BK16 – Page 20 – free them all

The Security Playbook Used To Erode Democracy In Modi’s India & How The Tide Might Turn

04/03/2022 Asha

article 14 / by Shamik Bag

By using security laws, deploying surveillance technology, and leveraging potent national interest narratives, Narendra Modi’s Hindu-first government has targeted critics and eroded the rule of law in India—often in violation of the Constitution, using legal loopholes and grey areas. Through the lens of the notorious Bhima Koregaon case, we investigate these tactics in-depth, and report how citizens are fighting to preserve the world’s largest democracy.
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After Two Justices Recuse From Hearing Case, Chief Justice Agrees To Constitute New Bench

25/02/2022 Asha

After Justices PB Varale And SS Shinde Recuse From Hearing Bhima Koregaon Case, Chief Justice Agrees To Constitute New Bench

25/02/2022

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

After two judges recused themselves from hearing petitions arising out of the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case, Chief Justice Dipankar Datta of the Bombay high Court said a third bench would be constituted to hear the cases at the earliest.
After Justice PB Varale’s bench, that has the criminal assignment, recused from hearing matters earlier this month, the alternate bench of Justice SS Shinde also recused from taking up petitions connected to the case.
Justice Shinde, however, will hear the interim application filed by Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Varavara Rao seeking bail and factual corrections in his order refusing them default bail.
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Judge recuses from Elgar Parishad cases, new bench to hear pleas

25/02/2022

India Today / by Vidya

The new Bench, comprising Justice SB Shukre and AB Borkar, will hear all pleas related to the Elgar Parishad from here on.
Anew Bench of the Bombay High Court will now hear all the pleas related to the Elgar Parishad case after a judge recused himself from the case in which several arrests have been made since 2018.
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Jusitce SS Shinde of Bombay High Court Recuses hearing Bhima Koregaon cases

24/02/2022

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

Sources told Bar & Bench that Justice Shinde will continue hearing the plea filed by three accused in the case seeking review of his own judgment refusing them default bail; however, he has recused from other cases.
Justice Shinde will be releasing a circular/notification to that effect shortly, sources have told Bar and Bench.
After such circular/notification is issued, the respective lawyers representing the 15 accused in the case, will have to move the Chief Justice of the High Court on administrative side to get a new Bench constituted for hearing the petitions arising from the 2018 case.
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‘Speeches were very provocative’: Police officer about the Elgar Parishad

24/02/2022 Asha

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

The senior police officer, who deposed in such detail about the Elgar Parishad, however, claimed to know nothing about the opposition to it from organisations such as Milind Ekbote’s Samastha Hindu Aghadi as well as Pune’s then mayor Mukta Tilak.
The speeches made by Umar Khalid, Jignesh Mewani, Prashant Dhontha and Sudhir Dhawale at the Elgar Parishad were provocative, but the pledge administered at the end of the Parishad to the audience, to ‘protect the Constitution and never vote for opponents of the Constitution, the RSS and BJP’, was not objectionable.
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Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon: Is Milind Ekbote Being Protected? (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)
● Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati│by Sudhir Dhawale│March 2018)

How Modi has Depressed Indian Democracy

21/02/2022 Asha

Intpolicydigest.org / by Manas Nag

In July of last year, Stan Swamy, a prominent tribal rights activist, passed away at a hospital in Mumbai. The 84-year-old became India’s oldest political prisoner and remained in custody for eight months while his bail plea on medical grounds was repeatedly rejected. Riddled with Parkinson’s disease, Swamy’s health deteriorated to the point where he could not feed himself. He was eventually moved to a hospital in May where he contracted COVID-19. Swamy was charged and arrested in 2020 under a draconian anti-terror law called the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) – an accusation he categorically denied.
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Opposition MPs urge Narendra Modi to free jailed activist / Full statement

06/02/2022 Asha

MPs write to PM, asking for immediate release of all arrested in Bhima Koregaon case

01/02/2022

By CPI (M)

click to enlarge

Bhima Koregaon case: Opposition MPs urge Narendra Modi to free jailed activists

07/02/2022

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The MPs alleged that evidence was planted against the accused persons.
Members of several Opposition parties have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate release of academicians, lawyers and activists detained in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Grant Bail to Activists Arrested in Elgar Parishad Case, MPs Say In Letter to Modi

07/02/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The letter, signed by 20 MPs, expresses “deep concern at the media and cyber-forensic expert reports indicating that Indian citizens have been attacked with illegal cyber weapons”
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Also read:
● Arsenal Report No. 4 Confirms Pegasus Attack on IPhone of Rona Wilson, Key BK Accused (PUCL / Dec 2021)

Pegasus Spyware: Fresh plea in Supreme Court seeks probe into 2017 India-Israel defence deal

29/01/2022 Asha

Pegasus case: Fresh plea in Supreme Court seeks probe into 2017 India-Israel defence deal

20/01/2022

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The applicant has said the reported agreement with Israel was not approved by Parliament.
Advocate ML Sharma has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking an investigation after The New York Times on January 28 said that the Narendra Modi-led government had purchased the Pegasus spyware from Israel in 2017, Live Law reported on Sunday.
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Pegasus Spyware: Supreme Court Urged To Take Cognisance Of New York Times Report Alleging Pegasus Purchase By Indian Government

