Live Law / by Awstika Das
The Supreme Court on Monday (February 12) extended until March the stay on the bail granted to journalist and activist Gautam Navlakha in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, following a petition filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
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Sudha Bharadwaj[/caption]
Scroll.in / Sharmila Purkayashsta
Bharadwaj and her co-accsued, Shoma Sen, were lodged in solitary cells for almost fifteen months.
It is a truism that if you’re impoverished and incarcerated then you’re as good as forgotten, because life behind bars replicates existing inequalities, and those without resources are also the most unequal in jail.
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Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
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Also read:
Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Sudha Bharadwaj’s interview by: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here:
Sudha_Bharadwaj_speaks (2,1 MB)
Live Law / by Awstika Das
Former Nagpur University professor and Bhima Koregaon-accused Shoma Sen defended her bail plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday by alleging a lack of evidence connecting her to the case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, or establishing her purported links with the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist).
… The Supreme Court is slated to continue hearing Sen’s bail plea on Thursday, February 15.
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Also read:
▪ Shoma Sen’s Bail Hearing in SC Adjourned Yet Again, Until January 10 (NewsClick / Dec 2023)
▪ Supreme Court quotes Watali judgment in Shoma Sen’s bail application (The Leaflet / Dec 2023)
16/02/2024
South First / by N Venugopal
Venugopal is a kin of Varavara Rao, a prominent Indian activist hailing from Telangana, also an accused in the Elgar Parishad case.
It was a morning when eight unknown persons, two of them holding ultra-modern lethal weapons like AK 47 and SLRs, invaded and kept my home hostage for four hours. It was a morning when I had to be a prisoner in my own house for four hours.
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08/02/2024
Deccan Chronicle/ by DC Correspondent
The NIA conducts raids linked to Maoist connections, targeting editor Venugopal and civil liberties leader Ravi Sarma, seizing materials and issuing notices for questioning
The National Investigation Agency on Thursday raided the residences of N. Venugopal, Editor of ‘Veekshanam’ magazine and son-in-law of revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, and civil liberties association leader Ravi Sarma here.
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08/022024
The New Indian Express / by Express News Service
The raids were reportedly conducted based on information that he is connected with top CPI-Maoist leader Sanjoy Deepak Rao’s case.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids at the house of Varavara Rao’s nephew and ‘Veekshanam’ editor N Venugopal early Thursday morning in Himayatnagar.
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Deccan Herald / by pti
He is also an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case about alleged provocative speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune district.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on February 8 the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
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Also read:
▪ Supreme Court allows state time to file counter-affidavit in Surendra Gadling bail plea (The Leaflet / Nov 2023)
▪ Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire / July 2021)
▪ Now Gadchiroli Police takes custody of Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, prompting senior lawyers to say this is ‘ever-greening of charges’ (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
Today, the National Investigation Agency informed the court that it has already supplied cloned copies of all electronic evidence it relies on in the Bhima Koregaon case with the accused.
It also sidestepped compliance with the previous Order of the court on providing a chart showing evidence shared and pending with the accused by stating that such a chart had already been furnished by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
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Also read:
▪ Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
▪ Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)
Himalmag.com / Sharmila Purkayastha
‘For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit’, an anthology of prison poems, testifies to the coercive nature of the state and society – yet its under-representation of regional poets speaks of wider exclusions.
My dangerous personality
That you do not understand:
The secret is poetry.
‘Poetry’ by Varavara Rao, 30 December 1987. Translated by N Venugopal
What is it about poetry that states and governments in power find difficult to accept? Varavara Rao, a well-known revolutionary poet and long-time detainee of the Indian government, writes in ‘Poetry’ about the enduring resilience and power of verse to voice people’s concerns in the face of surveillance and propaganda. He expands on the poet’s “dangerous personality”:
You go on about surveillance
Poetry gets ignited and continues to fire.
You go on about governance
Poetry talks about people even in sleep.
19/01/2024
The Telegraph / by Lakshmi Subramanian
‘Phansi Yard’ is more than just jottings of a sensitive prisoner. Like all jail diaries, it documents the everyday — the quality of food, limited access to clothing, the absence of privacy — with great attention and, alongside, records individual stories with real sensitivity, framing them within a larger social context
The prison diary has remained an enduring genre in all societies with its extraordinary capacity to document the self and interrogate power structures.
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13/01/2024
Deccan Chronicle / by Anand K Sahay
This resident of Phansi Yard has a writer’s sensibility, and says in a matter-of-fact way
This is a remarkable document of life observed from the Phansi Yard or Death Row of the Yerawada Women’s Jail in Pune by an extraordinary individual who made a conscious choice to be a trade union worker and human rights lawyer in order to stand with marginalised people, rather than build a career as a mathematician after emerging with a shining degree from IIT, Delhi.
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Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
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08/01/2024
en | 32:47min | 2024
Trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj is used to fighting rights battles. She started her career in Chhattisgarh in the late 1980s as a trade unionist and later studied law in order to fight legal cases directly. Even though she has been on the side of many losing battles, giving up or opting out has never been an option. Despite the setbacks and personal challenges, the biggest one being arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, Sudha who is out on bail, retains her good cheer and optimism. In a wide ranging conversation with Anuradha SenGupta, Sudha talks of women who are incarcerated, the underbelly of capitalism, the rights of workers and her hope for the new year.
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By People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Jan 2021en + hindi | 2h 53min | 2021
Topic: Why is the state afraid of Sudha Bharadwaj?
A long interview conducted with Sudha over several days before she was arrested is now being published as an online book “Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks – A Life in Law and Activism”, and will be released at this webinar by the well-known writer, Nayantara Sahgal. Sudha’s daughter, Maaysha, her lawyer Yug Chaudhary, social activist Harsh Mandar, historian Uma Chakravarti amongst other coworkers & colleagues, will also share their experiences and memories of working with her.
Watch video @ PUCL Facebook (videos)
Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Sudha Bharadwaj’s interview by: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here:
Sudha_Bharadwaj_speaks (2,1 MB)
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
First Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, then stay on bail, and now ‘tagging of similar matters’ means accused Mahesh Raut cannot liaison with life and liberty.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court extended the stay on the Order of the Bombay High Court granting regular bail to forest rights activist Mahesh Raut by two more weeks.
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Also read:
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Bombay High Court grants regular bail to Mahesh Raut (The Leaflet / Sep 2023)
▪ Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)
17/01/2024
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
A division Bench of the Supreme Court observed that it was in the interest of justice to hear “part-heard” matters arising out of the same first information report together.
Today, the Supreme Court adjourned hearing of the bail application of anti-caste activist and musical performer Jyoti Jagtap again.
The court reasoned that it was better to hear “part-heard” matters pertaining to the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad case together.
A division Bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar directed Jagtap’s bail to be tagged along with the bail application of women’s rights activist and academic Shoma Sen.
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17/01/2024
Live Law / by Awstika Das
The Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 17) directed the bail plea of activist and Bhima Koregaon-accused Jyoti Jagtap to be tagged with co-accused Shoma Kanti Sen’s appeal and heard together.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar was hearing Jagtap’s petition challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to reject her bail application.
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