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Bhima Koregaon Commission to resume on August 2 in semi-virtual format

30/07/2021 Asha

Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry: Guidelines issued for ‘semi-virtual hearings’ of witnesses in Pune from Aug 2 to 6

30/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

A press release issued by V V Palnitkar, secretary of the commission, stated that only witnesses and advocates concerned would be allowed to enter the court hall.
The Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry has issued guidelines for lawyers, witnesses, police, mediapersons and public for “semi-virtual hearings” of witnesses, scheduled to be held in Pune next week, from August 2 to August 6.
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Bhima Koregaon Commission to resume on August 2 in semi-virtual format

29/07/2021

Hindustan Times / by Shalaka Shinde

The Bhima Koregaon Commission will resume its hearings into the Bhima Koregaon violence of 2018, on August 2 in Pune, after being on hold for almost two years, according to the commission secretary.
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Also read: Casting a Veil – What we miss by ignoring Maratha caste politics in the Bhima Koregaon case (The Caravan, Dec 2020)

Reinvestigate Bhima Koregaon Case: Justice Denied To The 15 Facing Severe Charges

29/07/2021 Asha

HW / by Neeta Kolhatkar

The arrests of these activists were made on the basis of a First Information Report filed by Tushar Damgude, a former RSS activist and protégé of Bhide.
A peaceful event, Elgar Parishad was held on December 31, 2017. Over 35,000 people had attended it, where free speeches were given and people were informed they needed to be alert, remember their rights as free voices were being muzzled and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government needed to be toppled.
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Also read:
• India´s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag, April 2021)
• Casting a Veil – What we miss by ignoring Maratha caste politics in the Bhima Koregaon case (The Caravan, Dec 2020)

India National Justice Day celebrates Father Stan Swamy

29/07/2021 Asha

India National Justice Day celebrates Father Stan Swamy

29/07/2021

Vatican News / by Vatican News staff

Indian citizens, concerned about values enshrined in the country’s Constitution, observed July 28 as National Justice Day in honour of late the Jesuit rights activist.
Christians and citizens of India joined hands on Wednesday to observe National Justice Day as an expression of their solidarity with late Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, a human rights activist who died in custody.
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Justice for Stan Swamy: Candlelight march held

29/07/2021

The Hindu / by Staff Reporter

Participants urge Centre to free human rights’ defenders and undertrial prisoners
Bengaluru: Demanding justice for the late Fr. Stan Swamy and all unjustly accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, the faculty and students of various institutions and representatives of civil societies observed a silent candlelight march on Museum Road on Wednesday.
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Stan Swamy’s death another moment of awakening in journey to affirm faith in Constitution: Karnataka Jesuit provincial

29/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Express Web Desk

“Amidst growing inequalities, violence, atrocities, discrimination, and exclusion in our country, ‘not to be a silent spectator is the message that Father Stan left for us,” Fr Dionysius Vaz SJ, provincial of Karnataka Jesuit Province said.
Nearly a month after the death of Father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, the demand for justice to the late Jesuit priest continued in Bengaluru as members of various civil societies and faculty and students of several institutions carried out a silent candlelight march.
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Bombay HC seeks Hany Babu’s health report from hospital after lawyer says his eye condition better

29/07/2021 Maya

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The court was hearing a petition by Hany Babu’s wife Jenny Rowenna seeking that the DU associate professor be released on bail on health grounds.
The Bombay High Court Thursday directed Breach Candy Hospital in the city to provide the latest health report of Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case who is currently under treatment at a private hospital.
… The HC will consider the plea next on August 6.
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How 5 Reliance Workers Fighting For A Better Deal Found Themselves In Jail On Terrorism Charges

29/07/2021 Maya

Article 14 / by Jyoti Punwani

For 15 years, these Mumbai contract workers struggled to be treated on par with regular workers and went from success to success, despite arrests and dismissals. Then the State used a law meant to be used against terrorists to incarcerate them with scant evidence of such crimes.
… So, long before the June 2018 arrests of six Left activists in what has come to be known as the Bhima Koregaon case, the Maharashtra Government’s narrative that the violence on 1 January 2018 was planned by “urban Naxals” was set into motion by the arrests of these workers.
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Also read:
• Bail After 3 Years for the Incarcerated Mumbai Electric Employees Union Workers (groundxero, June 2021)
• Statement on release of four Reliance workers – First to be falsely implicated in Bhima Koregaon case (Sanhati India, January 2019)

