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Tag: BK16

Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line

Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line

Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line

18/07/2021

The Wire / Sukanya Shantha

The families of activists figure on a leaked list of numbers that included some selected for surveillance by a client of Israel’s NSO Group.
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Government Cites Old RTI Response To Deny Pegasus Link, Says Media Didn’t Do Due Diligence

18/07/2021

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The ministry of electronics and information technology pointed to a response to an RTI from October 2019 in which the home ministry did not deny or confirm purchasing the Pegasus spyware.
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Forensic Methodology Report: How to catch NSO Group’s Pegasus

18/07/2021

By Amnesty International

NSO Group claims that its Pegasus spyware is only used to “investigate terrorism and crime”  and “leaves no traces whatsoever”. This Forensic Methodology Report shows that neither of these statements are true. This report accompanies the release of the Pegasus Project, a collaborative investigation that involves more than 80 journalists from 17 media organizations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories with technical support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab.
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Stan Swamy was ‘killed’, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut attacks Modi govt / Stan, UAPA and the Performative Solidarity of Politicians

Stan Swamy was ‘killed’, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut attacks Modi govt / Stan, UAPA and the Performative Solidarity of Politicians


Drawing by Arun Freirra

Stan Swamy was ‘killed’, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut attacks Modi govt over activist’s death

11/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Vishwas Waghmode

A government that is scared of an 84-year-old man is dictatorial in attitude but weak in the heart like Hitler’s and Mussolini’s, said Raut in his weekly column in party mouthpiece Saamana.
Hitting out at the Union government over the death of Father Stan Swamy, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said the tribal-rights activist was “killed” in jail. The Sena MP further asked whether the country’s foundations were so weak that an 84-year-old man could overthrow the Narendra Modi government, equating it with the ones of Hitler and Mussolini.
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Shiv Sena asks Centre if Father Stan Swamy was capable of overthrowing state

11/07/2021

Hindustan Times / by Naresh Kamath

Raut said that while the prominent activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case were guilty of provocative speeches before the violence on January 2, it required investigation to prove if they were actually conspiring against the nation.
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Father Stan, UAPA and the Performative Solidarity of Politicians

10/07/2021

The Wire / by Farah Naqvi

For politicians expressing anguish and outrage in this moment of injustice, the best tribute would be to do what Fr. Stan Swamy did his entire life.
“Stan Smith (84) passes away. The system sucks. UAPA. No bail. Little hope of early trial. Others too languish in jail. Lawyers , Academics , Social Activists ….raise their voices for the voiceless. They too are now “voiceless”. The State calls them “ terrorists,” Kapil Sibal, Congress MP, tweeted on July 5, 2021.
Sibal got the name wrong. And he forgot to say sorry. For this casual disrespect to a martyr for democracy, even before dust had settled on his grave. He also forgot to say sorry for his own role in giving India the dark gift of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) that finally killed Fr. Stan Swamy. The gift that keeps on giving.
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His Death is Just a Statistic for Them: Anand Grover

10/07/2021

The Citizen / by The Citizen Bureau

‘In other countries if one is wrongly prosecuted they can sue the police or the government’
Senior advocate Anand Grover has represented poet Varavara Rao and professor Shoma Sen imprisoned without trial since 2018 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in charges including a police-alleged plot to assassinate PM Narendra Modi.

Your reaction to Stan Swamy’s death?
It is a failure of the whole criminal justice system.
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UAPA Wrecking Lives: What Is The Human Cost? / Trying Without a Trial Is the Intent of Draconian UAPA Law

UAPA Wrecking Lives: What Is The Human Cost? / Trying Without a Trial Is the Intent of Draconian UAPA Law

UAPA Wrecking Lives: What Is The Human Cost?

10/07/2021

Live Law / by Manu Sebastian

It is high time that the human costs extracted by the unjust detentions under UAPA are calculated and accountability is fixed on those investigating officers who trapped innocents by misusing the statute.
This article is not about how the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act(UAPA) is leading to blatant violations of civil liberties and how the act is being used to criminalize dissent. Much has been written and commented about this aspect by several constitutional scholars.
Experienced criminal law practitioners have highlighted that the stringent bail provisions of UAPA result in innocent persons languishing as undertrials on flimsy and fanciful chargers, only to be acquitted several years later. There is no need to add to the overwhelmingly compelling critical commentarries about UAPA.
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Trying Without a Trial Is the Intent of Draconian UAPA Law

09/07/2021

The Wire / by Rajshree Chandra

‘Trial by process’ is the political and organisational logic of the UAPA.
An 84-year-old Jesuit Father, Stan Swamy, charged for inciting violence in Bhima Koregaon (BK), died inside the panoptic walls of the Taloja jail on July 5. Despite his age, despite his Parkinson’s-ravaged body, despite his tremors, despite his Covid infection, despite all his frailties, he had been denied bail repeatedly. Rather than his ailing, failing body becoming a ground for bail and appropriate medical care, his body became yet another ground on which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) waged its vicious war.
Now with one gone, there are 15 other bodies, 15 other grounds, 15 other citizens on whose imprisoned bodies this diabolical war shall continue, in which law will be upheld procedurally, but justice denied.
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Postcard to Prison #postcardtoprison

