December 2018, 11 months after their arrests. But the sessions court has imposed conditions on bail that the workers have been unable to meet, thus leaving them in Jail for over two months since the bail was granted.
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Who’s afraid of Anand Teltumbde?

Who’s afraid of Anand Teltumbde?

The Wire / by N. Balmurli

Teltumbde’s writing has exposed the hypocrisy of the votaries of neo-liberal capitalism, caste deniers and Hindutva triumphalists. It is they who seek to silence him today.
Teltumbde is one of India’s most well-respected public intellectuals – taking public positions on public issues in intellectually defensible ways through his long-standing regular column with the Economic and Political Weekly, or his frequent op-eds in Indian newspapers, or his scholarly writings in journals and books, or his fact-finding reports on atrocities around the country.
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How Contractual Labourers Uprooted BJP’s Rule in Chhattisgarh

How Contractual Labourers Uprooted BJP’s Rule in Chhattisgarh

Newsclick / By Saurabh Sharma

The workers were especially angered following the arrest of activist Sudha Bharadwaj in a “false” case. Bharadwaj had been associated with the CMM for many years.
Contract workers of Chhattisgarh seem to have played a significant role in the defeat of the 15-year-old BJP-led state government in the recent elections.
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False allegations against Degree Prasad Chouhan

False allegations against Degree Prasad Chouhan

Statement by Frontline Defenders

Following the arrest of human rights defender Sudha Bharadwaj and four others on 26 October 2018, there is an imminent threat of false charges being brought against Dalit activist and human rights defender, Degree Prasad Chouhan. The police have already implicated the defender by name in a fake letter produced by them on 31 August 2018, which they claim was written by advocate Sudha Bharadwaj. There is a clear attempt by the police to smear the human rights defender as a Maoist militant and draw a false link between Degree Prasad Chouhan and the Bhima Koregaon violence which took place in January 2018.
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JAGDALPUR LEGAL AID GROUP CONDEMNS THE ARREST OF ADVOCATE SUDHA BHARADWAJ

JAGDALPUR LEGAL AID GROUP CONDEMNS THE ARREST OF ADVOCATE SUDHA BHARADWAJ

SUDHA BHARADWAJ – AN INTIMATE FRIEND, ALLY, MENTOR AND AN INSPIRATION

PRESS RELEASE

The Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group (JagLAG) and Collective strongly condemns and mourns the incidents of arrest and police remand of Advocate, friend, mentor, and colleague Sudha Bharadwaj and calls upon a collective expression of solidarity and strength from all activists, students, lawyers, democratic rights and civil liberty communities, friends and the general public. We also denounce this ongoing onslaught on other activists, lawyers, writers and professors, including Advocate Surendra Gadling, Advocate Arun Ferriera, Professor Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves, Mahesh Raut, Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Sudhir Dhawale, Fr. Stan Swamy, Rona Wilson, Anand Teltumbe and several others who are being implicated by this mesh of lies and deceit spun by the Pune Police.

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IAPL condemns the threat to arrest Justice H Suresh

IAPL condemns the threat to arrest Justice H Suresh

The Leaflet / By IAPL

Indian Association of People´s lawyers (IAPL) condemns the threat issued by Shivaji Pawar, ACP, Maharashtra Police to arrest IAPL’s President Justice Hosbet Suresh (Retd.) and the most alarming portrayal by him of IAPL as a frontal organization of CPI (Maoist). IAPL believes that such attacks on Judges and Human Right defenders which includes lawyers and organizations, require to be understood in the in the light of rising authoritarianism and fascist attacks in the country. It is the need of the hour for all organisations and individuals to come together and resist this onslaught collectively and to strongly condemn and resist this brazen attempt to intimidate Justice H. Suresh (Retd) and members of IAPL.
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