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Stay on bail for long period affects personal liberty and rights, feel experts / Status of the accused in BK case

Stay on bail for long period affects personal liberty and rights, feel experts / Status of the accused in BK case

Poster by #bakeryprasad

Stay on bail for long period affects personal liberty and rights, feel experts

09/04/2024

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Elgaar Parishad case accused Mahesh Raut and Gautam Navlakha remain in jail for over four months since grant of bail by the Bombay High Court.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to activist and Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, arrested six years ago in the Elgaar Parishad case. Two of her co-accused Mahesh Raut and Gautam Navlakha who were granted bail six and four months ago, respectively, by the Bombay High Court, continue to remain in jail awaiting their bail hearings in the SC which has stayed their release till it hears appeals against their bail.
Read more

By @apeksha_9 (April 5):
Revolutionary Salutes to Prof. Shoma Sen! Free All the Activists wrongfully incarcerated in the Bhima Koregaon case. Repeal UAPA.

As Shoma Sen gets bail, what is the status of other accused in Elgaar Parishad case?

05/04/2024

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak, Omkar Gokhale

Eight accused, including prominent activists, lawyers, and academics, have now been given bail. Two of them are yet to be released from custody. The case dates back to the beginning of 2018, but the trial is yet to commence
… Among the 16 individuals arrested in the case, one – Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old-priest and tribal rights activist based in Jharkhand – passed away in custody in July 2021.
Before Sen, seven other accused have been given bail. Two of these eight accused, however, are yet to be released from custody because the NIA has appealed the High Court’s bail orders in the SC.
Read more

Thread by BehanBox / @BehanBox (Apr 5):

(1/5) Today the Supreme Court granted bail to women’s rights activist #ShomaSen, accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in the #BhimaKoregaon violence case. #bhimakoregaon
…
(5/5) 8 of the activists, namely Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Hany Babu, continue to languish in prison without trial.

Bhima Koregaon: The process continues to clot as punishment as another year passes by

01/01/2024

The Leaflet / Arif Ayaz Parrey, Sarah Thanawala

Many of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad case have now spent one more year incarcerated without a trial. A far cry from the verbiage of high judicial officials that even a day’s denial of liberty is too much.
… Here is a recap of the major developments in the case this year, of bail applications granted, stayed and pending; the consistent pleas for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to comply with the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973; and the courts heeding to medical conditions-related pleas of the accused.
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)

If you asked for house arrest, you have to pay security costs: Supreme Court to Gautam Navlakha

If you asked for house arrest, you have to pay security costs: Supreme Court to Gautam Navlakha

Gautam Navlakha

‘You asked for house arrest, must pay for it’, SC tells Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha

09/04/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The National Investigation Agency had earlier told the Supreme Court that the human rights activist is liable to pay Rs 1.64 crore for the cost of his security.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday told human rights activist Gautam Navlakha that he would have to pay the costs incurred by the National Investigation Agency towards his house arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case, reported Live Law.
Read more

If You Have Sought For House Arrest, You Must Pay The Expenses: Supreme Court Tells Bhima Koregaon Case Accused Gautam Navlakha

09/04/2024

Live Law / by Gyanvi Khanna

Today, the Supreme Court (on April 09) orally told Bhima Koregaon-accused Gautam Navlakha’s Advocate, Shadan Farasat, that if house arrest was sought, the surveillance expenses incurred by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) must be paid. However, Farasat submitted that paying the expenses was of no difficulty and that the issue is about calculating such expenses. He added that he would take the latest calculation from the Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the NIA, and will address it.
Read more

If you asked for house arrest, you have to pay security costs: Supreme Court to Gautam Navlakha

09/04/2024

Bar & Bench / by Abhimanyu Hazarika

The NIA told the Court that Navlakha owed the agency about ₹1.64 crore in security costs.
… The Court was hearing NIA’s appeal against the Bombay High Court order that granted bail to Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon riot case of 2018.
The activist’s plea concerning the terms of his house arrest is being heard along with the bail matter.
Read more

Also read:
▪ NIA asks Gautam Navlakha to pay Rs 1.64 crore towards the cost of his house arrest (Scroll.in / March 2024)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Bombay High Court grants, stays bail to Gautam Navlakha (The Leaflet / Dec 2023)

PUDR: Uphold Shoma Sen’s Bail Order – Release all Bhima Koregaon detainees!

