Statements – Page 45 – free them all

Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

30/11/2020 Maya

Tweets by American Bar Association – ABA Justice Defenders Program

#India: During the #16DaysOfActivism, we remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj. We urge authorities to secure her immediate release in the absence of clear evidence of criminal conduct. @NIA_India #FreeSudha #FreeBhimaKoregaon #16days #OrangeTheWorld
The @chr_aba report found that Ms. Bharadwaj has been subject to numerous fair trial violations, including prejudicial public statements by the police and lack of independent public witnesses. @UN_SPExperts @UNIndepJudges

Also read: The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon (Oct 2019)

CIVICUS: This #16Days we continue the call for #India to free #WHRD Sudha Bharadwaj, an activist and human rights lawyer who has spent over 2 years in detention.

People’s organisations demand release of Bhima Koregaon case accused

30/11/2020 Rani

People’s organisations demand release of Bhima Koregaon case accused

29/11/2020

The Times of India / by Siva G

Andhra Pradesh: Various people’s organisations demanded the police to release the arrested people’s organisations leaders including adivasis, women, dalits and minorities unconditionally along with the 16 persons detained illegally in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Tribal Rights Activist Among 67 Slapped With UAPA Over ‘Maoist Link’ Suspicion

29/11/2020

The Wire / by Gali Nagaraja

Driven to a frenzy over purported statements given by Maoist sympathisers, Andhra police have arrested several human rights activists from Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.
Hyderabad: Athram Suguna, a 38-year old school teacher of the Gond tribe from Telangana’s Fakrigutta in Adilabad district, has been caught in a cat-and-mouse game with no end in sight.
Suguna works as a school assistant in a zilla parishad high school at Utnoor. After a group of suspected Maoist sympathisers supposedly spilled the beans on a network of Maoists to the police, the latter have framed her in a case under the draconian and stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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lawyers & well-wishers send straws & sippers for Stan Swamy / Video: Denied Sipper, Straw in Jail

28/11/2020 Rani

Lawyers Send Straws & Sippers To Mumbai’s Taloja Jail For 83-Year Old Stan Swamy

28/11/2020

Live Law / by Live Law News Network

After 83-year-old Father Stan Swamy moved the NIA Court seeking adequate facilities at the Taloja Jail as he is unable to drink water from glass due to medical reasons, a group of lawyers have sent straws and sippers for him. Stating that the authorities must ensure that the detention of persons at the jail must be ‘human’, the members of the Bar urged the Jail Superintendent of Taloja Jail to make arrangements for all inmates as per the jail manual who have special medical needs.
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Disability Rights Organisation To Send Sipper For Stan Swamy In Taloja Jail

28/11/2020

Outlook / by pti

NPRD also appeals all disability rights organisations, activists to join this campaign and send sippers to Swamy.
Tribal activist Stan Swamy’s painful wait for a sipper cannot be tolerated any longer, said a prominent disability rights organisation that is planning to send the drinking aid to the jailed octogenarian, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
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Over 100 straws & sippers sent for Father Stan Swamy as outrage builds up over denial of assistive aids

27/11/2020

Newzhook / by Newshook

The plight of Father Stan Swamy continues to draw outrage among disability rights groups and ordinary citizens. Over 100 straws and sippers have been sent to the Taloja Jail where he is lodged in as well as the National Investigation Agency office. The 83-year-old activist has Parkinson’s disease, a condition recognised as disabling under RPWD Act 2016.
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#SippersForStan: Social media users launch campaign to send sippers to jailed activist Stan Swamy

27/11/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The National Investigation Agency’s statement in court on Thursday that it would not be able to provide a sipper and straw to jailed activist Stan Swamy has prompted social media users around the country to take matters into their own hands and send these items to him themselves.
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Video: Denied Sipper, Straw in Jail. How Stan Swamy´s case is different from Arnab Goswami´s

