A special court that recently rejected the default bail pleas of five of the Bhima Koregaon – Elgaar Parishad accused, has said in its reasoned order for doing so, that the ground on which they were seeking bail was already considered and decided by the Bombay High Court and they had no right to raise it in their present pleas.
The applications were filed by Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhavale, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut. Read more
Why can telephone conversations not be reintroduced, might reduce footfall in prison, the division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and NR Borkar mused.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked Maharashtra prison authorities to clear their stand on whether Bhima Koregaon violence accused Gautam Navlakha is entitled to make telephonic and/or video conference calls from prison. Read more
Update by Bar & Bench (Jul 13, 2022)
+++ Bombay High Court adjourns hearing on the application filed by Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha seeking access to telephonic facilities in prison by a week +++
‘You are immortalised in our hearts’: A cellmate’s letter to Stan Swamy on his death anniversary
05/07/2022
Scroll.in / by Vernon Gonsalves
The Jesuit priest, who had been arrested in the Bhima Koregoan case, died in custody on July 5, 2021, at the age of 84.
Dear Stan,
It’s now around a year to the day they said you went away. But it doesn’t seem as if you’ve gone. Guys like you can hardly just go away. Not from me at least, not from many many more you worked with and amongst. Actually you haven’t gone, in fact you’ve come. You’ve come to the lakhs who’ve come to know you over the last year and you’ll continue coming, down the ages, to millions more. You can’t go away, you won’t go away. Read more
On Father Stan Swamy’s Death Anniversary, Elgar Parishad Activists Observe Protest Fast in Prison
05/07/2022
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
Activists and lawyers have accused the jail administration of inhuman treatment towards and lack of adequate medical care for the priest and other accused in the case.
On July 5, last year, 84-year-old Jharkhand-based tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy died in judicial custody in Mumbai.
Swamy was the 16th and last person to be arrested in the highly controversial Elgar Parishad case. He, like his co-accused in the case, suffered from prolonged and serious health complications while in custody. Swamy passed away after testing positive for COVID-19. His co-prisoners and lawyers have blamed the state for not allowing adequate medical help to reach him on time.
A year later, protesting against alleged state apathy and lack of accountability, 11 of his co-prisoners have decided to observe a day-long fast on the day of Swamy’s passing. Read more
Eleven activists accused in Elgar Parishad case observe day-long fast in Taloja prison on 1st death anniversary of Stan Swamy
05/07/2022
Midday.com / by pti
The protesting activists alleged that the death of Father Stan Swamy (83) was “brutal assassination by the prison administration, the NIA, and the government.” Swamy’s co-accused and activist Sudhir Dhawale, in a letter written to the Taloja prison superintendent and the case lawyers, claimed there has been no change in the jail condition, including general apathy among the prison administration and lack of medical facilities, which were among the several causes that led to Swamy’s death. Read more
Bombay HC Grants NIA ‘Last Chance’ to File Reply to Hany Babu’s Bail Plea
01/07/2022
The Quint / by pti
On 8 June, the NIA had told another bench of Bombay HC it will file its reply to Babu’s plea within two weeks.
The Bombay High Court on Friday, 1 July, granted a week’s time to the National Investigating Agency (NIA) to file its reply to a bail plea filed by Delhi University associate professor and Elgar Parishad case accused Hany Babu. Read more
Poet recalls how Stan Swamy had died in custody a year ago shortly before his bail application was to be heard.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea for regular bail from poet and Elgaar Parishad-Maoist links accused P. Varavara Rao, 81, who cited multiple ailments including Parkinson’s Disease and expressed fear that further imprisonment would kill him.
Rao, now out on interim bail, recalled how 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy, a fellow accused and Parkinson’s patient, had died in custody a year ago shortly before his bail application was to be heard. Read more
Supreme Court to hear Varavara Rao’s appeal against Bombay High Court’s refusal to extend his medical bail
30/06/2022
The Leaflet / by The Leaflet
Earlier today, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court directed its registry to list on July 11 the appeal filed by poet, activist and teacher P. Varavara Rao, accused of inciting violence in the Bhima Koregaon case, against the Bombay High Court’s order refusing to extend his medical bail.