Court asks NIA to submit draft charges in Elgar Parishad case

29/07/2021 Maya

Court asks NIA to submit draft charges in Elgar Parishad case

29/07/2021

India Today / by Vidya

The National Investigation Agency probing the Elgar Parishad case has been asked by a special court in Mumbai to submit draft charges against the accused on August 9.
The draft charges will be filed by the central agency against all the accused in the case before Special Judge Dinesh E Kothalikar.
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Teltumbde, Navlakha, Gonsalves approach special court, seek bail

27/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves sent their applications from Taloja Central Jail where they are lodged and sought to be released temporarily citing their age and vulnerability to Covid-19.
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Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves move NIA Court for temporary bail after HPC remommendation to decongest jails

27/07/2021

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

Special Judge DE Kothalikar has now directed NIA to file their responses to these applications.
Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves and Dr. Anand Teltumbde have moved the Special Court, which hears cases under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, for interim bail.
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Video: A letter poem to Professor Hany Babu

28/07/2021 Maya

en | 2.47min | 2021

Maktoob / by Shivangi Mariam Raj

Delhi University professor, scholar in linguistics, and noted anti-caste activist Hany Babu completes one year in prison under draconian UAPA in Elgar Parishad case.
Hany Babu’s student at Delhi University and an academic publishing professional Shivangi Mariam Raj wrote this poem “Dear Hany, This is just to say” in November last year, four months Hany’s arrest by NIA. (You can read the full poem here.)
Voice: Farzana Rowena, daughter of Hany Babu
Graphics: Shaheen Abdulla
Watch video

Political prisoners part of broader dissent against state excesses / The Future of Social Activism

27/07/2021 Maya

Poster, July 2020

Political prisoners part of broader dissent against state excesses

27/07/2021

The Leaflet / by Achintya Anita Gurumurthy

It has been over 500 days since Khalid Saifi’s incarceration and 300 for Umar Khalid in the northeast Delhi riots cases and almost three weeks since the custodial demise of Father Stan Swamy in the Bhima-Koregaon case – all arrested under the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA) 1967. The arrests have put the spotlight back on the category of ‘political prisoners’, who are imprisoned for opposing the government via their actions or beliefs.
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State and the Future of Social Activism

27/07/2021

EPW / by Gopal Guru

The death of Father Stan Swamy and several others as the tragic outcome of the arrest and detention without fair trial brings into critical focus the approach that the state has been adopting towards understanding social activism. In the ethics of democratic practice and constitutional morality, such an official approach would be evaluated as indiscrete, if not arbitrary, in comprehending the nature of social activism.
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Wilson, Sen ask Bombay HC to decide what is ‘legal electronic evidence’ under criminal law

27/07/2021 Maya

Wilson, Sen ask Bombay HC to decide what is ‘legal electronic evidence’ under criminal law

27/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Their counsels, senior advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, also told a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar that there was no connection between the Elgaar Parishad event held on December 31, 2017, and the Koregaon Bhima violence that took place a day later.
Activists Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen, arrested in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case, urged the Bombay High Court on Monday to decide what was “legal electronic evidence” and stating the evidence relied upon by the probing agency was illegal as per law as it had been “planted”.
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Bhima Koregaon Violence Caused By Another Group: Jaising Argues Relying On Ex-CM’s Statements

26/07/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The caste violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, was not caused by the “lawful” Elgar Parishad event held the previous day, and the case would not attract the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, researcher Rona Wilson told the Bombay High Court.
Senior Advocate Indira Jaising for Wilson submitted that she would be relying on two statements made by then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
… On Monday, a bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar began physical hearings in Wilson and professor Shoma Sen’s petitions under section 482 of the CrPC, Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, challenging the sanction to prosecute them under the UA(P) Act.
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Also read: Bhima Koregaon Case: Where Are The Hindutva Leaders Accused of Violence? (The Quint, July 12, 2021)

This is no ordinary spying. Our most intimate selves are now exposed

27/07/2021 Maya

The Guardian / by Arundhati Roy

The Pegasus project shows we could all soon be ruled by states that know everything about us, while we know less and less about them.
Here in India, the summer of dying is quickly morphing into what looks very much like a summer of spying.
… Consider this: there are 16 activists, lawyers, trade unionists, professors and intellectuals, many of them Dalit, who have been jailed for years in what is known as the Bhima-Koregaon (BK) case.
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Also read: Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire, July 18, 2021)