27/11/2020

en | 53min | 2020

Mojo Story / by Barkha Dutt

A Special NIA Court in Mumbai denied 83-year old Stan Swamy, suffering from Parkinson’s, booked under the UAPA Act, of basic amenities like a straw and a sipper.
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Where Free Speech Is A Path To Lose Personal Liberty: After 70 Years Of Constitutional Democracy

26/11/2020 Rani

Live Law / by Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu

We celebrate 70 years of Constitutional Governance in India, i.e., Bharath on 26th November 2020 with Damocles sword on free speech that could deprive personal liberty. None is bothered about those innocent, not very popular, common journalists and protestors who were arrested for talking against the establishment or protesting against Government policies like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). In recent times, several Journalists have been charged under the sedition law, the Official Secrets Act, for incitement to riots and under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Left wing thinkers, poets and academicians are arrested without any convincing evidence or or charge, and are denied bail by the Courts.
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SC Has Let People Down, Abdicated Duty to Defend Fundamental Rights: Justice A.P. Shah

25/11/2020 Rani

The Wire / by Karan Thapar

In one of the sharpest criticisms of the Supreme Court made by one of India’s most highly regarded retired judges, the former Chief Justice of the Delhi and Madras high courts has said that “to a large extent the Supreme Court is letting down the people of India”.
Justice Ajit Prakash Shah said the Supreme Court has “completely abdicated its duty to defend fundamental rights” and added that this will “affect the credibility of the Court and its prestige”.
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Video: SC Has Let People Down, Abdicated Duty to Defend Fundamental Rights, says Justice A.P. Shah

en | 51:32min | 2020
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Release the Poet: NO BIAS! JUSTICE FOR ALL!

25/11/2020 Rani

By Release the Poet Committee @ FB

Release the Poet Committee’s statement at Kolkata Press Club on 23rd Nov
“…If we look upon the flood of tweets and whatsapp texts, memes and mimics denouncing the highest seat of judiciary – the Supreme Court – in the last few months, we could clearly see that it was unprecedented in the history of India! People are openly getting judgmental and bitterly critical about the so called “temple of justice” discounting the risk that is ‘contempt of court’. The state should lend an ear to this alarm, which is, ACTUALLY, directed to them. …

Nearly 60 Irish writers protest against Varavara Rao’s arrest, express ‘deep unhappiness’

23/11/2020 Rani

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The signatories said they had noted with ‘alarm the deteriorating condition of poet Varavara Rao, imprisoned without trial in India’.
Nearly 60 Irish writers have sent a petition to the Irish Embassy in New Delhi and the Indian Embassy in Dublin protesting against the incarceration of Telugu poet Varavara Rao.
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Statements by family members of Varavara Rao after meeting him at Nanavati Hospital

22/11/2020 Maya

May 2020

Mid-day / Chetna Sadadekar

After a wait of four months, the family of Varavara Rao finally got to meet him at Nanavati Hospital. Rao’s wife and elder daughter met him on Friday and Saturday. While he is being treated for a urinary tract infection, his family said that he has contracted a fungal infection on his feet and knees. However, the family is unaware of the tests that have been conducted and the reports of the same as the hospital authorities told them that reports have to be submitted to the court.
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N Venugopal writes after meeting VV Rao at Nanavati Hospital

20/11/2020

Release the Poet @ fb

Akkaiah (Hemalatha, Poet’s partner), Sahaja (Poet’s daughter) and I met VV separately in Nanavati Hospital today morning. Akkaiah was allowed twice for 20 minutes and Sahaja and me each 15 minutes once. The first thing VV told Akkaiah was “they are going to discharge me today. They are just waiting for your visit and doctors wanted to speak to you before discharge and sending to hospital!”
It seems after the High Court order on Wednesday, he was hurriedly brought to the hospital and various tests were done till two in the night. “All normal” reports were made by Thursday and waiting for family so that he could be discharged and sent back to jail began.
All this is an attempt to refuse bail, said VV.
He looked weak and fragile. With huge weight loss, age is showing. Still he has not got control over urination. Nails of feet and hands are discoloured. Hands are shivering. But then the hospital thinks he is normal to be discharged!
Only good thing that happened in the hospital seems to removal of catheter and urine bag.
So we don’t know when he will be sent back to jail. Though keeping him in hospital for 15 days was mentioned by judges and reported in press, that did not come into the written order. The court’s direction of allowing family visit is being interpreted by police officials in the hospital as they like.
Amidst such ill-health and so many conspiracies, his spirits are high. He is mentally as strong as he was. He enquired about many friends and said he was quite alright. Tears welled up in his eyes hearing the death news of Seshaiah.
Except RELEASE, nothing is the needed relief.