30/01/2022

Live Law / by Srishti Ojha

While referring to the recent New York Times report that in July 2017 Modi government purchased Pegasus from an Israeli firm, Advocate ML Sharma has moved the Supreme Court of India seeking probe into the alleged Pegasus purchase.
Sharma, who is also one of the petitioners in the Pegasus case before the Supreme Court, has filed an application seeking directions to register F.I.R for investigation to recover public money paid for the impugned deal.
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India Bought Pegasus as Part of Larger $2 Billion Deal with Israel in 2017, Claims ‘NYT’ Report

28/01/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The media report notes that Pegasus was the ‘centrepiece’ of a 2017 deal between India and Israel.
India bought controversial spyware tool Pegasus in 2017 as part of a larger arms deal with Israel, according to a new report published by The New York Times.
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Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon accused and their counsel write to SC’s Pegasus technical committee alleging snooping (The Leaflet/ Jan 2022)
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

India’s government unleashing controversial UAPA as means of silencing civil rights activists

27/01/2022 Asha

Daily Maverick / By Anandaroop Sen

In this interview, Anandaroop Sen, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Cape Town, talks to Kavita Srivastava, the President of the Rajasthan Chapter of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties and one of India’s most respected activists, about the clampdown and what it represents for the future of human rights in India.

Anandaroop Sen (AS): Could you begin by giving the context in which the 16 Indian academics, activists, lawyers, popularly known as the Bhima Koregaon 16 (BK 16) have been imprisoned by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government for the last three years.
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Video: International Solidarity Statement, 73rd Republic Day of India

26/01/2022 Asha

Also read: On R-Day, Diaspora Groups Call for Release of Anti-CAA Protestors Charged Under UAPA (The Wire / Jan 2022)

Video: International Solidarity Statement, 73rd Republic Day of India

26/01/2022

en | 14:45min | 2022

By InSAF India

An International Solidarity Statement remembering the human rights defenders in jail in India who remain under trial for extended periods of time for speaking out against the injustices of the Indian State against its most vulnerable citizens. The meeting to record this statement was initiated by Amnesty International Germany India Coordination group, Amnesty Switzerland and InSAF India (International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India) on the occasion of India’s Republic Day for a collective reading of the preamble of the Indian constitution and saying the names of the BK16 and other imprisoned human rights defenders in India.
Watch video

Credits for images/quotes used in the statement …

UAPA And The Authoritarian Tendencies Of A Democratic Government

25/01/2022 Asha

Youthkiawaaz / by Salim Usman

The Modi government has, over the years, used the UAPA to counter any narrative that goes against their views and uses the law to arbitrarily arrest those who have spoken against them.
The unprecedented rise in countries exhibiting authoritarian tendencies throughout the world in the past few years, and the large number of human rights violations committed by state actors, is a matter of concern not just for the particular country’s political, social and economic circles but also for the international political community.
… perhaps the starkest example of the weaponisation of the UAPA was its use against those accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case.
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Thousands visit ‘Jaystambh’ monument to mark 204th anniversary of Koregaon-Bhima battle

02/01/2022 Asha

Pictures by Jignesh Mistry

Battle anniversary event at Jaystambh remains peaceful, Covid norms go for a toss

02/01/2022

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The event took place exactly four years after violence had broken out in the area, leading to the death of a youth.
An event to mark the 204th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon at the Jaystambh in Perne village in Pune district remained peaceful on Saturday. But as a large number of visitors turned up at the ‘military monument’, social distancing was not maintained and the Covid-prevention norms laid down by the government went for a toss.
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Dalits offer tributes at Bhima Koregaon to mark the 204th anniversary of the battle

03/01/2022

Justice News / by Nadeem Inamdar, National Herald

Thousands, by some estimates over half a million, of people from across the country converged on New Year’s Day to observe and celebrate the victory of Dalit Mahar troops under the British over the Bahmin Peshwa’s army at Bhma Koregaon over two centuries ago.
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by Collective Delhi (Jan 1):
Keep alive the flame against Neo-Peshwa Raj of RSS BJP, free the #BhimaKoregaon political prisoners. Let the history of Bhima Koregaon inspire us to demand #RepealUAPA and #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners so that more such heroic victories can be won by our people’s struggles.

by The Dalit Voice (Jan 1):
The battle of Pride.
The battle of self-respect.
The battle against untouchability.
The battle against injustice.
The battle against inequality.

Let’s pay homage to our brave, fearless, lion-hearted, courageous warriors.
#भीमा कोरेगांव शौर्य दिवस

Maharashtra govt.’s ‘recognition’ of Bhima Koregaon Jaystambh reflects shift in narrative

01/01/2021

The Hindu / by Shoumojit Banerjee

The violent clashes that erupted in the village of Bhima Koregaon and surrounding areas on New Year’s Day in 2018 seared Maharashtra’s social fabric, while heightening social tensions across the State.
The clashes resulted in massive destruction of property belonging to Ambedkarite members and its reverberations were felt throughout the country.
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Bhima Koregaon Commission: Govt apathy, Covid situation delay panel probe, yet again

01/01/2021

Hindustan Times / by Nadeem Inamdar

The two-member commission was constituted on February 19, 2018, by the Devendra Fadnavis government. However, due to Covid-19, lack of manpower, and on an occasion, government apathy has led to delay for the commission to submit the report.
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Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon: The Mystery of Fadnavis’ Terms of Reference (Rediff.com / Dec 2021)
● Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati│by Sudhir Dhawale│March 2018)
● The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Jan 2018)