en | 35min | 2021
The Guardian / by Siddhartha Deb
In 2018, Indian police claimed to have uncovered a shocking plan to bring down the government. But there is mounting evidence that the initial conspiracy was a fiction – and the accused are victims of an elaborate plot.
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Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi
The Special NIA Court has listed the pending applications on September 6, 2021
On July 5, 2021, 83-year-old activist and priest Father Stan Swamy passed away in a Mumbai private hospital while in judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the riots that took place in Bhima Koregaon post the Elgar Parishad event held on January 2018.
His death highlighted the state of undertrials in the Bhima Koregaon case, most of whom have been awaiting trial for the past three years.
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India Civil Watch / By NET ALERT
To: Parliamentary Subcommittee on Information Technology
We, the undersigned, demand that the parliamentary subcommittee on Information Technology open an investigation into the NetWire attack on the computers of the Bhima-Koregaon arrestees. There is overwhelming evidence that a malware attack took place. One of the world’s leading digital forensic investigation agencies, Arsenal Consulting, has conducted a thorough investigation and brought to light crucial evidence confirming the attack and the planting of incriminating documents on the hard drives of the Bhima-Koregaon arrestees. Independent experts have verified Arsenal’s findings.
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25/08/2021
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
The NIA has proposed to charge all the accused under 16 sections of the law. Charges under some additional sections have been proposed against some accused in accordance with the specific roles that they are alleged to have played.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has submitted draft charges before a special court in Mumbai against 15 arrested accused and six absconding accused in the Elgar Parishad case.
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23/08/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
The NIA Draft Charges find mention of a common objective to establish ‘People’s Government’ through revolution & protracted arms struggle and an attempt to cause the death of a public functionary.
The National Investigation Agency submitted a list of seventeen draft (proposed) charges against the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad Case accused, including the charge of waging a war against the country, which is punishable with death.
The draft charges don’t mention a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as claimed in 2018 but mention “cause the death of a public functionary.”
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22/08/2021
Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi
The January 2018 FIR registered after the alleged riots post the ’Elgar Parishad’ event forms the basis of the entire Bhima Koregaon case which led to arrest of 16 accused, and the 3 chargesheets.
Fifteen of the accused in the case are in judicial custody while five are absconding. One accused, Father Stan Swamy passed away while in custody.
The charges state that the accused (including Swamy) were active members of a banned terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) even prior to 2018.
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20/08/2021
Bar and Bench / by Neha Joshi
The accused moved the High court challenging an order of the Special NIA Court refusing their application for cloned copies of the data seized by the NIA.
Bhima Koregaon accused Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha have approached the Bombay High Court seeking clone copies of all devices seized from them by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
NIA had submitted draft charges and the special court has kept the matter for framing of charges on August 23, 2021.
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20/08/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
Accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case have approached the Bombay High Court to stay the trial or defer the framing of charges until clone copies of all the electronic devices seized are provided to the defence.
Accused Sudha Bharadwaj and journalist Gautam Navalakha have sought HC’s indulgence after the National Investigation Agency submitted the draft charges before the Special NIA Court against the 15 accused on August 9.
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18/08/2021
KAFILA / by concerned citizens
We, the undersigned, condemn the continued incarceration of the academics, cultural activists, human rights activists, lawyers, poets and trade unionists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case and unitedly demand their immediate release. After three years of media trial, harassment, raids and arrests of 16 persons, one of the arrested, Father Stan Swamy died on July 5th following wanton medical neglect in custody amounting to institutional murder.
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18/08/2021
Feminism in India / by Mansi Bhalerao
The current socio-political discourse in India is such that it primarily focuses on instances of inter-religious and inter-caste violence and the activities of political and social organisations that are characterised as communal or casteist. Such a discourse is complacent and ignores the larger political and social structures that give birth to communalism and sectarian political and social organisations. However, the rising violence vis-à-vis institutional murders, unlawful arrests of activists and wide-spread communalism in India are calls to delve into the structural nature of casteism and communalism in India, in the light of dissent.
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14/08/2021
The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent
A Chennai-based group is hosting a series of discussions and cultural events that will culminate in music and satire webcast on Independence Day in honour of Father Stan Swamy.
The event, titled “Kelvi Koothu” in Tamil and “Dirge for Democracy” in English, has been organised by the Vettiver Collective, a group that agitates on social and environment issues by conducting unsponsored cultural events.
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14/08/2021
Counterview / by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ
The institutional murder of 84-year-old Jesuit priest Fr Stan Swamy, who died on July 5, 2021 while still in judicial custody, has shaken the very foundations of democracy in India. The importance and the urgency to defend democracy and all that is precious in the Constitution of India against repressive and anti-people laws, is perhaps felt today, as never before…
On August 9, the National Campaign to Defend Democracy gained added momentum when 165 movements, platforms and organisations, representing thousands of citizens, gave a call for a country wide action to save our democracy
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12/08/2021
The Telegraph / by Animesh Bisoee
The National Campaign to Defend Democracy will take a pledge to to fight draconian laws, and uphold the right to question and show dissent
Over 160 civil society, labour and farmers’ organisations will as part of a nationwide campaign on Independence Day take a pledge to fight draconian laws, uphold the right to question and show dissent and oppose State actions that “deprive us of the freedoms of speech and opinion”.
The movement, named National Campaign to Defend Democracy and spearheaded by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (a conglomeration of human rights organisations) and trade unions, will also seek justice for Father Stan Swamy.
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The Guardian / by Siddhartha Deb
In 2018, Indian police claimed to have uncovered a shocking plan to bring down the government. But there is mounting evidence that the initial conspiracy was a fiction – and the accused are victims of an elaborate plot
In April 2018, a large group of policemen arrived at the Delhi flat of Rona Wilson, a 47-year-old human rights activist. They had travelled from Pune in the western state of Maharashtra, and appeared, accompanied by Delhi police officials, at Wilson’s single-room flat at 6am. For the next eight hours, they scoured the modest premises, searching the files on Wilson’s laptop and rifling through his books.
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By Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
On 11 June 2021, I wrote a letter jointly with two other UN experts on the alleged inhumane prison conditions and deteriorating condition of 15 human rights defenders, as well as Varavara Rao who was granted medical bail.
Of pressing concern was the inhumane prison conditions and deteriorating health of the human rights defenders. The death of Fr. Stan Swamy shortly after this communication was written demonstrate the severity of the conditions in which the human rights defenders are being held. It is haunting to now read how Fr. Swamy’s requests to be transferred to hospital to receive treatment were initially denied repeatedly.
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The Telegraph / by Prabhat Patnaik
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is a blot on the nation. In no nation reputed to be civilized is there a law that allows the State to pick up literally anybody and keep the person in jail for years, without trial and without bail; and, if, at the end of the trial, whenever it occurs, the person is found innocent, then there is no question of the State being obliged to pay any compensation for the lost years in the person’s life. But this is exactly what the UAPA does.
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