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Tag: Arun Ferreira

From sippers and sweaters to mail and mulaqats, how prisoners are being kept waiting for basics

From sippers and sweaters to mail and mulaqats, how prisoners are being kept waiting for basics

From sippers and sweaters to mail and mulaqats, how prisoners are being kept waiting for basics

29/11/2020

Times of India / Himanshi Dhawan

Letters from wife? Rejected. Sipper for Parkinson’s patient? Court hearing awaited. Warm clothes to deal with the capital’s chilly temperatures? Allowed but after a long wait.
Many a political prisoner in Maharashtra and Delhi has been struggling for access to basic necessities these last few month.
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Stan Swamy gets a sipper, finally

29/11/2020

Mumbai Mirror / by Shruti Ganapatye

The ‘inhumane’ treatment meted out to the 83-year-old Parkinson’s patient by the NIA and Taloja jail authorities had drawn a lot of flak from citizens.
Almost 50 days after his arrest, 83-year-old tribal rights activist Stan Swamy , who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, was provided a sipper by the Taloja Jail authorities.
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‘Humanity is bubbling in Taloja prison,’ Stan Swamy says in letter to friends

‘Humanity is bubbling in Taloja prison,’ Stan Swamy says in letter to friends

Pic: Bangalore, Nov 12

Excerpts from a letter written by Fr. Stan Swamy SJ, from the prison, with the help of Arun Ferreira

By Fr Stan Swamy

Dear friends
Peace!
Though I do not have many details, from what I have heard, I am grateful to all of you for expressing your solidarity support.
I am in a cell approximately 13 feet x 8 feet, along with two more inmates. It has a small bathroom and a toilet with Indian commode. Fortunately, I am given a western commode chair.
Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira are in another cell. During the day, when cells and barracks are opened, we meet with each other.
From 5.30 pm to 06.00 am and 12 noon to 03.00 pm, I am locked up in my cell, with two inmates. Arun assists me to have my breakfast and lunch. Vernon helps me with bath. My two inmates help out during supper, in washing my clothes and give massage to my knee joints. They are from very poor families.
Please remember my inmates and my colleagues in your prayers.
Despite all odds, humanity is bubbling in Taloja prison.

Jesuit priest’s letter from Taloja Central Jail

15/11/2020

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

Excerpts from the letter by the Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist from Ranchi, whose full name is Stanislaus Lourduswamy, have been widely circulated on Facebook this Diwali…
Jesuit priest Father David Solomon, director of the Ranchi NGO Bagaicha — a workspace for activists where Swamy lived and worked — confirmed the authenticity of the excerpt.
He said the rest of the letter’s contents were not being disclosed as they included personal information. Nor has the identity of the recipient been revealed for fear of harassment of priests and institutions run by them.
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‘Humanity is bubbling in Taloja prison,’ Stan Swamy says in letter to friends

14/11/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The 83-year-old suffers from Parkinson’s disease and needs help with chores.
Jailed human rights activist Stan Swamy wrote to his friends about fellow inmates who help him with his chores and said that despite all odds, “humanity is bubbling in prison”. Excerpts from the letter were shared on social media by Swamy’s friend, human rights activist John Dayal.
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Arrested accused wanted to mobilise youth through photo exhibitions, says NIA

Arrested accused wanted to mobilise youth through photo exhibitions, says NIA

Book / Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Hindustan Times / by Charul Shah

Ahead of the Bhima Koregaon incident in January 2018, one of the accused – Arun Ferreira – had suggested holding photo exhibitions for students on the subjects of mob lynching and Hindu militant uprising. According to a charge sheet filed earlier this month by the National Investigative Agency (NIA), this was to mobilise the youth.
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NIA Claims Arrested Accused Were Attempting to Create a ‘Dalit Militia’

NIA Claims Arrested Accused Were Attempting to Create a ‘Dalit Militia’

NIA Claims Arrested Accused Were Attempting to Create a ‘Dalit Militia’

21/10/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The NIA chargesheet has sidelined the Pune police’s earlier claim that the accused were plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mumbai: In the over 10,000-page chargesheet recently filed in the Elgar Parishad case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has stacked together statements by witnesses who have made claims ranging from arms training undertaken by a few arrested accused in the forests of central India to some trying to “reinvent Dalit militancy” in the country.
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Teltumbde brought Maoist literature, videos from abroad: NIA chargesheet

