Video: Unless we wake-up India will enact Hitlerite Germany: N Venugopal Rao
Kulukkai TV / by N Venugopal Rao
en | 15:31 | 2022
Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case Book Release – Conference
Watch video
Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists / Report links cop to hacking bid on Bhima accused
Cartoon by PenPencilDraw
Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists
16/06/2022
Wired.com / by Andy Greenberg
New details connect police in India to a plot to plant evidence on victims’ computers that led to their arrest.
Police forces around the world have increasingly used hacking tools to identify and track protesters, expose political dissidents’ secrets, and turn activists’ computers and phones into inescapable eavesdropping bugs. Now, new clues in a case in India connect law enforcement to a hacking campaign that used those tools to go an appalling step further: planting false incriminating files on targets’ computers that the same police then used as grounds to arrest and jail them.
Read more
by Andy Greenberg / @a_greenberg (June 16):
A wild, appalling story: A group of hackers fabricated evidence on the PCs of Indian human rights activists who were then arrested for terrorism and jailed. Now researchers have found a direct link between those hackers and the police making the arrests.
Read full thread
Fabricated evidence planted to implicate Elgaar activists, says US magazine
18/06/2022
The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent
Maharashtra govt and Centre have resisted the admission of the multiple revelations of hacking as evidence and consistently opposed bail in the case.
America’s Wired magazine has alleged links between Pune police and hackers who it says planted fabricated evidence on some of the accused in the Elgaar Parishad-Maoist links case, which witnessed the arrest of 16 activists, writers, academics and lawyers.
Earlier, two digital security firms in the US had revealed the planting of electronic evidence – claims that the prosecution has rejected, with the investigators ignoring calls to review the evidence.
Read more
Security Researchers Claim Link Between Pune Police And Hacking Campaign Against Bhima Koregaon Accused
16/06/2022
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
The recovery email id and phone number on accounts of Wilson, Rao and Babu were allegedly linked to a Pune police officer.
Security researchers in the United States have claimed that they unearthed new evidence that links the Pune police to the hacking of e-mail accounts of activists Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao and Delhi University professor Hany Babu. This is the first time that the state’s involvement has been directly established in the case.
Read more
Report links cop to hacking bid on Bhima accused
16/06/2022
Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent
There are links between a Pune police official and a hacking campaign that targeted suspects in the Bhima Koregaon case, a report by news website Wired said on Thursday, citing information from an unnamed whistleblower from a company that provided email services to the targets.
The report is the latest in a series of clues that bring into question the provenance of the evidence used in the Bhima Koregaon case, in which several activists have been accused of terrorism through their alleged links to the extremist Maoist rebellion.
Read more
Pune Police allegedly planted fake evidence on devices of Bhima Koregaon accused, reports Wired
16/06/2022
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The recovery email id and phone number on accounts of Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao and Hany Babu were linked to a police officer, a cybersecurity firm has claimed.
A US-based cybersecurity company has claimed that the Pune Police hacked electronic devices owned by activists Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao and Hany Babu and planted fake evidence on them, reported Wired magazine in the US.
Read more
Also read:
● The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed? (The Guardian / Aug 2021)
● Explainer: Arsenal Report on Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet / July 2021)
● They were Accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government – The evidence was planted, a new report says (Washington Post / Feb 2021)
As Bhima Koregaon case completes its fourth anniversary, State reprisal is writ large in its twists and turns
The Leaflet / by Nihalsing Rathod
As we have completed four years since the first arrest in the Elgar Parishad case, a quick recap of how 16 renowned human rights activists were jailed may be useful.
There is much more than meets the eye. Maybe we will have a few answers after the trial ends, but not all. It would be difficult to say what exactly caused the arrest of these 16 eminent persons, but we can definitely relook at the turn of events and try to understand what really happened.
Read more
Also read:
● ‘We are all prisoners of conscience’, say those facing trial in Bhima Koregaon case on the occasion of fourth anniversary of their arrests [read letter] (The Leaflet / June 2022)
● 3 years after Bhima Koregaon: How criminal law was violated (The Leaflet / June 2021)
Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanwala
In the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, leading activists, lawyers, scholars and artists have been arrested without trial under the charges of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (‘UAPA’). According to the police, allegedly provocative statements and speeches made at the Elgar Parishad meeting in Pune on December 31, 2017, instigated the violence at Bhima Koregaon the following day on January 1, 2018 that led to death of one and injuries to several others …
The Leaflet brings to its readers a brief profile of each of the arrested persons, and the developments in the case pertaining to each.
Read more
Irony of Sharad Pawar’s support for Bhima Koregaon accused
Irony of Sharad Pawar’s support for Bhima Koregaon accused
09/05/2022
Deccan Herald / by Vidya
That Pawar has done nothing is a testimony to the clout wielded in Maharashtra politics by ‘Bhide Guruji’
It took Delhi-based writer-activist Gautam Navlakha 75 days to get court permission to walk in the open in Taloja Jail and get the fresh air he’s deprived of in the high-security anda cell he’s been consigned to since October. Seventy-year-old Navlakha, one of 16 intellectuals arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, has been denied a chair despite developing back pain during his two-year-long incarceration. Last month, the Bombay High Court rejected his plea for house arrest and instead directed the Taloja Jail authorities to provide him with whatever medical care he needed.