Senior advocate Anand Grover mentioned the appeal before a vacation bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and J.B. Pardiwala, seeking an urgent listing of the appeal, given that the due time for Rao to surrender is expiring on July 13. Read more
Bhima Koregaon accused Varavara Rao moves Supreme Court for bail
30/06/2022
Bar & Bench / by Abhimanyu Hazarika
The matter will be listed on July 11 after it was mentioned by Senior Advocate Anand Grover today before a vacation Bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala.
Telugu poet Varavara Rao, who is an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence, has approached the Supreme Court seeking permanent bail on medical grounds.
Rao has challenged an April 13 judgment of the Bombay High Court which had rejected his plea for bail. Read more
Further Incarceration Will Ring Death Knell For Him: Varavara Rao Moves Supreme Court Seeking Bail In Bhima Koregaon Case
30/06/2022
Live Law / by Srishti Ojha
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on 11th July a petition filed by Telugu poet and Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad accused P Varavara Rao challenging Bombay High Court’s order refusing to grant him permanent medical bail.
A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala issued the direction after the matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Anand Grover. Read more
82-Year-Old Varavara Rao Moves Supreme Court for Bail in Bhima Koregaon Case
30/06/2022
The Quint / by The Quint
The matter has been listed for 11 July, after Rao’s plea was mentioned by his counsel before a vacation bench.
82-year-old Telugu poet Varavara Rao, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, approached the Supreme Court seeking permanent bail on medical grounds on Thursday, 30 June.
The matter has been listed for 11 July, after Rao’s plea was mentioned by his counsel, senior advocate Anand Grover before a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala, reported Bar and Bench. Read more
The bail pleas had been pending since 2018 when accused, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut approached a Pune court challenging extension of time granted for filing of chargesheet.
The applications were filed in 2018 seeking default bail on the ground that the extension granted by the court to the investigating agency for filing chargesheet was in violation of law. Read more
NIA special court rejects default bail application of five accused
28/06/2022
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
Earlier today, the default bail applications of human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist Surendra Gadling, activist and researcher Rona Wilson, women’s rights activist and professor Shoma Sen, activist Mahesh Raut, and activist, actor and publisher Sudhir Dhawale, co- accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, were rejected by a Special National Intelligence Agency (‘NIA’) court in Mumbai. Read more
NIA court rejects default bail of five accused in Bhima Koregaon case
28/06/2022
The Hindu / by Special Correspondent
The grounds for filing the petition was that the 90-day extension that was granted to the prosecuting agency for filing the chargesheet was illegal
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday rejected the default bail plea of five accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case.
Special NIA judge Rajesh Katariya rejected the pleas of former professor of Nagpur university Shoma Sen, advocate Surendra Gadling, activist Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Mahesh Raut. All of them were arrested on June 6, 2018 from different locations. Read more
After New Bhima Koregaon Revelations, Bombay High Court Can and Must Act
18/06/2022
The Quint / by Vakasha Sachdev
The assessment of these damning revelations can’t wait till trial, HC should set up a commission of inquiry.
In September 2018, when the Bhima Koregaon case was still in its infancy and the Maharashtra Police were trying to arrest the second set of activists (including Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha), Justice DY Chandrachud of the Supreme Court had said:
“Circumstances have been drawn to our notice to cast a cloud on whether the Maharashtra police has in the present case acted as fair and impartial investigating agency. Sufficient material has been placed before the Court bearing on the need to have an independent investigation.” Read more
Bhima Koregaon Case: New Report Ties Pune Police With ‘Fabricated Evidence’
17/06/2022
The Quint / by The Quint
Independent investigations seem to suggest that the evidence in the case may just been very corrupt.
