BK16 – Page 29 – free them all

Petition: Covid-19 is a virtual death sentence for political prisoners! / Covid-19 in Taloja & Byculla jails

06/05/2021 Rani

Petition: Covid-19 is a virtual death sentence for political prisoners! Release them now!

06/05/2021

By Citizens for Justice and Peace

Political prisoners lodged in prisons across the country need to be released temporarily in the wake of the massive surge in COVID-19 cases. It is known that prison conditions are conducive to spread of a virus like COVID-19 and these political prisoners deserve to be released on bail.
Read more/sign petition

Kin Allege Negligence as Prisoner in Taloja Jail Dies of COVID-19

07/05/2021

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Activist Varavara Rao had also previously complained about the healthcare facilities in Taloja jail in an an affidavit submitted to a court.
A 22-year-old undertrial prisoner lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja jail has died of COVID-19 at a hospital, even as his family members alleged that the negligence of prison authorities led to his death.
The prisoner, identified as Vishal Anand Dasari, died at St George Hospital in Mumbai on Wednesday morning, a jail official said.
Read more

Maharashtra’s Prisons Are Feeling the Brunt of a Crisis That Could Have Been Averted

02/05/2021

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Despite several directions from the Supreme Court and high court to decongest its overcrowded prisons in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state government has neglected the issue.
Read more

Video: Father Stan Swamy’s 84th birthday celebrations online

26/04/2021 Rani

en + hindi | 1h34min | 2021

By PUCL & friends and co-travellers of Father Stan Swamy

The PUCL along with the friends and co-travellers of Father Stan Swamy,
invite you to join online Father Stan’s 84th birthday celebrations.

Watch video @ PUCL fb page here

Through his own writings from the prison, and know why the State fears him and why the Bhima Koregaon case is cooked up, along with messages of solidarity for his release and that of other Prisoners of Conscience.
Father Stan stands as a symbol of struggle and resistance against the repression of Tribals and has been falsely implicated and arrested since October 2020 in the Bhima Koregaon “conspiracy” case. A Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, he has worked in Jharkhand for over three decades on issues of land, forest and labour rights in order to create a world where there is love, peace and justice.
#ReleaseFatherStanNOW #ReleaseAllBK16Prisoners

Also watch: Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution (PUCL, Jan 2021)

In letters, Stan Swamy speaks about co-inmates, life behind bars

27/04/2021

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Swamy, who turned 84 on Monday, was arrested on October 8, last year, from Ranchi by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his alleged role in the Elgaar Parishad case.
From his daily routine to the experiences of his co-inmates in jail, Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy’s communication through letters and phones calls with his colleagues and friends gives a glimpse into the 200 days spent in jail by the country’s oldest prisoner arrested in a terror case.
Read more

Bhima Koregaon case shows ‘deteriorating democracy’ in India: Panelists at US congressional briefing / Watch video

23/04/2021 Rani

Bhima Koregaon case shows ‘deteriorating democracy’ in India: Panelists at US congressional briefing

23/04/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

This came after a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm found further evidence that 22 letters were planted in activist Rona Wilson’s laptop.
A US congressional briefing held by a coalition of Indian American and human rights organisations on Thursday said that the Bhima Koregaon violence case was a clear evidence of “deteriorating democracy” in India. The briefing took place on Thursday after a new report from a United States-based digital forensics firm revealed that a hacker planted 22 additional incriminating documents in activist Rona Wilson’s laptop.
Read more

Video: India’s Most Important Human Rights Defenders Incarcerated Without Trial

20/04/2021

en |1h30min | 2021

By Hindus for Human Rights

Congressional briefing
April 22, 2021
On February 10, Washington Post showed how renowned human rights defenders in India were incarcerated on the basis of forged files planted using malware. Hear experts on digital forensics and human rights speak about the landmark Bhima-Koregaon case, seen as the most significant test case for human rights and rule of law in India.
This Thursday, HfHR and our partners are hosting a Congressional Briefing on the #BhimaKoregaon case, in which Indian human rights activists have been incarcerated on the basis of forged evidence.
Watch video

There Is No Case. Release the Bhima Koregaon 16 and Compensate Them

22/04/2021 Maya

by American Bar Association Justice Defenders Program (April 22):
+++ We are extremely concerned regarding further reports of evidence tampering to incriminate the #BhimaKoregaon activists and continue to call for their immediate release +++
We previously facilitated the work of @ArsenalArmed to conduct a forensic review of a computer seized by police and used as evidence in the #BhimaKoregaon cases. The report finds that an attacker used malware to infiltrate the laptop, depositing at least 10 incriminating letters +++
The latest report by Arsenal, facilitated by the Center, finds that 22 additional documents were also delivered to the computer by the same attacker +++
In light of the discovery of malware used for evidence tampering, we continue to call for the immediate release of all #BhimaKoregaon defenders +++ Our preliminary report on the #BhimaKoregaon cases identified potential procedural irregularities and possible fair trial violations +++ / Read preliminary report (Oct 2019) here (PDF)

There Is No Case. Release the Bhima Koregaon 16 and Compensate Them

22/04/2021

The Wire / by Jignesh Mevani and Meena Kandasamy

A second report released on April 21, 2020 by Arsenal Computing contains more damning evidence of how files were planted on Rona Wilson’s computer.
It is a year since we jointly authored an op-ed denouncing the arrest of Professor Anand Teltumbde on Ambedkar Jayanti.
We highlighted the fact that his incarceration in the Bhima Koregaon case had less to do with any so-called conspiracy, and more to do with his Dalit-centred Marxist politics, which was seen as a direct threat to the corporate-Manuvadi government of Modi.
Read more

