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Video: Honour for Fr. Stan Swamy at the 2022 Martin Ennals Award Ceremony

02/06/2022 Asha

Martin Ennals Award 2022

02/06/2022

By Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders

french (en) | 1:36:04 (Stan Swamy’s honour 1:24:00) | 2022
Watch video

By The Indian Social Institute (June 1):
Fr. Stan Swamy will be honoured on 2 June 2022. (Time: 09.30 pm India time) in Geneva with the Martin Ennals Honorary Award-2022. Fr. Xavier Soreng SJ, Ranchi will participate in the ceremony and receive the honorary award.

Jury of the Martin Ennals Award honours Father Stan Swamy (1937-2021)

30/05/2022

By Martin Ennals Award

The Martin Ennals Foundation announced today that a special, post-humous homage will be made to Father Stanislas Swamy during the 2022 Martin Ennals Award Ceremony, next June 2nd at 18h CET.
Father Stan (1937-2021), as he was better known, was a Jesuit priest and activist who founded several organizations to promote human rights in Jharkhand state, India. He dedicated much of his work to advance the rights of Adivasi communities – indigenous tribes of India who are known as forest dwellers and protectors of the environment.
Read more

HRDA honour for Fr. Stan Swamy

30/05/2022

Sabgrang / by Sabrangindia

Father Swamy worked most of his life to empower the Adivasi community
Human Rights Defenders Alert – India (HRDA) on June 2, 2022 will award martyred human rights defender Father Stan Swamy ‘2022 Martin Ennals Award’ for his exemplary work protecting and defending the rights of Adivasis in Jharkhand.
The 84-year-old Jesuit priest was a beloved activist till his final days in Taloja jail where he suffered a cardiac arrest. He had been jailed under trumped up charges in the Bhima Koregaon case, despite the fact that he was nowhere near the location of the violence!
Read more

Also read
● Narendra Modi’s Government Is Using False Charges of Terrorism to Repress Its Opponents (Jacobinmag / April 2022)

● Framed to Die – The Case of Stan Swamy

By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)

Edition: Aug 2021
Publisher: Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi
Language: English
Paperback: 45 pages
Download full book (pdf file)

Part 3: ‘I have to get Ma out of prison’

02/06/2022 Asha

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘After the pandemic began, they suddenly shut down the prisons; for three months, we did not know what was happening.’
‘There were no phone calls, no letters, no news from inside.’
‘We were struggling to get any kind of information about them, about their health.’
Your mother is in jail.
You are outside, doing everything possible to secure her release.
Then, COVID strikes.
And, for nearly three months, in the outside world, you are seeing the devastation it has wrought.
And, every second, you are wondering how your mother is surviving the dreaded disease within those prison walls.
But you don’t know.
The situation is chaotic and you have no word.
That is the trauma that Koel Sen, film-maker, columnist and daughter of Professor Shoma Sen, one of the 16 arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case, went through in the first half of 2020.
Read more

Also read:
● Part 2: When Your Mother Is In Prison… (Rediff.com / May 25)
● Part 1: ‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’ (Rediff.com / May 2022)

In Umar Khalid’s Bail Appeal, a Ray of Hope for UAPA Cases?

02/06/2022 Asha

The Quint / by Vakasha Schdev

While the SC’s Watali judgment is cited to deny bail in UAPA cases, a new interpretation could prevent its misuse.
… On top of the general problems with the justice system that have led to this situation, Khalid’s continued incarceration, like that of the other accused in the Delhi Riots conspiracy case as well as the Bhima Koregaon matter, is a result of the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act – the UAPA.
Read more

Also watch:

Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution (PUCL, Jan 2021)

Three Day consultation on 20th, 21st and 22nd January, 2021
► Repeal UAPA – Day One (video: en + … | 2h 17min)
► Repeal UAPA – Day Two (video: en +… | 2h 22min)
► Repeal UAPA – Day Three (video: en + … | 2h 51min)

Koregaon Bhima Panel summons Pune divisional commissioner to appear as witness

28/05/2022 Asha

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The two-member commission, headed by retired judge Justice J N Patel, is probing into the cause of violence in the Koregaon Bhima area on January 1, 2018, in which one person had died and several others were left injured.
Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry has summoned IAS officer Saurabh Rao, who is currently the divisional commissioner of Pune, to appear as a witness during the hearings on June 6 and 7.
Read more

Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon: Is Milind Ekbote Being Protected? (rediff.com / Feb 2022)
● Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati│ by Sudhir Dhawale │ March 2018)

Maharashtra MLC met Sagar Gorkhe in jail / On 7th day of his hunger strike Sagar Gorkhe called it off

27/05/2022 Asha

Bhima Koregaon accused calls off hunger strike

28/05/2022

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Sagar Gorkhe began “fast unto death” on May 20 alleging harassment by jail authorities.
Bhima Koregaon accused Sagar Gorkhe called off his hunger strike on Friday after Member of Legislative Council Kapil Patil met him at Taloja Central Jail.
Read more

Maharashtra MLC to meet Bhima Koregaon accused Sagar Gorkhe in jail

27/05/2022

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

He has been on an indefinite hunger strike alleging harassment by jail authorities.
Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) Kapil Patil will visit the Taloja Central Jail to meet Bhima Koregaon accused Sagar Gorkhe, who is on an indefinite hunger strike alleging harassment by jail authorities.
Read more

Also read:
● Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 20)

The dangerous Machchhardani (mosquito net) – Statement by Ramesh Gaichor

27/05/2022 Asha

by PantherAjay (May 27)