Read more
Why Sharad Pawar Is Against The Bhima Koregaon 16’s Arrests
06/05/2022
Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani
Despite Sharad Pawar’s assertion, the Maharashtra government has done nothing to ease the suffering of the Bhima Koregaon 16, who have been denied their basic rights to health and to communication with their families while in jail.
Read more
Pune Police Evade The Law By Dodging Questions On Use Of Pegasus Spyware On Indian Citizens
Pune Police Evade The Law By Dodging Questions On Use Of Israeli Spyware On Indian Citizens
03/04/2022
Artice 14 / by Saurav Das
Despite multiple right-to-information applications asking whether the Pune police purchased or used military-grade Pegasus spyware in the Bhima-Koregaon case, its information officer evaded an answer, refusing to admit the questions on technical grounds. Experts said the police replies were legally untenable and dismissive of a growing demand for greater transparency and accountability in India’s surveillance framework.
A Pune police refusal to reply to right-to-information (RTI) queries about the use of Israeli spyware Pegasus raise several questions about whether the military-grade hacking weapon was deployed in implicating lawyers, activists, and academics in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad (BK-EP) case, which invokes India’s draconian counter-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967.
Read more
Media in India: Shackled and spied on
03/05/2022
The Leaflet / by Sukumar Muralidharan
Early in April, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting [MIB] ordered 22 YouTube channels blocked, 18 based in India and four in Pakistan. Also blocked were four social media accounts and one news website. Later in the month, another 16 YouTube channels were blocked, ten in India and all others in the neighbouring State, alongside one Facebook account.
Read more
Also read:
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)
US panel on religious freedom flags India as ‘country of particular concern’ for third time
‘Religious Freedom Worsened’: US Body Names India as ‘Country of Particular Concern’
26/04/2022
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
This is the third consecutive year when United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has designated India as such.
… The latest report, in a section devoted to India, has accused the Narendra Modi government of muzzling dissenting voices, misusing UAPA and sedition laws, allowing illegal arrests of rights’ activists, carrying out violent attacks against Muslims and Christians and creating “hurdles” for NGOs to receive funds from abroad for charity work.
It has also prominently discussed the arrest and custodial death of Father Stan Swamy.
Read more
US panel on religious freedom flags India as ‘country of particular concern’ for third time in a row
25/04/2022
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
Other countries recommended for this designation by the USCIRF in its annual report are Pakistan, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, among others.
… “The UAPA and sedition law have been invoked to create an increasing climate of intimidation and fear in an effort to silence anyone speaking out against the government,” it said.
The report specifically mentioned the treatment meted out to 84-year-old Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest who was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more
Read full report
Charges to be framed next week, all accused asked to remain present in court
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
The NIA had submitted draft charges in August last year based on which the court will decide on the charges to be framed against the accused.
The special court hearing the Elgaar Parishad case on Tuesday directed both the accused and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take steps to proceed with the case and asked all accused to remain present for the hearing next week, on April 27, for framing of charges.
Read more
Also read
● Cyber Attackers Who Targeted Rona Wilson Could Have Been Engaged by Same Entity: Report (The Wire / Feb 2022)
● Accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case have approached the Bombay High Court to stay till clone copies of electronic evidence is provided (Live Law / Aug 2021)
● NIA files draft charges against accused in Elgar Parishad case (India Today / Aug 2021)
PUDR: When The Process becomes The Punishment
Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) / by PUDR
Tomorrow, 14th April 2022 marks the completion of two years of PUDR activist Gautam Navlakha’s surrender before the NIA. One of sixteen accused in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case, Gautam has been imprisoned in Taloja Central Jail, Navi Mumbai since 25 May 2020. For more than six months now, since 12 October 2021, the nearly 70 years old Gautam, an undertrial suffering from multiple health problems has been in solitary confinement in one of 33 cells in the ‘anda’ circle, the High Security Area of Taloja Jail, a space meant to segregate those guilty of heinous crimes.
Read more
Also read:
● How the ‘anda cell’ is used to discipline prison inmates (The Indian Express │ Oct 2021)
● System of solitary confinement, ‘Anda Cell’, inside the jail be stopped (Groundxero │ Oct 2021)
US Departments 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: India
US Department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: India
13/04/2022
US Department of State / by Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
… Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful and arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by police and prison officials; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention by government authorities; political prisoners or detainees; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; restrictions on free expression and media, including violence, threats of violence, or unjustified arrests or prosecutions against journalists …
Read more
US government report says Indian Muslims are vulnerable to communal violence, discrimination
13/04/2022
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The report also flagged extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests and detentions by government authorities.
… The report specifically mentioned the treatment meted out to 84-year-old Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest who was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case. The case pertains to caste violence in a village near Pune in 2018. Sixteen people were arrested for allegedly plotting the violence.
Read more