Posts – Page 56 – free them all

Bombay High Court allows NIA’s request to adjourn Mahesh Raut’s bail plea

27/07/2023 Asha

Bombay High Court allows NIA’s request to adjourn Mahesh Raut’s bail plea

27/07/2023

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The National Investigation Agency has sought the adjournment of Mahesh Raut’s bail plea on the ground that the newly appointed Additional Solicitor General of India is yet to assume office. The matter is posted for further hearing on August 7.
On Thursday, the division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices A.S. Gadkari and Shivkumar Dige allowed adjournment of hearing in the bail plea of forest rights activist Mahesh Raut.
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ASG for Bombay High Court takes charge, seeks time to argue Elgar Parishad bail plea

27/07/2023

India Today / by Vidya

Devang Vyas is currently the ASG for Gujarat High Court and has now assumed the additional role of ASG for the Bombay High Court for a duration of six months or more.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Devang Vyas on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that he had just assumed charge and requested some time to prepare himself. As a result, he sought an adjournment for the hearing of the bail plea of Elgar Parishad accused Mahesh Raut… He also requested that the bail plea of Raut’s co-accused, Gautam Navlakha, be adjourned to another date.
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Also read:
● National Campaign to Defend Democracy: 5 Years of Unjust Incarceration under Fabricated Evidence (Counterview / July 2023)
● NIA opposes Mahesh Raut’s bail plea in Bombay HC (Indian Express / June 2023)
● Gadchiroli’s 300 Gram Sabhas Pass Resolution in Support of Activist Mahesh Raut (The Wire / Oct 2018)
● Mining In Gadchiroli – Building A Castle Of Injustices (Countercurrents / by Neema Pathak Broome and Mahesh Raut / June 2017)

Probe the role of right-wing activists in Bhima Koregaon violence: Prakash Ambedkar

27/07/2023 Asha

Probe the role of orthodox Hindu bodies, their agents in govt in Bhima Koregaon violence: Prakash Ambedkar

27/07/2023

Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent

Ambedkar filed an affidavit on Monday, July 24, before the commission of inquiry set up to investigate the violent incidents of January 1 and January 3, 2018, a day after the Elgar Parishad was organised in Pune’s Shaniwarwada.
Nearly five years after the Bhima Koregaon violence in which one person was killed and several others were injured, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar called for an investigation to determine the role of orthodox Hindu bodies and their agents in administration to fuel the caste-based violence.
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Prakash Ambedkar Files Affidavit After 5 Years

26/07/2023

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

Either this affidavit was prepared a long time back, or, Ambedkar has not been following the Commission’s hearings.
He was the main political leader to be associated with the Elgar Parishad, held in Pune’s historic Shaniwarwada on December 31, 2017, on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the historic battle of Bhima Koregaon.
The next day, after violence broke out near Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, it was he who led the call for a state-wide protest bandh on January 3, which was heeded by all Dalit groups.
Yet, it took Prakash Ambedkar five years to file his affidavit before the commission of inquiry set up to investigate the violent incidents of January 1 and January 3, 2018.
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VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar raises issue of ‘intelligence failure’ in affidavit before Koregaon-Bhima Commission

25/07/2023

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Speaking to the media, Prakash Ambedkar said an inquiry should be done to find the level at which intelligence failure had happened so that the “loopholes” are known.
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar called for an investigation to determine if the director general (DG) of the intelligence department had any prior information about untoward incidents happening in the Koregaon-Bhima area of Pune on January 1, 2018.
Prakash Ambedkar made this suggestion Monday in his affidavit filed before the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry in Pune.
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Also Read:
● Top Investigating Officer Admits Elgar Parishad Event ‘Had No Role’ in Bhima Koregaon Violence (The Wire / Dec 27, 2022)
● India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)
● Saffron Conspiracy in Bhima Koregaon? – Fact finding report by Rashtra Seva Dal unearths insidious scheme to target Dalits (CJP / Jan 2018)

Probe agency opposes Gautam Navlakha’s bail plea in Bombay High Court

25/07/2023 Asha

NIA Opposes Bail Application Of Accused Gautam Navlakha

25/07/2023

Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajani

NIA has claimed that Navlakha is an active member of a banned terror organisation and engages in activities furthering its objectives. The NIA also recovered incriminating documents from gadgets in his house.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has opposed bail plea of former journalist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case, stating that the lower court rejected his bail plea on the grounds that the accusations against him are prima facie true. NIA has also claimed that Navlakha was an active member of a banned terror organisation and engages in activities furthering its objectives.
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Probe agency opposes Navlakha’s bail plea in Bombay High Court

25/07/2023

India Today / by Vidya

The NIA cited its chargesheet that claims that Gautam Navlakha was recruited by Ghulam Nabi Fai on the direction of Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has requested a one-week adjournment for the hearing of Gautam Navlakha’s bail plea, as the newly appointed Additional Solicitor General (ASG) is yet to assume office.
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Anand Teltumbde: I never imagined I would have a jail life (Part 1)

25/07/2023 Asha

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘I was under the illusion that this could never happen to me because my background was such — corporate CEO, IIT professor, IIT alumnus, IIM…’
Anand Teltumbde was born into a family of Dalit labourers and excelled in his studies. He went on to get an MBA from one of the top IIMs in this country…
Anand Teltumbde, in an interview with Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar, reveals, “I was made to stand naked and they took photos. This is the sort of humiliating experience you undergo at Taloja jail.”
The first of a multi-part interview.
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Also Read:
● Rama Teltumbde: We struggled to see each day through (Part 3) (Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhakar (Jul 31, 2023)
● Anand Teltumbde: If my mother knew of my arrest, she would have died of shock (Part 2) (Rediff.com /Jul 28, 2023)
● Why the Bombay High Court granted regular bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde: An explainer (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)

