The New Indian Express / by Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Over 300 prominent citizens appealed for the release of 11 jailed activists, including Varavara Rao and Sudha Bhardwaj, who are yet to get bail despite prisons being overcrowded and some inmates testing COVID positive.
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Indian Cultural Forum / by ICF Team
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the health of 11 respected fellow citizens:
1. Mr. Varavara Rao
2. Ms. Sudha Bhardwaj
3. Ms. Shoma Sen
4. Mr. Anand Teltumbde
5. Mr. Gautam Navlakha
6. Mr. Arun Ferreira
7. Mr. Vernon Gonsalvez
8. Mr. Surendra Gadling
9. Mr. Mahesh Raut
10. Mr. Sudhir Dhawale
11. Mr. Rona Wilson
These activists, many of them eminent scholars, writers and poets, have worked for the welfare of India’s poorest and most marginalised people over decades. Yet they have been turned into politcal prisoners and incarcerated. They have not been granted bail despite the fact that in the prisons of Maharashtra where they are being detained, some inmates have died and many others have tested positive for COVID-19.
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News 18/ by Eram Agha
The statement accuses the central government of using the novel coronavirus pandemic as a cover to crush all forms of dissent. It also demands that all political prisoners be immediately released.
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By Pedesterian Pictures
Though there is a mountain of evidence to prove their innocence, the 9 activists arrested, allegedly for their role in the Bhima Koregaon violence still remain in jail. And the witch-hunt only continues, resulting in the arrests of Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde, also charged with UAPA for the same case. While it is very evident that the case against Anand Teltumbde is fabricated, he was asked to surrender amidst the deadly pandemic along with Gautam Navlakha.
We demand the immediate release of all the 11 activists.
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Release All Political Prisoners!
Repeal UAPA and all other draconian laws!
Rise in rage against state repression!
Siasat.com / by N Venugopal
New Delhi: Hindutva – the official guiding principle of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and all the members in its parivar – is an embodiment of lies, fabrication, distortion, deception, obfuscation, hatred and unleashing violence. If one thought that this characterization is an ideological subjective opinion, it is better to look at this glaring example of Bhima Koregaon violence case, a subject of gross obfuscation of facts and inhuman incarceration of public-spirited individuals over the last two years.
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Samaj Weekly / by 21 Organizations
We, the undersigned twenty-one organizations, strongly condemn the shameful imprisonment of India’s finest public intellectuals and social justice defenders, Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Mr. Gautam Navalakha who’ve been in custody since April 14, 2020. Dr. Teltumbde & Mr. Nalvlakha join nine others – journalists, lawyers, writers, academics & organizers- Surendra Gadling, Arun Fereira, Vernon Gonsalves, Mahesh Raut, Sudha Bharadwaj, Dr. Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao- who have been imprisoned in the same fabricated Bhima-Koregaon case.
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The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal
‘In COVID-19 times, especially when Maharashtra has emerged as the State with the highest number of cases, differentially treating bail petitions by political prisoners is gross injustice’.
The denial of bail to all accused in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case was “patently callous”, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said on Monday, and urged that the health and safety of political prisoners be treated with the same urgency as other prisoners.
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01/06/2020
Kractivism / by PUDR
With the surrenders of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on April 14, 2020 in Mumbai and Delhi respectively, the NIA, the investigative agency, has ensured the arrest of all 11 prominent human rights activists in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case under the draconian UAPA. The recent rejection of the bail applications of Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen and Sudha Bharadwaj, and the sudden transfer of Gautam Navlakha by the NIA, raise significant questions about the rights of political prisoners amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Counterview / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat
It is deeply disturbing that 81-year-old poet Varavara Rao has been denied bail and has now been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai. Reports suggest that the prison in Taloja, Navi Mumbai, where he was lodged, has several Covid-19 patient. The family and friends of Varavara Rao have protested in Hyderabad, as they were not even allowed to visit him.
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Scroll.in / by Malini Subramaniam
The subcommittee also questioned India’s use of UAPA to silence activists such as Safoora Zargar, Khalid Saifi, Meeran Haider and Sharjeel Imam, among others.
The European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah expressing concern about the recent arrests of activists Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha by the National Investigative Agency, and urged India to immediately release all political prisoners in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The activists are accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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