Article 14 / by Chitrangada Choudhury
Adivasi rights defender, a former fellow of a prestigious prime ministerial programme, and son of a police official, Mahesh Raut is the youngest of the ‘Bhima-Koregaon 11’, accused of spreading Maoist ideology and encouraging ‘unlawful activities’. He’s been in jail without trial for two years.
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The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) calls on all democratic organisations and individuals to come together and condemn the denial of relief for Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, stand in solidarity with all such voices of democracy and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners. Our unity at this time of crisis is all the more urgent and necessary for our silence in the time of injustice is bound to render us voiceless in the days to come. Let us unite and demand:
1. Immediate reprieve from arrest of Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha.
2. Immediate release of all political prisoners lodged in jails all over the country, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Immediate release of all under-trial prisoners and persons convicted on minor charges to decongest prisons.
4. Action (with restraint in light of COVID-19) against the perpetrators of violence in the Bhima Koregaon case including Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote.
5. Repeal of all draconian laws like UAPA, NSA and PSA, among others.
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Huffpost / by Pavan Dahat
The Maharashtra government’s flip-flop over giving the Bhima Koregaon case to the National Investigation Agency suggests Union Home Minister Amit Shah has a lot of hide in this case.
Pune: The Maharashtra government refused to hand over the Bhima Koregaon case to the National Investigation Agency, until it did. The state home ministry under the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)’s Anil Deshmukh was opposed to the NIA, but the Shiv Sena Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wasn’t.
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The Indian Express / by Gargi Verma
The commission made the comment while declaring an order on September 23, 2019, in the matter of the killing of seven people and burning of 95 huts in the Kondasawali, Karrepara and Kamaraguda villages of Sukma district in 2007 …
PUCL secretary Shalini Gera said, “The case was filed on a complaint by Sudha Bharadwaj, who is in Pune jail because she was working for the tribals and filing complaints like these.”
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Maaysha, Sudha’s daughter: “If fighting for the rights of adivasis, fighting for workers and peasants, fighting against repression and exploitation and giving up one s whole life for them is being a naxalite then I guess naxalites are pretty good.”
“The 6th Annual Harvard Law International Women’s Day Portrait Exhibit showcases the astounding contributions of women around the world to the areas of law and policy. The honorees — each of whom were nominated by HLS students, faculty or staff — are powerful voices in their respective fields, whether they are sitting on a high court bench, standing in front of a classroom, or marching in the streets.”
Or whether they are sitting in jail.
Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj is a 2019 honoree of the Harvard Law International Women’s day exhibition and is sitting in a jail cell in Pune. How did these conflicting positions come about? …
In one of her letters to her daughter, Shoma writes, “They can keep me locked inside, but my mind is completely free”
A reputed academician, a Dalit and Women’s Rights activist, a teacher and dissenter, Shoma Sen is all of the above and more. Born and raised in Mumbai, she moved to Nagpur with her partner and daughter with a strong resolve to protect and promote democratic rights of the most marginalised people in the society.
Shoma has been a respected academic for almost three decades. She has been actively involved with the Women’s Department of Wardha Vishwavidyalaya and taught in various colleges across Nagpur. During the time of her arrest she was the Head of the Department of English at Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University. She has written extensively on post-colonialism and women’s studies for several decades. …
The Hindu / by Gautam Bhatia
Last month, the news website Scroll revealed that more than 10,000 people in the Khunti district of Jharkhand had been chargesheeted by the police for sedition. These people are overwhelmingly Adivasis. Then, in early December, a judicial probe completed a seven-year long investigation, finding that a so-called encounter of “Maoists” in Chhattisgarh by security forces, in 2012, had been a “fake encounter” all along. The people killed had not been Maoists, but innocent villagers.
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The Indian Express / by Dipankar Ghose
On June 28, 2012, 17 people were killed in Chhattisgarh in what was then called “the biggest Maoist encounter”. With a judicial commission now punching holes in the official version of the incident, The Indian Express travels to Sarkeguda and finds that while much has changed in these years, some things haven’t — the memories of that night, and the wounds that refuse to heal.
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The Wire / by Mahtab Alam
The inquiry report has found that there is no proof that any of the villagers killed or injured were Maoists. However, it has not recommended any compensation for the 17 villagers killed and 10 injured …
Sudha Bhardwaj had played a pivotal role in campaigning for this inquiry to reach a logical conclusion. Bhardwaj, who was subsequently arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case and is now lodged in Pune jail on charges of being a Maoist sympathiser, was instrumental in submitting the villagers’ affidavits to the commission.
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Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
A judicial commission has indicted security forces for killing 17 civilians, including seven minors, in Sarkeguda village in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district in June 2012 …
The villagers were represented by a team of lawyers, including Yug Chaudhry, Shalini Gera and Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested last year in the Bhima Koregaon case and is currently in jail.
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