When reading books is criminalised: Examining UAPA, sedition cases in India

25/07/2023 Asha

The News Minute / by Prajwal Bhat, edited by Vidya Sigamany

Among other things, books read by students and activists are increasingly part of chargesheets in sedition and terror cases.
In Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, the protagonist is prosecuted by an unknown authority that drags him through opaque legal proceedings where the nature of his crime is not revealed, to him or the reader. Such legal bureaucracies that are seemingly far-fetched are not too dissimilar to the trials of students, activists, and academics in India who are charged with sedition or under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Perhaps the account that is most reminiscent of Kafka’s novel is Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves describing the police ransacking their home and confiscating books, computers, and hard drives before arresting Sagar’s father, activist Vernon Gonsalves, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Also read:

● Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (PUCL / Sep 2022)
Download report
● Will SC’s Sedition Order Mean Relief for Delhi Riots, Bhima Koregaon Accused? (The Quint / May 2022)
● Explainer: How the Sedition Law Has Been Used in the Modi Era (The Wire / Mai 2022)

National Campaign to Defend Democracy: 5 years of unjust incarceration under fabricated evidence

24/07/2023 Asha

Counterview / by National Campaign to Defend Democracy

…
The National Campaign to Defend Democracy which is a coalition of over 100 organisations working on human rights issues would like bring to your attention the situation of five years of unjust incarceration under false and fabricated evidence of some of India’s finest intellectuals, thinkers, activists and lawyers.
This injustice which goes by the name of the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Conspiracy case – started its nightmarish journey five years ago. Even as of today, 16 noted academics, intellectuals, lawyers, writers, poets, activists, stand charged with conspiring to overthrow the elected government, indulging in terrorist acts, sedition etc., although the evidence the back these tall claims of high treason is still absent.
Read full statement

Also read:
● NIA gets more time to reply to plea for furnishing copies of evidence to the accused (The Leaflet / July 2023)
● Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
● Incriminating evidence planted in computers: The Trojan solved the Bhima Koregaon case! (Anchored Narratives / Jan 2023)
● Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)

Telangana turns into experimental theatre to misuse suppressive laws: CASR meet

24/07/2023 Asha

Counterview / by Our Representative

Speakers at a media conference, organised by the civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as discussing “suppression of democratic voices” using suppressive laws in the light of the Tadwai case, where 152 activists of Andhra-Telangana were named under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), have demanded repeal of the “draconian” law.
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Also read:
● Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices (Countercurrents / June 2023)
● Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others (The Wire / June 2023)
● The Govt is out to silence Dissenters through Arrests: Justice Hosbet Suresh (Sabrangindia / Oct 2018)

Will India care for human rights by releasing undertrial activists ahead of G20 summit?

21/07/2023 Asha

Counterview / by Bharat Dogra

India has a very rich tradition of opposing wrongly arrested persons, going back to the days of the freedom movement…
Hence, ahead of the Independence Day, it would be a much appreciated gesture on the part of the government if it releases several dissenting activists, including distinguished scholars and lawyers, who are widely believed to have been wrongfully arrested or implicated in wrong cases. To give one often discussed example of what is widely believed to be a case of wrongful arrests, we may mention here the Elgar Parishad case.
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Also read:
● The Burgeoning Share of Undertrial Prisoners in India’s Jails (The Wire / Oct 2022)
● Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
● Even after Stan Swamy’s death, the fight to get justice for Jharkhand undertrials is still alive (Scroll.in / Dec 2021)

NIA gets more time to reply to plea for furnishing copies of evidence to the accused

18/07/2023 Asha

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

A few accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad Maoist links and criminal conspiracy case have previously argued that their applications for cloned copies under Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure have been pending for more than five years.
On Tuesday, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria allowed the agency time to file an additional reply to the applications filed by accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad Maoist links and criminal conspiracy case.
… The matter is posted for further hearing on the applications filed under Section 207 of the CrPC on July 28.
Read more

Also read:
● Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
● Incriminating evidence planted in computers: The Trojan solved the Bhima Koregaon case! (Anchored Narratives / Jan 2023)
● Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)

Prakash Ambedkar to file affidavit before Koregaon Bhima inquiry commission, seek cross-examination of Fadnavis

18/07/2023 Asha

Koregaon Bhima case: VBA leader to submit affidavit on July 24

18/07/2023

Hindustan Times / by Nadeem Inamdar

The then assistant commissioner of police Shivaji Pawar, who was the investigating officer of the case till it was transferred to the National Investigating Agency (NIA).
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) founder Prakash Ambedkar reiterated his demand for cross-examination deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis during his Monday appearance before the Koregaon Bhima Enquiry Commission. He also stated that he planned to file an affidavit by July 24.
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Prakash Ambedkar to file affidavit before Koregaon Bhima inquiry commission by July 24, seek cross-examination of Fadnavis

18/07/2023

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was Maharashtra’s chief minister when violence was reported in Pune’s Koregaon Bhima area on January 1, 2018.
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar said Monday that he would file an affidavit before the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry by July 24 seeking a cross-examination of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Ambedkar appeared before the commission during its hearing in Pune on Monday and reiterated his call to Fadnavis and former chief secretary Sumit Mallick to depose before it.
Read more

Also Read:
● Top Investigating Officer Admits Elgar Parishad Event ‘Had No Role’ in Bhima Koregaon Violence (The Wire / Dec 27, 2022)
● Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati│ by Sudhir Dhawale │ March 2018)
● Why peoples’ coalitions are uniting against Hindutva — the ‘new Peshwai’ (Dailyo.in │ by Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves │ Jan 30, 2018)