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Category: Solidarity

Two years of Bhima Koregaon Arrests – The Beginning of Urban Naxal: Concoctions of the State

Two years of Bhima Koregaon Arrests – The Beginning of Urban Naxal: Concoctions of the State

The Leaflet / by Nihalsing B Rathod

In the following article, Advocate Nihal Singh Rathod recounts the beginning of this witch-hunt before abusing law became a norm.
JUNE 6, 2018, shall remain a day deeply engraved on my psyche forever, for it changed my life and life of many I know. It shook me to the core. It is not as if I was not at all prepared for it, given its foundation was laid much prior.
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End The Unjust Cruel And Continued Incarceration Of Bhima Koregaon Activists: AI India

End The Unjust Cruel And Continued Incarceration Of Bhima Koregaon Activists: AI India

By Amnesty International India

On the second anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon arrests, the Government of India must consider the release of the 11 human rights activists pending trial and ensure that their health and safety is not jeopardised simply because they have been critical of the state, Amnesty International India said today.
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Chorus from abroad on Bhima-Koregaon charge

Chorus from abroad on Bhima-Koregaon charge

The Telegraph / by Special Correspndent

Outfits from US, UK, Canada, Japan want activists freed.
Twenty-one organisations working for the cause of social justice in the US, the UK, India, Canada and Japan have demanded immediate withdrawal of charges against civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde and 10 others in connection with the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence and alleged Maoist links.
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HUMAN RIGHTS NOW IN INDIA

The Telegraph / by The Editorial Board

The European Parliament has reminded the Indian government that in times of a pandemic, “prisoners of conscience” should be released.
Who defends in India the rights of the defenders of human rights? Going by the incisively worded letter of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights to the Indian home minister, no one.
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PEN Delhi joins PEN International in Expressing Deep Concern for the Welfare of Varavara Rao

PEN Delhi joins PEN International in Expressing Deep Concern for the Welfare of Varavara Rao

By Pen Delhi

PEN Delhi joins PEN International in expressing deep concern for the welfare of Indian poet P. Varavara Rao who has been in detention since November 2018. Aged 81 and in poor health, a bail hearing for Rao was due on 2 June 2020. He had been admitted into the hospital for his failing health last week, but was discharged one day before the hearing, on 1 June 2020, and sent back to jail. The bail hearing has now been postponed to 5 June 2020.
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Pen International: Release poet Varavara Rao on medical grounds

01/06/2020

By Pen International

PEN International is deeply concerned for the welfare of Indian poet P. Varavara Rao who has been in detention since November 2018. Aged 81 and in poor health, a bail hearing for Rao is due 2 June 2020. Given his fragile state of health and questions surrounding the validity of the charges under which he is held, PEN is calling for him to be released on medical grounds.
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Statement in support for the Bhima Koregaon 12 Activist

Statement in support for the Bhima Koregaon 12 Activist

Samaj Weekly / by 21 Organizations

We, the undersigned twenty-one organizations, strongly condemn the shameful imprisonment of India’s finest public intellectuals and social justice defenders, Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Mr. Gautam Navalakha who’ve been in custody since April 14, 2020. Dr. Teltumbde & Mr. Nalvlakha join nine others – journalists, lawyers, writers, academics & organizers- Surendra Gadling, Arun Fereira, Vernon Gonsalves, Mahesh Raut, Sudha Bharadwaj, Dr. Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao- who have been imprisoned in the same fabricated Bhima-Koregaon case.
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Indian Americans Forum concerned about Varavara Rao’s health

Indian Americans Forum concerned about Varavara Rao’s health

Siasat.com / by Indian Americans Forum

Chicago: Indian Americans Forum is concerned about the recent news of renowned poet Varavara Rao’s health. Varavara Rao, age 81 who is a well known activist, writer, poet and lecturer got arrested 1.5 years ago in the alleged Elgar Parishad case which is still in trial.
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Denying bail in Elgaar Parishad case to political prisoners is callous: PUCL

Denying bail in Elgaar Parishad case to political prisoners is callous: PUCL

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

‘In COVID-19 times, especially when Maharashtra has emerged as the State with the highest number of cases, differentially treating bail petitions by political prisoners is gross injustice’.
The denial of bail to all accused in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case was “patently callous”, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said on Monday, and urged that the health and safety of political prisoners be treated with the same urgency as other prisoners.
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PUDR: The Lessons of Bhima Koregaon Case: No Bail, Only Jail

01/06/2020

Kractivism / by PUDR

With the surrenders of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on April 14, 2020 in Mumbai and Delhi respectively, the NIA, the investigative agency, has ensured the arrest of all 11 prominent human rights activists in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case under the draconian UAPA. The recent rejection of the bail applications of Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen and Sudha Bharadwaj, and the sudden transfer of Gautam Navlakha by the NIA, raise significant questions about the rights of political prisoners amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Former CICs call for release of Telugu poet & journalist P Varavara Rao [read letter]

Former CICs call for release of Telugu poet & journalist P Varavara Rao [read letter]

National Herald / by NH Web Desk.

Shailesh Gandhi and Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu have written a letter to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray calling for 80-year-old P Varavara Rao’s release, pointing out several grounds to do so.
Two former Central Information Commissioners, Shailesh Gandhi and Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu have written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray calling for the release of renowned Telugu poet, journalist and lecturer P Varavara Rao, who is in judicial custody for the last 18 months in Bhima Koregaon case for an alleged attempt to murder Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Denial of bail: Will courts inquire into their writings, speeches?

Denial of bail: Will courts inquire into their writings, speeches?

Counterview / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

It is deeply disturbing that 81-year-old poet Varavara Rao has been denied bail and has now been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai. Reports suggest that the prison in Taloja, Navi Mumbai, where he was lodged, has several Covid-19 patient. The family and friends of Varavara Rao have protested in Hyderabad, as they were not even allowed to visit him.
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