Jailed Shahir Sagar Gorkhe is not the only under trail prisoner who has been continually harassed and whose ‘Machchhardani’ stolen by the insolent jail administration. This is an attempt to condemn the unlawful treatment meted against the under trial prisoners and to safeguard their rights. Following is the account of a similar incident that was faced by another imprisoned writer and poet Ramesh Gaichor translated from the original written in Marathi.
#Machhardani #Freebk16 #gautammawlakha #Sagar #Ramesh

Statement by Ramesh Gaichor

Also read/ watch:
● As Sagar Gorkhe announces fast unto death, Gautam Navlakha approaches NIA court seeking mosquito net (The Leaflet / May 2022)

Video Statement by Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor (Sep 5, 2020)

hindi/ english subtitles | 2:20min | 2020

Kabir Kala Manch activists Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor have alleged that they’re being forced by the NIA to give confessional statements, claiming they are a part of Maoist organization. The two refused, and were arrested in The Bhima Koregaon case.
Their statement was recorded on Sep 5, 2020.
Watch their statement

● Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
● Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022

Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration

25/05/2022 Asha

By Sagar Tatyaram Gorakhe

To,

Honourable Home Minister,

State of Maharashtra,
Home Department, Mantralaya
Mumbai
Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration.

Subject:

Sir,

I, Sagar Tatyaram Gorakhe, am a Political Prisoner under the Elgar Parishad Bhima Koregao Case, and have been locked up in the Taloja Central Jail since September 2020. It is with extreme distress that I inform you that since the very beginning the prison administration has treated the Bhima Koregao Case accused with utmost prejudice. As a result, the prison has become a torture camp for my co-accused and me. As you must be aware that it was the maltreatment by the prison administration that led to the custodial death of Father Stan Swami last year. Even today our basic human rights are being trampled over every day in the prison. It is because the situation has become absolutely unbearable that I must resort to an agonising hunger strike in protest. …

When Your Mother Is In Prison…

25/05/2022 Asha

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘Just waiting outside the prison gate, thinking that your mother is inside those walls even though you know she is innocent, affects your psyche.’
There were some things Koel Sen never dreamt she would ever do.
But life turned upside down for the film-maker and columnist when her mother Professor Shoma Sen was arrested in March 2018 for her alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon case. Professor Sen was, as a consequence, suspended from her post as head of the English literature department at Nagpur University.
Read more

Also read:
● ‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’ (Rediff.com / May 2022)

Sagar Gorkhe announces fast unto death, Gautam Navlakha approaches NIA court seeking mosquito net

24/05/2022 Asha

File pic: Sagar Gorkhe

Accused Sagar Gorkhe goes on hunger strike against jail authorities

25/05/2022

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

Accused alleges harassment by jail authorities and denial of basic facilities, Co-accused Gautam Navlakha seeks special court’s permission to use a mosquito net
Sagar Gorkhe, a cultural activist who has been locked up in the Taloja Central Jail since September 2020 as a virtual political prisoner in the Elgar Parishad Bhima Koregaon case, has now gone on hunger strike to protest his inhuman treatment in jail. Gorkhe has written to Maharashtra’s Home Minister, informing him about his decision that he was forced to take due to Taloja Central Jail allegedly harassing him and denying him his basic human rights.
Read more

As Sagar Gorkhe announces fast unto death, Gautam Navlakha approaches NIA court seeking mosquito net

25/05/2022

The Leaflet / by Sabah Gurmat

Gorkhe’s letter to Maharashtra Home Minister, Dilip Walse Patil, equates the conditions in Taloja jail to that of a “torture camp”.
SAGAR Gorkhe, an activist and performer with cultural troupe Kabir Kala Manch, accused of inciting violence in the Bhima Koregaon (Elgar Parishad) case, has written to Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil announcing his hunger strike in protest against the conditions at Taloja jail.
Meanwhile, septuagenarian activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha, who is a co-accused lodged in the same prison, approached the National Investigation Agency (‘NIA’) seeking a mosquito net.
Read more

Elgar Parishad accused alleges harassment by Taloja jail officer

25/05/2022

Mid-day.com / by Faizan Khan

Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe has written to the state home minister Dilip Walse Patil, threatens to go on an indefinite hunger strike if action is not taken immediately.
Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe, an accused in Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon accused, has written to Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, alleging harassment by the Taloja Jail superintendent. He has threatened to go on a hunger strike until death.
“It is with extreme distress that I inform you that since the very beginning the prison administration has treated the Bhima Koregaon case accused with utmost prejudice. As a result, the prison has become a torture camp for my co-accused and me. As you must be aware that it was the maltreatment by the prison administration that led to the custodial death of Father Stan Swami last year,” his letter reads.
Read more

Jail officials delaying treatment to all Elgar Parishad case accused: Sagar Gorkhe writes to HM

24/05/2022

Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent

He has also urged the home minister to immediately stop the scanning of all incoming and outgoing mail by the jail officials.
Sagar Gorkhe, one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence case, has written to state home minister Dilip Walse-Patil alleging that Taloja jail authorities are discriminating against several accused in the case and deliberately delaying medical treatment to them even though they are suffering from several serious ailments.
Read more

Video Statement by Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor (Sep 5, 2020)

hindi/ english subtitles | 2:20min | 2020

Also read/watch:
● Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
● Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022

Jail officials took away mosquito net: Gautam Navlakha approaches NIA court

24/05/2022 Asha

Hindustan Times / by Charul Shah

Gautam Navlakha, who was arrested on August 28, 2018, from his residence in New Delhi, has been presently lodged in Taloja jail.
Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, who has been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence case, has approached the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court seeking a mosquito net, alleging that the net he was using was taken away by the prison authorities.
Read more

Also read:
● PUDR: WHEN THE PROCESS BECOMES THE PUNISHMENT (PUDR / April 2022)