‘Maharashtra police has no understanding of Naxalism’
First published: Oct 21, 2013
Rediff.com / By Neeta Kolhatkar
A rare interview with Vernon Gonsalves, who was jailed for six years on the charge of being a Naxalite.
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Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi asserts basis of FIR is a translation of German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s poem!
The Leaflet / The Leaflet Staff
The entire basis of the FIR against those arrested is that Sudhir Dhawale sang a song whose words were a call to bring down the State — he explained how these words are actually a translation of a poem in a play by Bertolt Brecht, The Good Person of Szchewan. He quoted CJI Dipak Mishra’s judgments rejecting the ban on the Malayalam novel Meesha where there SC upheld freedom of expression particularly cultural, artistic expression of a poet.
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Discipline, Dissent and ‘Urban Naxals’
VIKALP / By Satyaki Roy
One of the major features of the current regime is that it insinuates a concerted process of criminalization, assassination and intimidation as an evolving architecture of punishment not being backed by any judicial probe.
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How the police can fabricate evidence to suggest that anyone is an ‘urban Maoist’?
Scroll.in / By Anand Teltumbde
The writer and management professor says that the authorities are planting fake evidence on computers so that they can jail dissidents.
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PUDR condemns smear campaign by Maharashtra police
Documented at Sanhati India / Statement by Peoples Union for Democratic Rights
Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi (PUDR) strongly protests the accusation by the Maharashtra police claiming that the PUDR is a frontal organisation of the CPI (Maoist) party. This is a blatant attempt to threaten and restrict the functioning of one of India’s oldest civil rights organisations.
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My book is a form of protest: Arun Ferreira
First published: Oct 5, 2014
National Confederations of Human Rights Organisations / By Kareena Gilani
Colours Of The Cage is an unsparing account of the nearly five years activist Arun Ferreira lost forever in Nagpur Central Jail after being accused of being a Naxalite. In May 2007, Ferreira was forced into a car by 15 men, beaten and blindfolded as he heard his abductors discussed the option of killing him off in an encounter. Till September 2011, Ferreira languished in prison while nine cases were slapped against him.
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Interview: Arun Ferreira: ‘The high walls keep out realities’
First published: Jan 6, 2016
Frontline / By Frontline Staff
Arun Ferreira spent six years in Nagpur jail as a political prisoner. He was arrested in 2007 for alleged naxalite and anti-national activities under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Eleven cases were registered against him. He fought a relentless legal battle to prove that the charges were false and completely fabricated. In January 2014, he was acquitted in all the cases for lack of substantial evidence. At the time of his release, he told Frontline: “My case is really nothing special. The real issue is the way political prisoners are handled and the blatant violations of the human rights of all prisoners.”
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Rights Activists Arrest: This Law Is An Ass
Outlook India / By Manisha Sethi
Arresting activists is an attack on dissent in keeping with UAPA’s history
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Opinion: ‘Maoist plot’ letters leaked by police have all the hallmarks of mischievous fabrication
Scroll.in / By Ajai Sahni
‘This entire petty, pathetic and incompetent plot is a disgrace. It dishonours the security personnel. It dishonours the state, it dishonours India.’
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Urban Maoist Fakery
South Asia Intelligence Review / By Ajai Sahni
The unfolding of the alleged ‘urban Maoist conspiracy’ is, at once, both tragedy and farce, exposing the utter collapse of standards in policing and governance.
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