PUDR: Uphold Shoma Sen’s Bail Order – Release all Bhima Koregaon detainees!

PUDR poster campaign, 2023.

pudr.org / by PUDR

PUDR expresses relief at the Supreme Court’s granting of bail to Prof. Shoma Sen on April 5, after nearly six long years of pre-trial incarceration. Charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the infamous Bhima Koregaon (BK) conspiracy case, Shoma Sen is the fourth accused to be released on ‘bail on merits’ by the Supreme Court, after Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, and Arun Ferreira.
Read full statement

Also read:
▪ PUDR welcomes the release on bail of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira today, but protests onerous bail conditions (PUDR / Aug 2023)
▪ Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice! (PUDR / June 2023)
▪ Stop Denying Political Prisoners the Right to Healthcare in Jails (PUDR / Sep 2022)

Shoma Sen should have been released in 2018 / Explained: The Shoma Sen bail judgment

Shoma Sen should have been released in 2018 / Explained: The Shoma Sen bail judgment

Shoma Sen

Explained: The Shoma Sen bail judgment [read judgement]

08/04/2024

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

The arguments, counter-arguments, and the many, many injustices and tethers of the judgment of the Supreme Court granting bail to former Nagpur University and women’s rights activist Shoma Sen, who spent six years in jail without a trial.
Read more
Read judgement

‘Shoma Sen should have been released in October 2018’

09/04/2024

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

‘Shoma didn’t have the luxury of time. She was already suffering from so many ailments.’
Professor Shoma Sen, among the first to be arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, got bail on April 5, after spending almost 6 six years in jail. Advocate Susan Abraham explains to Jyoti Punwani why the Nagpur professor should have been out more than 5 years ago.

The question everyone’s asking is: If the Supreme Court has found no prima facie evidence against Shoma Sen, why did it take so long for her to get bail?
Read more

BREAKING: Supreme Court grants bail to Shoma Sen / SC sets strict bail conditions

BREAKING: Supreme Court grants bail to Shoma Sen / SC sets strict bail conditions

No Ground To Believe Accusations Against Shoma Sen Are Prima Facie True: Supreme Court [read judgment]

05/04/2024

Live Law / by Gyanvi Khanna

The Court observed that the materials collected by the NIA only reveal her attempt to encourage women to join the struggle for a “new democratic revolution” and showed no attempt to commit any “terrorist act”.
While granting bail to Shoma Sen, nearly six years after her arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case, the Supreme Court on Friday (April 5) raised prima facie doubts over the tenability of the allegations against her regarding the commission of offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 (UAPA).
Read more
Read/ download the judgment

BREAKING | Supreme Court Grants Bail To Shoma Sen In Bhima Koregaon Case

05/04/2024

Live Law / by Gyanvi Khanna

The Supreme Court (on April 05) granted bail to former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen who is booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 (UAPA) for alleged Maoist links in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.
She was arrested on June 6, 2018, and has been under custody since then, awaiting trial.
Read more

Thread by Live Law / @LiveLawIndia (Apr 5):
The bail conditions that will be imposed by the Special Court will be inclusive of the following conditions:

1. Sen shall not leave the State of Maharashtra;
2. She will surrender her passport, if she possesses one with the Special Court, during her bail period;
3. She is also required to inform her residential address to the officer of the NIA;
4. She is allowed to use only one mobile number during her bail, and the same shall be informed the officer of the NIA;
5. She shall also ensure that her mobile remains active and charged around the clock;
6. During the bail period, she shall have the GPS of her mobile phone active throughout the day, and her phone will be paired with the investigating officer of the NIA;
7. She will report to the station house officer, within whose jurisdiction she will reside, once every fortnight.

