Click to enlarge | Credits: Mouli Sharma / The Polis Project
The Polis Project / by Mouli Sharma and Prashant Rahi
This is the third report in a three-part investigative series on the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case. Read part one here and part two here.
In October 2014, five months after the arrest of the professor GN Saibaba, Stan Swamy’s computer was hacked. Unbeknown to the world, the nascent stages of investigation against the prime accused in the Elgar Parishad case, who came to be monikered the BK-16, had already begun in 2014 – four years before any of the arrests even took place.
The unknown attacker used a Remote Access Trojan – or RAT – sent through targeted phishing emails to compromise Swamy’s computer. Read more
Dispatches: A Conversation on unravelling the Elgar Parishad / Bhima Koregaon case
Conjuring the BK16 Myth: How the Elgar Parishad case rests on fiction and deception
21/03/2025
The Polis Project / by Prashant Rahi and Mouli Sharma
This is the second report in a three-part investigative series on the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case. Read part one here.
Three months after a Hindutva mob attacked a peaceful gathering of Dalit-Bahujan men, women, and children, a cabal from the Pune Urban Police mounted a bizarre prosecution, holding 16 eminent human rights defenders (HRDs) responsible for the Elgar Parishad, an anti-caste event held in the city, a day before. The infamous case has, however, come to draw its name less from the event, and more from the calamitous gathering that assembled on both sides of the river Bhima, on 1st January 2018, to pay homage to an obelisk-shaped martyrs’ column, at Perne Phata, opposite the village of Koregaon. In the months that followed, the HRDs were imprisoned in waves of arrests across the country, with no evidence so far linking them to the mob violence. Read more
‘Provincial Convention against Repression’ in Barnala, Punjab
22/01/2025
Countercurrents / by Harsh Thakor
The Democratic Front against Operation Green Hunt, Punjab, organised a ‘Provincial Convention against Repression’ at Tarksheel Bhawan in Barnala on January 19th. The convention, convened by Buta Sing, Parminder Singh and AK Maleri and by prominent tribal rights activist and researcher Bela Bhattia, as well as Narvsharan Kaur; garnered leaders, intellectuals, and activists of diverse spheres discuss issues concerning tribal rights and state repression and unite at a common platform.
…
Narvsharan … also delved into the conspiracy launched by the pro-Hindutva state, in the Bhima Koregaon case. She addressed how the Hindutva brigade plagued the rights of all sections of society, and stripped civilians of basic human rights in Manipur and Kashmir. Read more
Convention demands protection of tribal rights, repeal of repressive laws
22/01/2025
The Tribune / by Tribune Correspondent
The Democratic Front against Operation Green Hunt, Punjab, organised a ‘Provincial Convention against Repression’ at Tarksheel Bhawan in Barnala recently. The convention, presided over by prominent tribal rights activist and researcher Bela Bhattia, brought together various leaders, intellectuals, and activists.
The Democratic Front against Operation Green Hunt, Punjab, organised a ‘Provincial Convention against Repression’ at Tarksheel Bhawan in Barnala recently. The convention, presided over by prominent tribal rights activist and researcher Bela Bhattia, brought together various leaders, intellectuals, and activists to discuss issues concerning tribal rights and state repression. Read more
Senior Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves on Monday highlighted the need to understand the interpretation of murder and terrorism. Speaking on ‘The Rise of Fascism and Question of Law and Judiciary’ at the second day of the International Seminar on Fascism organised by Arvind Memorial Trust at Bagh Lingampally, Gonsalves highlighted various examples of resistance emerging from courts when fascist power rules supreme.
… “Activists like Sudha Bharadwaj, imprisoned for an unverified letter written by some mysterious third party linking her to Naxalites, and tribal advocate Soni Sori, who exposed atrocities against Adivasis, embody resistance against state overreach,” he said. Read more
InSAF Webinar with Ajaz Ashraf on his book: Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste (Oct 26)
Join us this Saturday for an online conversation with Ajaz Ashraf on his new book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste (2024).