21/10/2020

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has alleged in its chargesheet filed in the Elgar Parishad case that former IIT professor Anand Teltumbde attended international conferences “under the guise of… academic visits abroad” and brought back Maoist literature and videos on “ideology, tactics, weapons” to show members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
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CPI(M) gets Rs 3 crore a year from Maharashtra, MP & Chhattisgarh zone, says NIA chargesheet

21/10/2020

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) 10,000-page chargesheet in the Elgaar Parishad case relies on witness statements to draw up details about the banned CPI (Maoist), including its means of funding, training and recruitment.
According to a witness, members of the organisation collect Rs 350 per bag of tendua leaves – containing 1,000 pouches – as tax.
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NIA chargesheet claims triangular links between Delhi student front, accused and CPI (Maoist)

21/10/2020

Free Press Journal / by Bhavna Uchil

The chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case has claimed a “concrete triangular link between a student’s organization functioning in New Delhi, arrested accused and CPI (Maoist) operating from the deep forest”.
It states that the issues related with the student front at JNU DSU are highlighted with some of the communication made with Maoist.
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Varavara Rao denied medical care: Family

Varavara Rao denied medical care: Family

Mumbai Mirror / by Shruti Ganapatye

Jailed activist and poet Varavara Rao is being looked after by co-prisoners Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira rather than competent medical authorities in Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai, his family have said.
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Dubbed urban Naxal, Arun Ferreira a ‘victim’ of BJP govt’s sectarian, vendetta politics

Dubbed urban Naxal, Arun Ferreira a ‘victim’ of BJP govt’s sectarian, vendetta politics

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Counterview / by Atul, Sandeep Pandey

Arun Ferreira is a civil rights activist and human rights lawyer. He has been behind bars since June 6, 2018, when he was arrested in connection to the Bhima Koregaon event held earlier that year. Like many other activists, he was slapped with Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, sedition and other anti-terror related offenses allegedly for inciting the ensuing violence that police claimed was calculated to disturb public peace.
Ferreira has spent years in jail on similar charges previously as well.
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Video: Revisiting the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case

Video: Revisiting the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case

TWO YEARS AND COUNTING…
Revisiting the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case

SESSSIONS AND SPEAKERS
Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case: Mihir Desai • Vrinda Grover
Views from the Movements • Dr. Ravikumar • Aruna Roy • Nikhil Dey • Ulka Mahajan
Crushing Dissent Through Laws: Rebecca John • Prashant Bhushan
Cultural Performance: Relaa • Yalgaar
REMEMBRANCES
Family Members and Colleagues of: Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferriera, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Vernon Gonsalves, Hany Babu, Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao.

Video

hindi + en | 4h | 2020
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Chained Muse: Notes from Prison by Varavara Rao/ How To Read A Letter From Jail

Chained Muse: Notes from Prison by Varavara Rao/ How To Read A Letter From Jail

The Wire / by Varavara Rao

In November 2019, when the Bhima Koregaon accused were still housed in Yerawada Central Prison and their case had not yet been transferred to the NIA, the Telugu poet penned some thoughts about his experience there, and the carceral nature of the state.
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HOW TO READ A LETTER FROM JAIL


ARUN FERREIRA’S PRISON MEMOIR, 2014

08/06/2020

Bloomberg Quint / by Priya Ramani

“Read it not once, but many times,” says Mohammad Aamir Khan explaining the process clearly over the phone. “Each word has a story. Try to feel the pain behind each word.”
Khan, 39, should know. After he was “kidnapped” one night (he never uses the word arrested because he was snatched from the street, tortured, made to sign blank sheets of paper, and then produced in a court only a week later), Khan spent 14 years in prison, incarcerated for serious crimes he never committed, before being acquitted in 2012.
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Prisoners ‘dumped’ at quarantine facility: Nearly 300 Taloja jail inmates

Prisoners ‘dumped’ at quarantine facility: Nearly 300 Taloja jail inmates


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Mumbai Mirror / by harmeen Hakim & Shruti Ganapatye

Prisoners and rights activists say decongestion exercise an eyewash.
“We’re living like animals here.” Khyamuddin Sayyed minced no word in the letter he sent his lawyer, Amrish Salunkhe, on June 14 from his temporary prison in a Kharghar school.
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NIA says Rona Wilson a danger to democratic setup of country

NIA says Rona Wilson a danger to democratic setup of country

Free Press Journal / By Bhavna Uchil

Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has opposed the pleas for parole made by activists Rona Wilson and Arun Ferreira, accused in the Elgar Parishad case, stating that granting parole to Wilson is a ‘danger to the democratic setup of the country and to the safety of the citizens.
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