Persecution – Page 70 – free them all

NIA, govt asked to respond to Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen’s petition seeking SIT probe by July 1

17/06/2021 Rani

NIA questions maintainability of plea by Prof Shoma Sen seeking quashing of charges

17/06/2021

The Leaflet / by Gahena Gambani

Earlier this year, the Bhima Koregaon case made international headlines, when The Washington Post reported that cybersecurity firm M/s Arsenal Consulting had analysed the laptops of some accused, and reached the conclusion that malware had been planted on the same, presumably with a view to frame the accused.
Soon after, Shoma Sen, an assistant professor and the head of the English Department at Nagpur University, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon matter, approached the Bombay High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution and Section 482 of the CrPC, praying for a quashing of the sanctions against her under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. A similar petition had also been filed by her co-accused, Rona Wilson.
Read more

NIA, Maharashtra govt asked to respond to Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen’s petition seeking SIT probe by July 1

17/06/2021

FPJ / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court bench of Justices Sambhaji Shinde and Nizamoodin Jamadar on Thursday adjourned the hearing in the petitions filed by rights activists Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen till July 13. The bench has granted a last chance to the National Investigation Agency and Maharashtra government to file its response to the petitions by June 1.
Read more

Hope Floats For Bhima Koregaon Political Prisoners After Delhi HC Order

16/06/2021 Rani

Hope Floats For Bhima Koregaon Political Prisoners After Delhi HC Order

16/06/2021

Outlook India / by Preetha Nair

Kin and lawyers of imprisoned activists say the ruling will help in the delivery of justice.
For the past month, Jenny Rowena has been living in a hotel in Mumbai to attend to her husband Prof Hany Babu, who is undergoing treatment for a severe eye infection in a Mumbai hospital. Babu, a Delhi University associate professor was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in July 2020 in connection with Bhima Koregaon- Elgar Parishad violence and was lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja jail since then.
Babu is one of the 16 prominent activists, who are facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for their alleged role in the 2018 violence and links with the outlawed CPI (Maoist) outfit. One of the high-profile cases in the country involving eminent activists, lawyers, and academicians, the Bhima Koregaon case has invited criticism of international forums for the lack of due process.
Read more

Granting bail to activists, Delhi HC exposes abuse of UAPA – but flaws inherent in the law remain

16/06/2021

Scroll.in / by Sruthisagar Yamunan

Despite the principles set by the Delhi High Court, bail under UAPA will remain discretionary.
On Tuesday, when the Delhi High Court granted bail to Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha in the Delhi riots cases in which the three activists have been charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, it was this simple exercise of “lifting the veil” thrown on the case by the prosecution that has led to a significant precedent.
… As seen in several recent cases, including those against activists in the Bhima Koregaon case in Maharashtra, the trial courts, more often than not, tend to agree with the prosecution on the prima facie truth of the case.
Read more

Wrong to treat criticism as sedition: Lawyers welcome Delhi HC verdict quashing UAPA case against activists

16/06/2021

India Today / by Aneesha Mathur

Lawyers have welcomed the decision by Delhi High Court stating that protesters have the right to criticise the government. They also hailed the Court’s verdict defining the lines between criticism of the government and activities that destabilize the country.
… Lawyer Vrinda Grover also said the HC verdict was “significant” since there has been indiscriminate use of the law in recent years… He added: “In this context, we must raise the issue of incarceration of 16 human rights defenders in the Bhima Koregaon case under UAPA for almost three years and the trial is yet to commence. The judiciary must intervene and not allow the criminal legal machinery to be used by the State to suppress fundamental freedoms of citizens, otherwise democracy is in peril.”
Read more

Also read: Supreme Court Issues Notice On Delhi Police Appeal Against Bail Granted To Student Activists In Riots Case; Says HC Judgment Shall Not Be Treated As Precedent In Meantime (Live Law, June 18)

Families of Bhima Koregaon accused demand their release, say jail conditions poor

12/06/2021 Rani

The Print / by Sravasti Dasgupta

The families and friends of Bhima Koregaon prisoners organised a webinar Friday to highlight the deteriorating health of the prisoners and unhygienic conditions in jails.
The family members of activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case demanded their immediate release, in view of the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
To mark three years since the first arrests in the case, the families and friends of the accused Friday organised a webinar — “Three Years Too Many…” — to highlight the deteriorating health of the prisoners, with many of them testing positive for Covid, and unhygienic conditions in jails.
Read more

Watch video: THE BHIMA KOREGAON CONSPIRACY CASE – THREE YEARS TOO MANY … (June11)
Also read (Hindi): SALAAKHON MEIN QAID AVAAZEIN (IMPRISONED VOICES).

