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Category: Organisations

UAPA – Governments Avoid Due Process by Declaring Groups as ‘Front Organisations’

UAPA – Governments Avoid Due Process by Declaring Groups as ‘Front Organisations’


Jharkhand, Sep 5, 2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Legal experts say loopholes in UAPA allow enforcement agencies to misuse the law to target dissenters by branding them as ‘fronts’ for banned organisations.
KKM – a 20-year-old cultural troupe with an anti-caste legacy – was first named in a criminal case in 2011, when the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested several individuals for their alleged link with the banned Maoist group… In the nine years since KKM was first criminalised, neither the state government nor the Centre have made any efforts to notify the organisation as either a banned organisation or an unlawful association, a process laid down in the UAPA.
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Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week?

Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week?

The crushing power of street performances from the margins:
A profile of Kabir Kala Manch’s Sagar Gorkhe, Jyoti Jagtap and Ramesh Gaichor

02/09/2021

By The Polis Project and maraa

Kabir Kala Manch
Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) is an urban grass-roots performance group at the helm of a socio-political movement rooted in cultural struggles of the most marginalized communities in India. KKM was formed by working-class youth from low-income Dalit and Bahujan caste communities in Pune as a response to the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat. Drawing inspiration from India’s legacy of dissent – from Kabir and Sant Tukoba (Tukaram) to Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Jyotiba and Savitri Phule, Bhagat Singh, Annubhai Sathe and contemporary cultural activists such as Sambhaji Bhagat and Vilas Goghre – KKM write and perform Marathi and Hindi songs and street plays in the language of India’s laboring people.
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Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week?

12/09/2020

Scroll.in / by Aarefa Johari

The National Investigation Agency arrested Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap from Pune on Monday and Tuesday.
In 2002, as a 19-year-old student in Pune’s Wadia College, Ramesh Gaichor was disturbed by the deadly communal violence in Gujarat that had claimed over 1,000 lives. Passionate about poetry and theatre, he soon found an outlet for expressing his anxieties: the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural organisation founded by artiste Amarnath Chautaliya in response to the Gujarat riots.
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NIA Arrests three Kabir Kala Manch Activists, Calls it ‘Maoist Front’ / What is Kabir Kala Manch?

NIA Arrests three Kabir Kala Manch Activists, Calls it ‘Maoist Front’ / What is Kabir Kala Manch?

Poets Branded Naxals by Both Cong & BJP: What is Kabir Kala Manch?

The Quint / by Asmita Nandy

What is Kabir Kala Manch and why are they repeatedly targeted by governments?
Kabir Kala Manch, a group of artists singing songs of Bahujans and Karl Marx, have been branded “naxals” by both Congress and BJP.
On Tuesday, 8 September, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Elgar Parishad case arrested three members of the group saying that they were in touch with senior leaders of CPI(Maoist), a banned organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act “so as to spread the ideology of Maoism/Naxalism and encourage unlawful activities”.
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NIA Calls Kabir Kala Manch ‘Maoist Front’, Takes Activists into Custody

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

08/09/2020

Mumbai: The National Investigations Agency has accused the cultural group Kabir Kala Mancha (KKM) of being a frontal organisation of the banned terrorist Communist Party of India (Maoist) …
KKM is a Pune-based cultural troupe that was formed by youth belonging to the Bahujan community from across Maharashtra. Several working-class musicians and poets had come together after the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat and formed their own cultural group to sing songs of resistance and state repression. They have also been vocal against caste atrocities across the country.
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Kabir Kala Manach cultural activist Jyoti Jagtap arrested / #StandWithBK15

08/09/2020

Kractivist / by Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerana Abhiyan

Pune ATS has today arrested Jyoti Jagtap (Member of Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerana Abhiyan and Kabir Kala Manch). She will be transfered to NIA for custody. Yesterday, on 7 September, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor were arrested late evening and today Jyoti Jagtap has been arrested.
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NIA Arrests Two Kabir Kala Manch Activists

07/09/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Mumbai: After questioning them over several days, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested cultural activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in the Elgar Parishad case. With their arrest, 14 persons – all academics, lawyers and activists – have been arrested in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case in total.
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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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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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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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IAPL Condemns Arrest of Activists

IAPL Condemns Arrest of Activists

Press Release by IAPL

Today, Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) organised a press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi in relation to the recent arrests of Advocate Surendra Gadling, Prof. Shoma Sen , Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Mahesh Raut. The arrests took place on the 6th June, 2018, by Pune police at the early Hours of morning.

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