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Who are the acclaimed ‘BK-16’? / HRDs and families await justice, five years down

Who are the acclaimed ‘BK-16’? / HRDs and families await justice, five years down

HRDs and families await justice, five years down

22/06/2023

cjp / by Sabah Maharaj

Faulty investigation and severe loopholes in investigation, surrounds the controversial BK-16 case. International outcry has not helped move the trial five years down even while the targeted languish, families await the return of their loved ones
In June 2021, European Union parliamentarians, Nobel Laureates, renowned academics, and internationally known figures wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, the then Chief Justice of India as well as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and other authorities in India, demanding to the release of political prisoners arrested with relation to the Elgar Parishad and Bhima Koregaon incident.
Amidst contested accusations of an anti-India conspiracy, militancy, and violence, five long years have passed since the BK-16 have been imprisoned without trial.
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Who are the acclaimed ‘BK-16’?

22/06/2023

cjp / by CJP Team

Five years have passed, and human rights defenders (HRDs) and their families continue to await justice.

Surendra Gadling
Status: Detained without trial
Charges:Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) since June 2018
Location: Taloja Central Prison, Mumbai
Gadling is a human rights lawyer and a Dalit activist. Over time, Gadling established himself as a keen advocate and a key figure in cases related to extrajudicial killings, police misconduct, false accusations, and injustices against Dalits and Adivasis in the region…
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Also read:
● Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice! – Various statements

India more casteist than ever before, says Anand Teltumbde

India more casteist than ever before, says Anand Teltumbde

Poster by #bakeryprasad

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Mr. Teltumbde says B.R. Ambedkar is being used by political parties to get Dalit votes
Today’s India is more casteist than ever before, scholar and civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde said on the eve of Ambedkar Jayanti. Grandson-in-law of the architect of the Constitution, the 73-year-old said B.R. Ambedkar is being used by political parties to get Dalit votes.
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Also read:
● From the vault: Contemporary challenges before the anti-caste movement (The Leaflet | by Anand Teltumbde | April 2022)
● Dalit leaders condemn Anand Teltumbde’s arrest on 14 April—Ambedkar Jayanti (The Caravan | April 2020)
● Protest and Solidarity Statements on the arrests of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha (free-them-all.net / April 2020)

Anand Teltumbde Explains the Genesis of His Articles on Bhima-Koregaon

Anand Teltumbde Explains the Genesis of His Articles on Bhima-Koregaon

The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde

Instead of addressing the pathetic condition of Dalits, many Ambedkarites are busy promoting a devotional cult of Babasaheb, hollowing out his radical content and helping the ruling classes exploit his legacy.
In view of the controversy my article in The Wire of January 2, 2018 created – which I did not have an occasion to respond to with an explanation due to my entrapment in the case that paradoxically pivoted on the allegation that I was the main organiser of the Elgar Parishad – this note is intended to explain the factual background and motive for my writing the article.
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Also Read:
● The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Jan 2018)
● Why peoples’ coalitions are uniting against Hindutva — the ‘new Peshwai’ (dailyo | by Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves | Jan 2018)
● Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati│ by Sudhir Dhawale │ March 2018)

Has India Ever Been a Democracy? – Book review by Anand Teltumbde

Has India Ever Been a Democracy? – Book review by Anand Teltumbde

The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde

Debashish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane’s ‘To Kill a Democracy’ deals with the question how democracies get killed and dismisses the commonplace perspective of the “breakdowns”.

“Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic…”
∼ B.R. Ambedkar

The title of Debashish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane’s book, To Kill a Democracy: India’s Passage to Despotism, implies that India was a democracy which has been killed and transformed into despotism under Narendra Modi. Not quite; it rather argues that the current state of degeneration, though representing a kink in the slow-paced rhetorical liberalism of plutarchy, is not entirely brought about by the Hindutva dispensation.
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The ugly face of justice: Anand Teltumbde reviews Abdul Wahid Shaikh’s ‘Innocent Prisoners’

The ugly face of justice: Anand Teltumbde reviews Abdul Wahid Shaikh’s ‘Innocent Prisoners’

Scroll.in / by Anand Teltumbde

The book exposes a sinister modus operandi of the police of charging innocent Muslims for terror acts, which is structurally made easier in India.
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”

– Milan Kundera, ‘The Book of Laughter and Forgetting’.

