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Families of Bhima Koregaon accused demand their release, say jail conditions poor

Families of Bhima Koregaon accused demand their release, say jail conditions poor

The Print / by Sravasti Dasgupta

The families and friends of Bhima Koregaon prisoners organised a webinar Friday to highlight the deteriorating health of the prisoners and unhygienic conditions in jails.
The family members of activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case demanded their immediate release, in view of the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
To mark three years since the first arrests in the case, the families and friends of the accused Friday organised a webinar — “Three Years Too Many…” — to highlight the deteriorating health of the prisoners, with many of them testing positive for Covid, and unhygienic conditions in jails.
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Watch video: THE BHIMA KOREGAON CONSPIRACY CASE – THREE YEARS TOO MANY … (June11)
Also read (Hindi): SALAAKHON MEIN QAID AVAAZEIN (IMPRISONED VOICES).

Video: The Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case – Three Years Too Many …

Video: The Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case – Three Years Too Many …

By Family and Friends of BK16

Three years ago, on 6 June 2018, the first arrests of human rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case occurred. Today, 16 of the finest citizens of India face trumped up charges in this fabricated case.

Please join the Family Members and friends of BK16 on a webinar and Book Release.
Book Release by Bhanwar Meghvanshi, leading writer and Dalit Intellectual


hindi + en | 4h 30min | 2021
Watch video at PUCL fb


Read the book (Hindi): SALAAKHON MEIN QAID AVAAZEIN (IMPRISONED VOICES).

Book Release: Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein (Imprisoned Voices)

Book Release: Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein (Imprisoned Voices)

By Family Members and friends of BK16

“Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein”
Edition: June 2021
Language: Hindi
Paperback: 69 pages

Access a PDF copy of the book here (15MB)
(Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein is free to download, but contributions are welcome!
Write to us at booksbywss(at)gmail.com if you would like to contribute.)

“Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein” is a book on the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy case. It is a tribute to those individuals who, while fighting for truth and justice, have themselves become victims of a grave and flagrant injustice.
Sixteen sterling citizens of this country, all of them well-known dissidents and renowned human rights activists, have been arrested in this fictitious case, so far. They have been accused of conspiring with the banned Maoist party to cause violence in Bhima Koregaon on 1st January, 2018, by inciting the oppressed Dalit and Bahujan people against the government. Among the accused (known as BK-16) are professors, writers, lawyers, cultural activists, trade unionists, poets, etc.
The book, while providing a background of this fabricated case, gives a profile of each of the BK-16 and also carries original pieces of writing by them.

“सलाखों में कैद आवाज़ें” एक कोशिश है, भीमा कोरेगांव के षड़यंत्र को सामने लाने की। ये किताब एक कोशिश है उन्हें याद करने की जो न्याय और मानवता के लिए लड़ने के बावजूद आज खुद ‘न्याय के षड़यंत्र’ का शिकार बने हुए हैं।
पिछले तीन साल से इस देश के 16 ‘सच्चे नागरिक’ (जिन्हें बीके-16 भी कहा जाता है) सलाखों में कैद हैं, जिनमें जाने-माने मानवाधिकार व सांस्कृतिक कार्यकर्ता, प्रोफेसर, लेखक, कवि, वकील व ट्रेड यूनियन कार्यकर्ता शामिल हैं। उन पर आरोप है कि उन्होंने प्रतिबंधित माओवादी पार्टी के साथ मिलकर 2018 में भीमा कोरेगांव में हिंसा भड़काने और दलितों व बहुजनों को शासन के खिलाफ उकसाने की साजिश रची।
इस फर्जी केस पर रोशनी डालते हुए, यह किताब हमें बीके-16 से रूबरू कराती है और उन के लिखे हुए खत व रचनाओं को भी संकलित रूप से रखती है।

Prominent international figures urge release of the BK16 human rights defenders in India

Prominent international figures urge release of the BK16 human rights defenders in India

Prominent international figures support appeal for release of human rights defenders as India faces Covid emergency

10/06/2021

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)

Over 50 prominent international figures support appeal for release of human rights defenders from India’s overcrowded prisons as Covid spreads in jails. Read full statement/signatories:

We urge the immediate release of human rights defenders in India into safe conditions

Accounting for almost a third of deaths from Covid-19 worldwide, the situation in India is grave. We are alarmed that a number of human rights defenders who are currently awaiting trial in Indian jails have developed serious health issues in jail owing to over-congestion and neglect, absence of appropriate medical care, and deplorable hygiene conditions.
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Press Release: Prominent international figures urge release of human rights defenders in India

10/06/2021

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)

Over 50 eminent international figures including members of several European parliaments academics, lawyers, Nobel laureates, civil society leaders, and diasporic organisations have signed a joint statement urging the Indian government to show compassion and responsibility in the current Covid emergency, and call upon the authorities to release all arrested human rights defenders into safe conditions in the light of the dire threats to their health given the spread of Covid in Indian prisons.