Stan Swamy to stay in hospital till June 18, says Bombay HC

10/06/2021 Maya

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said tribal rights activist Stan Swamy will remain admitted to a Mumbai-based private hospital till June 18 as he is suffering from the coronavirus, reported PTI. The 84-year-old activist has been in custody since October in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

Covid-ve, yet Surendra Gadling kept in quarantine barrack: Wife

10/06/2021 Rani

The Times of India / by George Mendonca

Wife of an Elgar Parishad case accused, Surendra Gadling (53), who is lodged in Taloja prison, has alleged that jail authorities have kept her husband in unhygienic conditions in the quarantine centre in a cramped space, despite Gadling testing negative for Covid on May 31.
Read more

Also read: In Maharashtra, Prison Quarantine Centres Are More Harrowing than Main Jail Barracks (by Sukanya Shantha, June 2)

What does state’s treatment of pre-trial political prisoners tell us?

10/06/2021 Rani

The Indian Express / by Harsh Mander

Harsh Mander writes: It’s been three years since Bhima Koregaon accused were incarcerated by a state that continues to oppose bail for them, despite Covid and other grave threats to their health.
June 6 was a sombre milestone — the third anniversary of the incarceration of five rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. Eleven more were subsequently jailed for the same conspiracy. These 16 women and men — the BK-16 accused — are intellectuals, lawyers, a poet, professors, cultural and rights activists and an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, all with sterling records of service with India’s most oppressed people.
Read more

Violating the rights of older persons: Why Stan Swamy’s continued detention is so unjust

10/06/2021 Rani

Scroll.in / by Arvind Narrain

The activist, by virtue of his age as well as his health condition, should be detained – if at all – only within his home.
On 28 May, tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy was finally shifted to Mumbai’s Holy Family Hospital for medical treatment on the orders of the Bombay High Court. However one cannot forget that the Jesuit priest was in Taloja Jail for over seven months, along with 15 others in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

Three years after Bhima Koregaon: How criminal law was violated

09/06/2021 Rani

The Leaflet / by Nihalsing B Rathod

Recalling his bruising experiences with an unjust criminal justice system as part of the legal team of the activists arrested in the questionable Bhima Koregaon violence case three years ago, Nihalsing B Rathod, in this second of a three-part series, recollects how basic tenets of criminal law were violated by the Pune Police in arresting Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Fereira, and Vernon Gonsalves at various points, and extending their detention, as well as that of Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Mahesh Raut. All this while, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde exhausted all legal options to evade arrest, as the judiciary looked on, condoning the deprivation of the activists’ liberty and denying their bail applications, sometimes making gestures that filled the activists’ legal team with hope but ultimately continuing the farce that is the Bhima-Koregaon travesty.
Read more

Also read part one: Bhima Koregaon: Marking three years since the first arrest (June 7, 2021)

Bhima Koregaon: Marking three years since the first arrest

07/06/2021 Maya

Click to enlarge posters

The Leaflet / by Nihalsing B Rathod

Recalling the first set of arrests made in the questionable Bhima Koregaon violence case almost exactly three years ago, Nihalsing B Rathod, in this first of a three-part series, recollects the personal horrors of trying to track Surendra Gadling in the immediate aftermath of his arrest, details the events leading to the arrest of five more activists in August 2018, and explains how basic tenets of criminal law were violated by the Pune Police in making these arrests.

The morning of June 6, 2018, gave me a horrific memory that perhaps will never fade. Early in the morning, I received a phone call that police were at the house of Advocate Surendra Gadling again. The memory of the raid of April 17, 2018, was still fresh.
Read more

HC allows Hany Babu to continue treatment for post-Covid complications at hospital / Solidarity

03/06/2021 Maya

Bombay HC allows Hany Babu to continue treatment for post-Covid complications at Breach Candy

03/06/2021

The Leaflet / by Hamza Lakdawala

Bombay High Court on Thursday allowed Hany Babu to continue treatment at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. The court was hearing a plea filed by Hany Babu’s wife, Jenny Roweena, which sought urgent medical Bail for Babu.
The matter was heard by a bench of Justice S. S. Shinde and Justice Abhay Ahuja.
… The court posted the matter on June 15, 2021, for further hearing.
Read more

Bombay High Court directs Breach Candy hospital to not discharge Bhima Koregaon violence accused till June 3

01/06/2021

Law Beat / by Shruti Kakkar

The Bombay High Court today has extended the order as per which directions were issued to not discharge Hany Babu who is being treated for black fungus & CoVID at his own costs under the protection of police officials without seeking Court’s permission till June 3.
“We’ve already passed an order of not discharging Hany Babu till we permit & let that order extend till June 3,” a bench of Justice SS Shinde and Justice Abhay Ahuja said.
Read more

Video: Solidarity for Hany Babu – A Beloved Techer, hounded by the state

20/05/2021

By Karwan e Mohabbat

en | 3:34min | 2021
Watch video

Bombay HC asks hospital not to discharge Bhima Koregaon accused Hany Babu till 1 June

27/05/2021

The Print / by pti

The Bombay High Court Thursday sought a medical report on the DU professor’s condition and treatment given to him. Babu tested positive for Covid earlier this month.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the Breach Candy Hospital here not to discharge Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, till June 1 and sought a medical report on his condition and treatment given to him.
Read more