Share widely, and we hope to see many of you there! You can register here
Also watch/read:
▪ Video | Many Meanings of Bhima Koregaon: Ajaz Ashraf
Video: Discussion on “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste”
By Paranjoy Online
en | 1:39:02 | 2024
On Thursday 30 July 2024 evening, a lively discussion took place at the India International Centre (Annexe), New Delhi, on the book written by journalist and author Ajaz Ashraf titled “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s Wrath Against Dreamers of Equality” published by Paranjoy/AuthorsUpFront. The discussants were Manoj Kumar, Professor and Member of Parliament belonging to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Subhashini Ali, member of the Communist Party of India – Marxist and Colin Gonsalves, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India. Watch video
Ajaz Ashraf’s ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’ sheds light on judiciary role in Elgaar Parishad case
31/08/2024
The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said the case had witnessed “the second biggest betrayal by the judiciary” following its “supine” role during the Emergency
Caste hatred and “State terrorism” came under the spotlight at the release of Ajaz Ashraf’s book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste, with speakers also questioning the judiciary’s role in the context of the long incarceration without trial of the Elgaar Parishad accused. Read more
Ajaz Ashraf’s Book on Bhima Koregaon Unveiled at IIC
30/08/2024
Radiance News / by Radiance News Bureau
Senior journalist Ajaz Ashraf’s book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging the Caste, was launched at India International Centre last evening. The book, published by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, delves into the enduring struggle against casteism, focusing on the events surrounding the Bhima Koregaon incident and its broader implications. Read more
Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality
Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496 This book rips apart the Maoist conspiracy theory and the Urban Naxal narrative. It points out the ironies underlying the State’s charges against the sixteen, and the flimsiness of the evidence that is said to have been planted on their hacked computers. The conspiracy against the sixteen that inflicted untold miseries on their families is retold here in their voices. Read more/order
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, organised an event in Ahmedabad entitled “Remembering Fr. Stan Swamy in Today’s Challenging Reality” in the memory of Fr. Stan Swamy on his third death anniversary. The event included a discussion of the new criminal laws enforced since July 1, 2024.
At the start of the event Fr. Cedric Prakash spoke about Fr. Stan Swamy, a fearless defender of tribal rights in Jharkhand, who was arrested by the NIA in 2018 in the context of the Bhima Koregaon case. Read more
Indian villagers vow to keep alive Father Swamy’s legacy
08/07/2024
UCA News / by UCA News Reporter
The Jesuit priest became a mot in the eye of the pro-Hindu government for standing with tribal people
People in a southern Indian village have vowed to keep alive the legacy of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, who they say was forced to die as a prisoner three years ago because of his commitment to the poor.
Young people in Swamy’s native village of Viragalur in Tamil Nadu state have formed an association — Stan Swamy Youth Association — to immortalize the memory of the priest through their work. Read more
Three years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause
05/07/2024
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
Activists stressed the need to take the human rights campaigner’s work ahead at an event in Ranchi to mark his third death anniversary.
Three years after human rights activist and Catholic priest Stan Swamy died in police custody in a Mumbai hospital, his name remains to be cleared of the allegations against him in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.
This is what activist Aloka Kujur reminded her fellow activists and supporters who had gathered at the Bagaicha Social Research Centre in Ranchi on Friday to commemorate Swamy’s third death anniversary. Read more
Celebrating the Spirit of Stan Swamy
05/07/2024
Sabrangindia / by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ
When on 5 July 2021, they killed Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy, they succeeded only in destroying the frail body of an 84-year-old Catholic Priest. Today, three years after that fateful day, the Spirit of Stan Swamy lives on. Millions of people: the Adivasis and the Dalits, the excluded and the exploited, the marginalised and the exploited, the displaced and the denied, the poor and other vulnerable, the academics and the writers, human rights defenders, other civil society and political leaders remember him with fondly. Read more
Father Stan Swamy: “I am not a silent spectator!”
05/07/2024
Christiantoday.co.in / by Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ
Just before his arrest in October 2020, in a video-message that went viral, Fr. Stan Swamy said, “What is happening to me is not something unique happening to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country. We are all aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers’ writers, poets, activists, students, leaders, they are all put into jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers of India. We are part of the process. In a way I am happy to be part of this process. I am not a silent spectator, but part of the game, and ready to pay the price whatever be it.” Read more
Video: Testimony of Stan Swamy, two days before his arrest on 8 October 2020.
Although we received news by late evening on October 8, 2020, of Father Stan Swamy’s arrest, we were quite shocked to see him the next morning in the adjourning barrack conversing with inmates in his impeccable Hindi.
I was at that time lodged in a cell at the prison hospital with my co- accused Varavara Rao (or VV) and Vernon Gonsalves. More
By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
Edition: Aug 2021 Publisher: Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi Language: English
Paperback: 45 pages Access a free PDF copy of the book here
Was the trial judge who convicted GN Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice
Was the trial judge who convicted G.N. Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice
24/03/2024
The Leaflet / by Nihalsing Rathod
The injustice of a trial judge filling the gaps in the prosecution’s case (which relied on ‘evidence’ in the form of bananas, umbrellas and newspaper cuttings) with judicial overreach to chop ten years off Professor G.N. Saibaba’s life.