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What does state’s treatment of pre-trial political prisoners tell us?

What does state’s treatment of pre-trial political prisoners tell us?

The Indian Express / by Harsh Mander

Harsh Mander writes: It’s been three years since Bhima Koregaon accused were incarcerated by a state that continues to oppose bail for them, despite Covid and other grave threats to their health.
June 6 was a sombre milestone — the third anniversary of the incarceration of five rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. Eleven more were subsequently jailed for the same conspiracy. These 16 women and men — the BK-16 accused — are intellectuals, lawyers, a poet, professors, cultural and rights activists and an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, all with sterling records of service with India’s most oppressed people.
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Stan Swamy, The Majesty Of Law And The Tenets Of Justice

Stan Swamy, The Majesty Of Law And The Tenets Of Justice


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Outlook / by Puneet Nicholas Yadav

At 84 years of age, Stan Swamy is the oldest among the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case and, arguably, the oldest prison inmate across the country facing non-bailable charges under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Eight months after he was arrested and locked up in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail, Stan Swamy – octogenarian Jesuit priest, tribal rights activist, public intellectual, Parkinson’s patient; and in the eyes of the BJP-led central government, an enemy of the State – is now undergoing treatment at Mumbai’s Holy Family Hospital for Covid.
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Judiciary comes to the aid of Bhima Koregaon accused

Judiciary comes to the aid of Bhima Koregaon accused

Deccan Herald / by Jyoti Punwani

Amid the spread of Covid in jails, it took a HC order to direct jail authorities to give all prisoners their hospital reports.
Imagine being taken to hospital and not being given your medical report by those who took you there. We are talking about adults, all of whom are currently in the custody of the State. Their lives are thus the responsibility of the State.
Without their medical reports, how can prisoners know whether they are being given the treatment recommended by the hospital? The 16 intellectuals accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, lodged in two Mumbai jails, have been forced to live in this state of helpless ignorance ever since the pandemic began.
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Also read:< a href="https://www.rediff.com/news/column/jyoti-punwani-should-the-bhima-koregaon-16-be-left-to-die/20210517.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Should the Bhima Koregaon 16 be left to die? (Rediff.com, May 17)

Statement of ABA President Patricia Lee Refo Re: Detention of minority-rights advocates in India

Statement of ABA President Patricia Lee Refo Re: Detention of minority-rights advocates in India

By American Bar Association

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2021 — The American Bar Association is deeply concerned about the continued pretrial detention of minority-rights advocates in the Bhima Koregaon case in India. As many of the accused are over the age of 65 and have serious medical conditions, these activists are at high risk for contracting COVID-19 as India deals with a substantial surge in cases.
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Also read: Should the Bhima Koregaon 16 be left to die? (By Jyoti Punwani, May 17)

Should the BK16 be left to die? / Crowded Jails & COVID: BK16 Accused’s Kin Share Fears

Should the BK16 be left to die? / Crowded Jails & COVID: BK16 Accused’s Kin Share Fears

Should the Bhima Koregaon 16 be left to die?

17/05/2021

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

Consider this:
In 2019, Father Stan Swamy, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, had to undergo an emergency appendicitis operation because he had insisted on working till the very last day. The doctor wondered how the then 82-year-old Jesuit priest had borne the pain so long.
In the seven months that he has spent in Taloja jail, not once has Father Stan complained, except to ask for a straw and a sipper because Parkinson’s disease doesn’t allow him to have a steady grip on his cup.
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Crowded Jails & COVID: 16 Bhima Koregaon Accused’s Kin Share Fears

17/05/2021

The Quint / by Mekhala Saran

“Please allow us to take care of them,” beseech their family and friends.
“It looks like once you are a prisoner, there is no value for your life,” said Dr Jenny Rowena, a Delhi University professor and wife of Dr Hany Babu, an undertrial prisoner, at a press conference, organised by friends and family of the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Dr Babu is currently COVID-positive and admitted in Mumbai’s JJ Hospital with an acute eye infection that has affected his vision. Spreading to his cheeks and forehead, the infection has caused his eyes to bulge out.
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Also read/watch video: Bhima Koregaon, COVID-19 and custodial apathy in jails / Video + Press Release (May 15)