More Proof Of Planted Evidence On Rona Wilson’s Computer / More Damning Signs of Planted Evidence

21/04/2021 Rani

Forensics Firm Finds More Proof Of Planted Evidence On Rona Wilson’s Computer: Report

21/04/2021

Medianama / by Advait Palepu

In its second report, Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm Arsenal Consulting found that a malicious software used by an attacker had planted an additional set of files on prison rights’ activist Rona Wilson’s computer. The firm said that there was no evidence that Wilson interacted with these files and documents, which are cited by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) in its charge-sheet against Wilson and others in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
The Washington Post and The Reporter’s Collective were the first to report on the findings of Arsenal Consulting.
Read more

In Bhima-Koregaon Case, More Damning Signs of Planted Evidence

21/04/2021

Article 14 / by Shreegiresh Jalihal/THE REPORTERS’ COLLECTIVE

A new report by a leading US digital forensic company offers ‘irrefutable’ proof of arrested activist Rona Wilson’s devices being hacked and explains how 22 files were planted. These files are key evidence in the Bhima-Koregaon case, where 16 academics, lawyers, artistes are imprisoned without bail or trial.
A new report from a US-based digital forensics company has said a hacker planted 22 “incriminating” files in activist Rona Wilson’s computer, days after violence in the Maharashtra town of Bhima-Koregaon in January 2018.
Read more

Also read:
► KEY EVIDENCE AGAINST JAILED ACTIVISTS PLANTED USING MALWARE, SAYS FORENSIC REPORT [READ REPORT] / VIDEO: PLANTED EVIDENCE? (Feb 2021)
► Prison-rights activist Rona Wilson’s hard disk contained malware that allowed remote access (The Caravan, March 2020)

From FIR to Malware Claims: A Timeline of the Bhima Koregaon Case

21/04/2021 Maya

The Quint / by Vakaha Sachdev

All you need to know about the 16 accused, 3 charge sheets, and the controversial narrative surrounding the case.
When exactly did the Bhima Koregaon case, as it has come to be known, begin?
Was it on the day the first set of activists were arrested, back in June 2018? Was it the day when malware was allegedly planted on the computers of at least one of the accused, two years before that? Or do we have to go all the way back to the Battle of Bhima Koregaon itself to understand what’s really going on with this case?
And when will this case, which has dragged on for nearly three years with a trial nowhere in sight, end?
Read more

Webinar: The Bhima-Koregaon case of imprisoned activists and India’s autocratic turn

20/04/2021 Maya

By InSAF India

Ideas Behind Bars – The Bhima-Koregaon case of imprisoned activists and India’s autocratic turn
The webinar is part of InSAF India’s campaign demanding the release of all jailed scholars, students and civic activists in India.
24 April 2021
USA: 10:30am EDT / 9:30am CDT / 7:30am PDT
UK: 3:30pm BST / Europe: 4:30pm CEST / India: 8pm IST
REGISTER TO JOIN THE ZOOM WEBINAR HERE

Our panellists
+ Jed Crandall Associate Professor, Biodesign Center for Biocomputation, Security and Society and School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, USA
+ Suchitra Vijayan Author of Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India and Founder and Executive Director of The Polis Project
+ Tarunabh Khaitan Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory, and Vice Dean, Faculty of Law, Oxford University, UK
Moderated discussion to be followed by Q&A with the audience.

This webinar aims to shed light on alarming authoritarian developments in India that have scarcely received adequate international attention. …

India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression

16/04/2021 Maya

Jacobinmag / by RB Moore

The Indian state under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meting out vicious repression against dissenters to his right-wing Hindu nationalist vision. Yet that constant need to crack down on protests also reveals something: his far-right project is undeniably brittle.
… An event called the Elgar Parishad, organized on December 31, 2017 in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, was an attempt to bring together the opposition movements that had emerged during Modi’s first term. Convened by two retired judges with a history of anti-caste and anti-Hindutva activism, the event drew participation from roughly 250 anti-caste, progressive, and left organizations and featured fiery speeches, musical performances, and cultural programs.
The event was set for the day before an anti-caste commemoration in the nearby town of Bhima Koregaon, which celebrated the military defeat of the notorious casteist Peshwa rulers on January 1, 1818 at the hands of the British.
Read more

Video: Conversations with Family and Friends of the Bhima Koregaon Undertrials

14/04/2021 Maya

By Bhagat Singh Ambedkar Students Organisation

en | 1h45min | 2021
Watch on Bhagat Singh Ambedkar Students Organisation fb page here

Speakers
Rashmi Teltumbde
Jenny Rowena
Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves
and others…
In conversation with
Jyoti Punwani

#FreeBK16 #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners #ScrapUAPA #RepealSedition #baso

Why Indian Scholars Must Be Protected Against ‘Content Seizure’

14/04/2021 Maya

The Quint/ by Arghya Bhaskar

A petition claims that, when seized, academic work becomes vulnerable to tampering, plagiarism, damage, destruction.
In the last week of March 2021, the Supreme Court of India heard a plea seeking the protection of ‘academic freedom’ from raids and seizures of police and investigative agencies.
Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan and Advocate Prassanna is representing the petitioners. The petition was filed in light of recent news events where allegations of ‘evidence planting’ have been made in the case of arrested intellectuals in the Bhima Koregaon incident. The Supreme Court has sought a reply from the Centre within four weeks in the matter.
Read more