In the event there is any breach of such condition or any other condition imposed by the Special Court independently, it will be open for the prosecution to seek cancellation of bail granted to Sen before the Special Court only with any reference to this (Supreme Court)

Share Gps live location with nia 24×7: Supreme Court bail conditions for Shoma Sen [read judgment]

06/04/2024

Bar & Bench / by Debayan Roy

Pertinently, another bench of the Supreme Court itself had previously raised doubts with regard to bail condition asking accused to share their real time location with the prosecuting agencies.
The Supreme Court while granting bail to the Dalit and women’s rights activist Shoma Sen in the Bhima Koregaon violence case imposed a unique set of conditions to enable access of her real time location to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) [Shoma Kanti Sen vs State of Maharashtra and Anr].
Read more
Read judgment

Supreme Court grants bail to Shoma Sen in Bhima Koregaon case

05/04/2024

Bar & Bench / by Debayan Roy

The Court passed the order after noting that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) did not oppose her bail and hence, the stringent conditions for bail under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act would not apply.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Augustine George Masih passed the order after noting that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) did not oppose her bail and hence, the stringent conditions for bail under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) would not apply.
Read more

Allegations of terrorism against Bhima Koregaon accused Shoma Sen prima facie untrue: Supreme Court

06/04/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The bench remarked that no evidence had been placed before it to suggest that the former professor is a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The Supreme Court on Friday, while granting bail to former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen in the Bhima Koregaon case, observed that the allegations of terrorism against her are prima facie untrue, reported Live Law.
Read more

Breaking | Supreme Court Grants Bail to Shoma Sen, in Jail for 6 Years

05/04/2024

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

An apex court bench took into account her prolonged incarceration, the delay in trial starting and the nature of the accusations.
The Supreme Court has granted bail to scholar and activist Shoma Sen who has been jailed for close to six years under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the Elgar Parishad case.
Sen is based in Nagpur and was arrested on June 6, 2018 by the Pune Police. She has been in custody since then. The National Investigation Agency took over the case in the meantime. It is yet to go to trial.
Read more

Also read:
▪ After Opposing Bail for Years, NIA Now Says it Doesn’t Need Custody of Shoma Sen (The Wire / March 2024)
▪ “Hopefully waiting” writes Shoma Sen from prison (InSAF India / Jul 2023)

Side-effects of conscience: An account of prison medical care

Side-effects of conscience: An account of prison medical care

Vernon Gonsalves at jail. Drawing by Arun Ferreira.

The Leaflet / by Vernon Gonsalves

Accused in the Bhima Koregaon case and released on bail by the Supreme Court last year after having spent five years in prison without a trial, Vernon Gonsalves narrates a sordid tale of pathetic medicare in Indian jails. 

I have spent almost eleven years in detention, with considerable periods in the most populated prisons of Maharashtra. My first incarceration from 2007 to 2013 began shortly after I turned fifty. I had a second stint from 2018 to 2023, while I was in my sixties.
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘No Material’ to Demonstrate Terror Link, Yet Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferriera Spent 5 Years in Jail [Read judgment] (The Wire / Jul 2023)
▪ Caged birds and prison songs: In chorus, Stan Swamy and the Bhima Koregaon accused kept hope alive (Scroll.in | by Vernon Gonsalves | Jul 2023)
▪ Relatives of BK16 Flag Prison Authorities’ ‘Criminal Negligence’ and Deteriorating Health of Undertrials (Newsclick / Sep 2022)
▪ Jailers’ apathy? Political prisoners’ right to life in India is ‘almost non-existent’ (Countercurrents / Sep 2022)
▪ How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison (Scroll.in | by Arun Ferreira | Aug 2021)

Delhi Police files chargesheet in UAPA case against NewsClick founder Prabir Puryakayastha

Delhi Police files chargesheet in UAPA case against NewsClick founder Prabir Puryakayastha