Postcard to Prison #postcardtoprison

By InSAF India

The Bhima Koregaon (BK-16) are 16 human rights activists in India who are being imprisoned on charges of “terrorism” that United Nations experts have condemned as an effort to suppress political dissent. Join us in writing solidarity messages to the BK-16. InSAF India will regularly collect the messages and send them to the Taloja and Byculla prisons.
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Video: The Bizarre Evidence That Put Stan Swamy & The BK 16 in Prison

Video: The Bizarre Evidence That Put Stan Swamy & The BK 16 in Prison


en | 6:41min | 2021

By The Wire Video

On Monday, 5th July, Fr. Stan Swamy passed away after eight months in prison – conditions that exacerbated his Parkinson’s. He was one of the jailed human-rights advocates also known as the Bhima Koregaon 16.
The evidence that surrounds the case is bizarre. The Wire breaks down the story, looking into the investigation conducted by Arsenal Consulting, a Boston-based digital forensics firm that has claimed the evidence for the arrests of the activists, was planted on their computers.
Watch video

10 BK undertrials hold hunger strike

10 BK undertrials hold hunger strike

10 Bhima Koregaon case accused demand judicial inquiry into Stan Swamy’s death, hold hunger strike

07/07/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

They blamed the National Investigation Agency and Taloja Jail’s former superintendent for the death of the tribal rights activist.
Ten accused in the Bhima Koregaon case on Wednesday went on a day-long hunger strike to protest against the “institutional murder” of tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, reported PTI. They also demanded a judicial inquiry into the activist’s death.
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Status of medical bail pleas of other accused / An Account Of Stan Swamy’s Struggles For Basic Rights

Status of medical bail pleas of other accused / An Account Of Stan Swamy’s Struggles For Basic Rights

Status of medical bail pleas of other accused

06/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

In June 2020, the special NIA court rejected interim bail pleas of poet Varavara Rao and former professor Shoma Sen, who sought bail citing their health conditions in light of Covid. Rao was subsequently granted temporary bail by HC for six months.
In May, a vacation bench of the High Court hearing a medical bail filed by Maaysha Singh, the daughter of activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, said prisoners are entitled to access their own medical records and that prisoners should be allowed to make a phone call to a family member after a hospital visit. The court disposed of the medical bail plea after Singh’s lawyer submitted that Bharadwaj had received treatment.
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An Account Of Father Stan Swamy’s Struggles For Basic Rights

06/07/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest who spent over 60 years of his life working for the most marginalised communities, for Adivasis and against the illegal detention of minors branded as Maoists in Jharkhand, passed away at the Holy Family hospital on Monday, his last wish unfulfilled.
… Father Swamy’s lawyer Sharif Shaikh had argued during his first application for interim bail on medical grounds in October 2020 that he could not sign even his vakalatnama and a thumb impression had to be taken.
But NIA opposed his plea. They accused the old man of trying to take “undue benefit” of the pandemic.
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Taloja jail official who wanted Elgaar accused shifted gets transferred

Taloja jail official who wanted Elgaar accused shifted gets transferred

Taloja jail superintendent transferred

05/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Had sought accused in Bhima Koregaon case to be shifted to other prison.
Taloja jail superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar, who recently sought the transfer of the male accused in the Bhima Koregaon case to another prison, has been moved to another posting attached to the office of the Inspector General (prisons) as a part of an administrative shuffle, a senior prison department official said.
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Elgar Parishad Accused Could Soon Be Separated, Moved to Different Prisons Across Maharashtra

29/06/2021

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The Taloja Central jail authorities have moved NIA court claiming that the lawyers and family members of those arrested have been giving ‘fake information’ to the media.
The activists and academics arrested in the Elgar Parishad case now have a new challenge before them – the possibility of being separated and thrown into different prisons across the state.
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Also read: Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails (The Caravan, June 22)

Appeal for the immediate release of human rights defenders in jail

Appeal for the immediate release of human rights defenders in jail


Prison diaries. Drawing by Arun Ferreira

theworldiswatchingindia.com / by CIVICUS, World Organisation Against Torture, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch

The undersigned organisations wish to draw the Human Rights Council’s attention to the health and safety of Indian human rights defenders in prison, detained on politically motivated charges, and at grave risk due to Covid-19. The human rights crisis unfolding in India, including the jailing of defenders, has been met with relative silence from the international community. The use of counter-terror legal provisions to incarcerate defenders has taken a serious turn with the impact of Covid-19. As India struggles to cope with a new and deadly wave of the virus, jailed defenders are at serious risk, many of whom have tested positive for Covid-19 or are showing symptoms. The denial of medical bail, basic medical facilities, and communication or access to families even in the midst of the current surge in cases and deaths in India, is an act of cruelty, and a violation of their right to life and dignity.
Read full statement

Rally for jailed Indian scholars held in Surrey, Canada

Rally for jailed Indian scholars held in Surrey, Canada


Surrey, June 27

Countercurrents.org / by Countercurrents

Close to the birthday of George Orwell and the 46th anniversary of Emergency in the world’s so called largest democracy, activists came together in Surrey on Sunday, June 27, to raise their voices against the incarceration of thinkers by the Indian authorities.
Organized by Radical Desi publications, the rally was held right outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center. The participants carried placards with pictures of jailed scholars who are being detained under trumped up charges for merely questioning the power and standing up for the poor and marginalized.
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