The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court heard the appeal against the conviction of Prof. G.N. Saibaba and five others, twice. In both the judgments, it set aside the conviction. Read more
Branded Maoist, ex-political prisoners narrate how they were wrongfully incarcerated
21/03/2023
Counterview.net / by Our Representative
Celebrating the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, which fell on March 18, the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), a joint platform of 35+ organizations, held a public gathering in Delhi titled “Life in Anda Cell: Political Prisoners and Wrongful Incarcerations” at the Press Club of India, Delhi, in order to mark the acquittal and prison experience of cultural activist Hem Mishra and his family.
… Hem Mishra added, “it is not about just the 6 of us in my case. It is about all political prisoners. As long as the fight for jal-jangal-jameen remains, as long as the fight of Dalits, Adivasis, workers, peasants, oppressed nationalities remains, as long as the question of creating a better world for all people and a better state for all people remains, the fight of all political prisoners will rage on. At the end of the day, I am a bard who sings the songs of the people and I will continue to echo their cries. I am out of prison, but as long as all other political prisoners like Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale are inside prison, I feel I am only out from a smaller cage into a bigger one.” Read more
IO Whose Role Bombay HC Questioned in Saibaba Case Was Also Part of Elgar Parishad Probe
13/03/2024
The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha
The Pune police, at multiple places in the Elgar Parishad chargesheet, claimed that some of those arrested in the Elgar Parishad case had a “direct association” with Saibaba.
At the end of 2018, when the Pune police first filed a chargesheet in the Elgar Parishad case, they claimed to be “heavily relying” on the investigation conducted in the case involving former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba. By then, Saibaba and five others had already been convicted by the Gadchiroli sessions court. Read more
Also watch:
▪ Video: INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MEETING
en | 1:07 min | 2024
By INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN INDIA (InSAF) Celebrating the Second Acquittal of Professor GN Saibaba, Prashant Rahi, Mahesh Tirki, Hem Mishra and Vijay Tirki and the late Pandu Narote
Years in solitary confinement Years of shuttling from one bail plea to another Endless health ordeals, systematic discrimination The custodial death of 32-year old co-accused Pandu Narote The shocking overnight reversal of an acquittal order The life and trials of GN Saibaba and his co-accused remind us of the extent the repressive Indian state will go to in order to silence voices of dissent But on 7 March 2024, they finally walked free, after being acquitted for the second time on 5 March 2024, exonerated of all charges On 10 March 2024, we came together to celebrate this overdue step
We will not be silenced
Co-sponsored by
International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India) South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC) Indian Workers Association (Great Britain) (IWA-GB) India Labour Solidarity (UK) Foundation The London Story The Humanism Project, Australia Hindus for Human Rights Free Saibaba Coalition (USA) Boston South Asian Coalition (BSAC) India Civil Watch International (ICWI) South Asia Solidarity Group, London
by PUCL India / @PUCLindia (Dez 5, 2023)
PUCL Maharashtra and Free Speech Collective invite you to a book reading and conversations at 6 pm on Dec 9, 2023 in Bandra, Mumbai, “For the freedom to breathe” On the occasion of 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 25 years of the UN Declaration on HRDs
by PUCL India / @PUCLindia (Dec 11):
‘For the Freedom to Breathe’ by PUCL Maharashtra & Free Speech Collective. Reading by Ratna Pathak Shah of excerpts from ‘Phansi Ward’, discussion between Freny Manecksha and author Sudha Bharadwaj, talk by Sukanya Shantha on ‘Criminal Justice and Prisons-the Media’s Blind Spots’
by naresh fernandes / @tajmahalfoxtrot (Dec 9)
Ahead of Human Rights Day, a reading and discussion about Sudha Bharadwaj’s searing, funny book about her time in jail in the farcical Bhima Koregaon case.
by Dilip D’Souza / @DeathEndsFun (Dec 9)
Commemorating 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Sudha Bharadwaj speaks about her book, “From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada”.
Mumbai. Dec 9, 2023
Sudha Bharadwaj’s book and the drama on a revolutionary on death row
10/12/2023
Countercurrents / by Vidyadhar Date
The reading by Ratna Pathak Shah last evening from Sudha Bharadwaj’s book about days in the death row in jail, reminded me of a thrilling Marathi play “Thank You Mr Glaad” about a Naxalite revolutionary. The movement has taken little note of the play written by Anil Barve. It was also a big popular hit and was produced by Prabhakar Panshikar, a very popular actor and producer, in the 1970s. Read more
