The Times of India / by Vishwas Kothari
PUNE: The state prosecution has proposed the charges of ‘waging a war against the country’ and ‘conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ as well as other terrorism acts in the draft charges submitted to the special UAPA court here on Wednesday against 19 accused named in the Elgar Parishad case.
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The Indian Express / by Express News Service
According to the draft charges, the accused allegedly conspired “to incite people and create violence and to spread disaffection towards government established by law”.
PUNE city police on Wednesday submitted before special judge S R Navandar “draft charges” against 19 out of the 23 accused booked in the Elgar Parishad case under sections of the IPC and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for their alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist).
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Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The signatories to the letter said that their bail applications were rejected by the court in spite of the reputations they had.
Eight of the 10 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case on Tuesday wrote to the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission, alleging that the state government had imprisoned them due to their dissenting views as defenders of human rights.
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Read full letter
Sabrang India / by Fr Cedric Prakash
This past year from December 2018, had two significant 70th anniversaries: first, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948) and then, of the promulgation of the Constitution of India (November 26, 2019). It is quite certain that the makers of the Indian Constitution took inspiration from the UDHR. Strangely enough, as if on cue, everything possible is done by the powers that control the destiny of the nation, to demolish human rights and the values enshrined in the Constitution!
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Hindustan Times / by Shalaka Shinde
Part of the documents seized from nine activists arrested in the Elgar Parishad case were submitted to them in a Pune court on Wednesday even as the activists objected saying that the submitted documents were not what was requested by them.
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Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia
Leaders urge Maha CM Uddhav Thackeray to quash the cases against activists who have been fighting for marginalized sections of society.
On Monday, after the Uddhav Thackeray led Maharashtra government decided to review the Aarey and Bhima Koregaon cases, state NCP leader Jitendra Awhad among others have requested the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to withdraw the cases against rights activists in the BhimaKoregaon matter.
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American Bar Association / by American Bar Association
In the wake of violent attacks on marginalized communities in India in 2018, the Maharashtra police arrested several activists and lawyers who historically advocated for the rights of these communities. A preliminary review of the judicial records in this case raises serious concerns of procedural irregularities, abuse of process, and violations of fundamental human rights. Several United Nations’ (UN) experts on human rights have expressed concern that the arrests and charges were brought in retaliation for the defendants’ legitimate human rights work.
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Read the full report here (.pdf):
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
Police have so far booked 23 people and arrested nine persons in connection with the case; all the arrested accused are activists and lawyers.
The nine activists and lawyers arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case were produced before a special court in Pune on Wednesday and three of them were given cloned copies of the data purportedly recovered from the electronic devices seized by the investigators from the accused.
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The Wire / by Jhuma Sen
The Israeli spyware snooping scandal in the latest example of how India is no exception when it comes to common patterns of persecution and intimidation of lawyers working on human rights issues.
The relationship between civil liberties lawyers, more commonly identified by its universal moniker ‘human rights lawyers’ and repressive regimes globally demonstrate some common patterns of persecution and intimidation.
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Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia
The Whatsapp Snoopgate issue that spread like wildfire, not only had the general public under its attack, but lawyers defending the human rights activists arrested under the controversial Bhima Koregaon case have also confirmed that their phones were being targeted by Pegasus, a the surveillance software developed by Israeli company NSO group that came to be in question, The Huffington Post report.
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