NewsClick UAPA case: Delhi Police Special Cell files chargesheet against founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha, portal

30/03/2024

The Indian Express / by Nirbhay Thakur

Among allegations detailed by the Special Cell in its FIR against Prabir Purkayastha were attempts to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as “not parts of India”.
… The Special Cell had registered an FIR in this regard in August under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In November, the two were sent to a month’s judicial custody. The FIR also mentioned Purkayastha’s “friendship since 1991” with rights activist Gautam Navlakha who is under house arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case.
Read more

Delhi Police files chargesheet in UAPA case against NewsClick founder Prabir Puryakayastha

30/03/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Purkayastha and PPK NewsClick Studio were named as accused parties for allegedly taking Chinese funds to ‘undermine India’s sovereignty, territorial integrity’.
The Delhi Police Special Cell on Saturday filed an 8,000-page chargesheet in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act case against NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Puryakayastha, who has been in judicial custody since November.
Read more

Newsclick Rejects Allegations Published in Media; Latest Claims No Different

Newsclick.in | Newsclick Team | March 29, 2024
Statement on allegations published in the media about the case under UAPA being investigated by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.
Read full statement

Also read:
▪ ‘NewsClick’ case: Gautam Navlakha questioned by Delhi Police (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ This Is the Biggest Crackdown on the Indian Press by the Indian State (The Wire / Oct 2023)

Top Global Academics Flay Recent Pattern in India of Jailing Critics Without Trial

Top Global Academics Flay Recent Pattern in India of Jailing Critics Without Trial

Campaign poster, 2020

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has voiced his support for the statement – among whose authors is Amitav Ghosh – saying such imprisonment without trial was “certainly among the worst injustices that the country has made into a regular arrangement”.
Sixteen prominent academics released a statement expressing concern over the prolonged detention without trial of writers, journalists and activists who were critical of the Union government.
Read more / read the full text of the two statements

New Book on Bhima Koregaon Case Tells Uncomfortable Truths, But Brings Hope / Book launch

New Book on Bhima Koregaon Case Tells Uncomfortable Truths, But Brings Hope / Book launch

New Book on Bhima Koregaon Case Tells Uncomfortable Truths, But Brings Hope

31/04/2024

The Quint / by Mekhala Saran

Alpa Shah’s book, ‘The Incarcerations’, is alive with stories of fearlessness, but also of the cost it extracts.

“Well, I am off to NIA custody and do not know when I shall be able to talk to you again. However, I earnestly hope that you will speak out before your turn comes.”

– Anand Teltumbde, on the eve of his incarceration in April 2020

Alpa Shah’s book on the Bhima Koregaon incarcerations is not an easy read. When I first decided to review the book – before laying my hands on it – I thought it would not take me longer than a week.
Read more

A new book recounts how 16 activists were imprisoned as terrorists, without trial

27/03/2024

Scroll.in / by Alpa Shah

An excerpt from ‘The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon and the Search for Democracy in India’
Amnesty International India and Oxfam India released a joint response the day Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Varavara Rao were arrested. “The nationwide crackdown on activists, advocates and human rights defenders is disturbing and threatens core human rights values.”
Read more

by Shireen Azam / @shireenazam (March 26:)
A full full house at @LSEpublicevents for the book release of (Bhima Koregaon) Incarcerations by @alpashah001

Video| Book launch/discussion: The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the search for democracy in India

26/03/2024

Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute, LSE Human Rights, Department of Anthropology and Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity

IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PUBLIC EVENT

Speakers:
Professor Alpa Shah.
Discussants: Professor Christophe Jaffrelot, Professor Tarun Khaitan and Priyanka Kotamraju
Chair: Professor Deborah James

Join us to launch and discuss Alpa Shah’s new book, The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the search for democracy in India.
As general elections fast approach in the world’s largest democracy, this event asks what democracy today must urgently ensure for our common future. In her latest book, Alpa Shah pulls back the curtain on Indian democracy to tell the remarkable and chilling story of the Bhima Koregaon case, in which 16 human rights defenders (the BK-16) – professors, lawyers, artists – have been imprisoned, without credible evidence and without trial, as Maoist terrorists.
Read more

Watch on LSE’s YouTube channel.