“We generally don’t tell people who targeted them, but I’m kind of tired of watching… These guys are not going after terrorists. They’re going after human rights defenders and journalists. And it’s not right,” an unnamed security analyst told American magazine WIRED. Read more
Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists
16/06/2022
Wired.com / by Andy Greenberg
New details connect police in India to a plot to plant evidence on victims’ computers that led to their arrest.
Police forces around the world have increasingly used hacking tools to identify and track protesters, expose political dissidents’ secrets, and turn activists’ computers and phones into inescapable eavesdropping bugs. Now, new clues in a case in India connect law enforcement to a hacking campaign that used those tools to go an appalling step further: planting false incriminating files on targets’ computers that the same police then used as grounds to arrest and jail them. Read more
by Andy Greenberg / @a_greenberg (June 16):
A wild, appalling story: A group of hackers fabricated evidence on the PCs of Indian human rights activists who were then arrested for terrorism and jailed. Now researchers have found a direct link between those hackers and the police making the arrests. Read full thread
Fabricated evidence planted to implicate Elgaar activists, says US magazine
18/06/2022
The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent
Maharashtra govt and Centre have resisted the admission of the multiple revelations of hacking as evidence and consistently opposed bail in the case.
America’s Wired magazine has alleged links between Pune police and hackers who it says planted fabricated evidence on some of the accused in the Elgaar Parishad-Maoist links case, which witnessed the arrest of 16 activists, writers, academics and lawyers.
Earlier, two digital security firms in the US had revealed the planting of electronic evidence – claims that the prosecution has rejected, with the investigators ignoring calls to review the evidence. Read more
Security Researchers Claim Link Between Pune Police And Hacking Campaign Against Bhima Koregaon Accused
16/06/2022
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
The recovery email id and phone number on accounts of Wilson, Rao and Babu were allegedly linked to a Pune police officer.
Security researchers in the United States have claimed that they unearthed new evidence that links the Pune police to the hacking of e-mail accounts of activists Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao and Delhi University professor Hany Babu. This is the first time that the state’s involvement has been directly established in the case. Read more
Report links cop to hacking bid on Bhima accused
16/06/2022
Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent
There are links between a Pune police official and a hacking campaign that targeted suspects in the Bhima Koregaon case, a report by news website Wired said on Thursday, citing information from an unnamed whistleblower from a company that provided email services to the targets.
The report is the latest in a series of clues that bring into question the provenance of the evidence used in the Bhima Koregaon case, in which several activists have been accused of terrorism through their alleged links to the extremist Maoist rebellion. Read more
Pune Police allegedly planted fake evidence on devices of Bhima Koregaon accused, reports Wired
16/06/2022
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The recovery email id and phone number on accounts of Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao and Hany Babu were linked to a police officer, a cybersecurity firm has claimed.
A US-based cybersecurity company has claimed that the Pune Police hacked electronic devices owned by activists Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao and Hany Babu and planted fake evidence on them, reported Wired magazine in the US. Read more
Taloja jail cites security threat for refusing mosquito nets
16/06/2022
Hindustan Times / by Charul Shah
Gautam Navlakha, Sagar Gorkhe and others lodged in Taloja jail had approached the special court for a direction to provide mosquito nets.
Citing security threats, the Taloja jail prison authorities have objected to the use of mosquito nets in prison in the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court. The authorities filed a reply to the plea filed by the accused booked in connection with the Elgar Parishad Bhima Koregaon case. Read more
Net of contention: Courts to decide on pleas by ‘mosquito-infested’ Taloja inmates this week
13/06/2022
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
In May, jail authorities conducted a search of belongings of inmates and seized mosquito nets being used by them. The reason cited by the officials was that the nets have a long string which the prisoners could use to harm themselves or others.
The move caused discord among prisoners who said that there was a mosquito menace in the jail and that the nets were their primary form of protection against diseases. One inmate, Sagar Gorkhe, booked in the Elgaar Parishad case, even approached the Kharghar police alleging that the jail authorities had conducted “theft” by seizing his mosquito net, which cost him Rs 620. A number of inmates have approached trial courts seeking the nets. Read more