What if the state that is supposed to have been created by the people, the real sovereign as the constitution proclaims, turns into a monster that devours them? What if the police, vested with the responsibility of protecting people with law and order, turns into an organised gang of criminals supported by the state, conspire against innocent people, arrest them, torture them, and kill them with impunity?
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Why the Bombay High Court granted regular bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde: An explainer

Why the Bombay High Court granted regular bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde: An explainer

Poster by #bakeryprasad

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The high court noted that the prosecution fails to show that the accused has been involved or has indulged in a terrorist act. 
On November 18, a division bench of Bombay High Court, comprising Justices A.S. Gadkari and Milind N. Jadhav, granted bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde, the 73-year-old Dalit scholar, academic and activist charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (‘UAPA’) for allegedly being a senior member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) (‘CPI (Maoist)’).
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Also read:
● Will the bail granted to Anand Teltumbde help others in the Bhima Koregaon case to get out of jail? (Scroll.in / Nov 2022)
● Supreme Court dismisses NIA’s petition challenging bail granted to Dr. Anand Teltumbde (The Leaflet / Nov 2022)
● Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each (The Leaflet / June 2022)

Thousands gather at Chaityabhumi to pay homage to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

Thousands gather at Chaityabhumi to pay homage to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

Dalit women must fight for rights: Ambedkar’s granddaughter

07/12/2022

Deccan Herald / by DHNS

Referring to the Bhima Koregaon case, she said Dalits are steadily adopting a “silent stance,” despite being attacked regularly across the country
B R Ambedkar’s granddaughter Ramabai Anand Teltumbde on Tuesday appealed to women to ‘unite and fight’ for scholarships and employment opportunities, indirectly hitting out at the Modi administration.
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Thousands gather at Chaityabhumi to pay homage to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

07/12/2022

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

People of all ages, young and old, calling themselves ‘Ambedkar,’ gathered at Chaityabhumi, the cremation ground of the Father of the Indian Constitution.
Thousands of men, women and children from across Maharashtra came to Mumbai on Tuesday to pay homage to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on his 66th death anniversary.
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What does bail for Teltumbde after 2.5 years say about the judiciary and democracy in India?

What does bail for Teltumbde after 2.5 years say about the judiciary and democracy in India?

AllIndiansMatter.com / by Ashraf Engineer

Hello and welcome to All Indians Matter. I am Ashraf Engineer.
Anand Teltumbde, one of the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, finally walked out of prison on November 26 after his bail was upheld by the Supreme Court. Many experts opined that him having to wait two and a half years for bail was an abject failure of the judiciary. Speaking after his release, the scholar-activist said: “I am obviously happy to be released after 31 months for which I have been in prison. The sad part, however, is that we had to spend time in jail for years after being booked in a fake case…” The 73-year-old anti-caste writer had been in prison since 2020 under the Draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA.
Podcast / Episode transcript
en | 12:43min | 2022
Listen to podcast / Read transcript

Bhima Koregaon Accused (BK16) | 1 Dead, 1 on House Arrest, 3 on Bail: What of the Rest?

Bhima Koregaon Accused (BK16) | 1 Dead, 1 on House Arrest, 3 on Bail: What of the Rest?

poster by @/bakeryprasad

The Quint / by Rohini Roy

The remaining 11 continue to languish in jail — Who are they and what is the status of the case against them?
Anti-caste writer Anand Teltumbde, who walked out of jail on Saturday, 26 November, after he was granted bail on merits in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case said:
“I am definitely happy. It has been 30 months that I have been in prison. The sad part, however, is that we had to spend time in jail after being booked in a fake case.”
In the same case, two others, poet Varavara Rao and lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj – were granted bail earlier due to different reasons, while academic Gautam Navlakha was allowed house arrest on health grounds by a 19 November Supreme Court order.
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Also read:
● As Bhima Koregaon case completes its fourth anniversary, State reprisal is writ large in its twists and turns (The Leaflet / June 2022)
● Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each (The Leaflet / June 2022)

Will the bail granted to Anand Teltumbde help others in the case to get out of jail?

Will the bail granted to Anand Teltumbde help others in the case to get out of jail?

poster by @/bakeryprasad

Will the bail granted to Anand Teltumbde help others in the Bhima Koregaon case to get out of jail?

28/11/2022

Scroll.in / by Umang Poddar

This is the first bail in the case granted on merits. But experts say that the case of each Bhima Koregaon accused will have to be considered individually.
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld Bombay High Court’s November 18 order granting bail to Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Teltumbde is the first person accused in the matter to be granted bail on the merits of the case. Previously, others in the case have got bail only on medical grounds or due to procedural lapses by the investigating agency.
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Supreme Court’s Widely- Praised Bail for Anand Teltumbde should be Followed by Wider Justice in Elgar Case

28/11/2022

Countercurrents.org / by Bharat Dogra

Supreme Court’s firmness in upholding the Bombay High Court’s order granting bail to Anand Teltumbde has been widely appreciated. However, we must also listen to what this 73 year old distinguished scholar activist, coming out  after spending 31 months in prison, had to stay regarding the case in which several other distinguished activists have also been implicated: “the sad thing is that this is the fakest case and it put us behind us behind bar for years.”
The reference here was of course to the notorious Elgar Parishad case which has been attracting strong criticism from several human rights and democracy activists during the last few years.
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Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each (The Leaflet / June 2022)