Interview | Alpa Shah: India is not a safe place any more

23/03/2024

The News Statesman / by  Gavin Jacobson

Narendra Modi’s Hindu supremacism is capturing major state institutions while repressing minority groups and political activists.
… Shah exposes how the state engaged in a prolonged act of cyberwar against the so-called “BK-16”, hacking their emails and implanting incriminating evidence on their computers in order to prosecute them. It is the best book I’ve read about the full-scale assault on democracy in India, and with the general elections scheduled to conclude in June, it’s essential reading for an understanding of what is happening to the country right now.
On 18 March I met Shah at her office at the London School of Economics.

Gavin Jacobson: When did you decide to write a book about the BK-16?
Read more

Hackers-for-Hire, Govt’s Media Control: Seven Takeaways From Studying the Arrests of the BK-16

15/03/2024

The Wire / by Alpa Shah

“…the evidence used to incarcerate the BK-16 was likely to have been implanted remotely through a hacker-for-hire mercenary gang infrastructure that has clients all over the world, but whose epicentre is in India.”
Excerpted with permission from Alpa Shah’s The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon and the Search for Democracy in India, HarperCollins 2024.
Read more

Hacker-for-hire gang with links to Pune police planted emails on the computers of Bhima Koregaon accused: new book

14/03/2024

The Hindu / by Vijaita Singh

The mercenary hacker gang, headquartered in India, remotely implanted evidence, according to LSE professor’s book; cites cybersecurity researchers to claim gang’s connection to a Pune police officer
The alleged evidence used to incarcerate 16 people in the Bhima Koregaon case was “likely to have been implanted remotely through a hacker-for-hire mercenary gang infrastructure that has clients all over the world, but whose epicentre is in India,” according to claims made in a new book.
Read more

The arrests putting Narendra Modi’s ‘fascist’ India on trial

14/03/2024

The Telegraph / by Andrew Whitehead

Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest, died in custody in India in July 2021. He was 84. He had spent nine months in detention and had been repeatedly denied bail; yet he had not been convicted of any offence.
… Alpa Shah, an anthropology professor at the London School of Economics, argues in The Incarcerations that the arrest of Swamy and 15 others – lawyers, academics, poets, activists – in what has become known as the “BK case” reveals India’s authoritarian creep.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
▪ Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)

Kejriwal Arrest: This Coup Against Our Constitutional Setup is a Wake-Up Call

Kejriwal Arrest: This Coup Against Our Constitutional Setup is a Wake-Up Call

Campaign, 2020

The Wire / by Apoorvanand

One knows that the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal or Hemant Soren is to scare political leaders and the people and stun them into inaction. Is this how we want to live? Are we actors in this theatre of democracy or mere spectators?
… But in India and especially under the BJP government, investigation is used as a ruse to punish the critics and opponents of the government by jailing them. This is exactly what was done to P. Chidambaram and many others.
Recently, we heard the agencies informing the court that it did not need Shoma Sen’s custody for investigation. She is in jail for more than five years in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case.
Read more

Also read:
▪ State-sponsored attacks of surveillance reveal an erosion on Indians’ right to privacy, especially journalists, political opposition (SabrangIndia / Nov 2023)
▪ India: Weaponizing Counterterrorism: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty International / Sep 2023)
▪ The Uses (and Abuses) of Investigative Agencies (The Wire / Nov 2022)
▪ AUTHORITIES HARASS AND SQUEEZE FUNDING OF NGOS WHILE ACTIVISTS, JOURNALISTS TARGETED IN INDIA (CIVICUS / Feb 2022)
▪ Maharashtra is adding activists to a secret list of the enemies of state (Newslaundry / July 2021)
▪ How Governments Avoid Due Process by Declaring Groups as ‘Front Organisations’ of Banned Entities (The Wire / Sep 2020)