Unfair To Target A Lawyer For Appearing For A Particular Client: Justice Lokur

21/11/2020 Rani

‘Unfair To Target A Lawyer For Appearing For A Particular Client’: Justice Lokur

21/11/2020

Live Law / by Radhika Roy

I think that it’s unfair to target a lawyer for appearing for a particular client”, said Justice (Retd.) Madan B. Lokur, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India at a virtual session hosted by Delhi High Court Women Lawyers Forum and Women in Criminal Law Association.
“If a lawyer is dealing with hundreds of COFEPOSA cases, you can’t say that he is also a smuggler. I don’t think the Judge should ever get involved in the relationship between a lawyer and a client”, the judge commented.
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Video: Justice (retd.) Madan Lokur speaks on „Defending Liberties“

20/11/2020

en | 1h 29min | 2020

By Bar & Bench

The former Supreme Court judge is speaking at a virtual discussion hosted by the Delhi High Court Women Lawyers Forum and WCLA.
Former Supreme Court Judge, Justice (retd.) Madan Lokur is speaking on the theme Defending Liberties in a virtual discussion to be hosted by the Delhi High Court Women Lawyers Forum and WCLA. Justice (retd.) Lokur will interact with Warisha Farasat, Tara Narula, Shalini Gera and Sowjhanya Shankaran during the discussion.
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Read tweets/summaries by Live Law

Govt Too Is Responsible for Rao’s Failing Health / Rao’s Treatment Raises Questions

21/11/2020 Maya

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Not Just NIA, Maharashtra Govt Too Is Responsible for Varavara Rao’s Failing Health

21/11/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

While the state government has spoken against the wrongful arrests of activists in the Elgar Parishad case, it did very little to provide timely medical care.
Telugu poet, writer and activist Varavara Rao was 78 years old when the Pune police arrested him in August 2018. At the time of his arrest, Rao was already suffering from several age-related health issues. His prolonged incarceration, coupled with the lack of medical care in prison and the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, has exacerbated his condition even further.
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Podcast: Why Varavara Rao’s Treatment Raises Questions on Civil Liberties

21/11/2020

The Quint / by Mghna Prakash

At a time of a pandemic are states acting responsibly with prisoners?
The Bombay High Court finally allowed 80-year-old Varavara Rao to be shifted from Taloja Jail to Nanavati Hospital for 15 days for medical treatment on 18 November… But why did it take so much active intervention in order for Rao to be treated and transferred to Nanavati Hospital? At a time of a pandemic are states acting responsibly with prisoners?
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Arnab Goswami and Varavara Rao, Unequal Citizens Before the Law

21/11/2020

The Wire / by N Venugopal Rao

While Goswami could move three levels of courts in quick succession within a week to secure his release, Rao has languished in jail in a fabricated case for two years, without trial and without bail.
Article 14 of the Indian constitution that “we, the people of India” conferred upon ourselves proclaims that “the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.”
But it seems this proviso is only a lofty goal enshrined in the statute, to be adhered to selectively.
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Article 32: Rights for All or For a Favoured Few?

21/11/2020

The Wire / by M Sridhar Acharyulu

Arnab Goswami’s case seems to have been an exceptional one where the SC felt it needed to intervene. It felt no such compunction in the case of Varavara Rao and countless others.
When the law becomes a weapon of oppression rather than an equalising force, democracy is in danger. Article 32 deals with the ‘Right to Constitutional Remedies’, and affirms the right of an individual to move the Supreme Court (SC) by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred in Part III of the constitution.
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