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Why isn’t the government looking for the source of ‘Modi assassination’ malware on Wilson’s PC?

Why isn’t the government looking for the source of ‘Modi assassination’ malware on Wilson’s PC?

Scroll.in / by N Venugopal

It wants to trace the originator of unlawful messages on apps like WhatsApp, but isn’t doing the same in the Bhima Koregaon case.
On February 25, the Union government notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Unlike the IT Rules of 2011, the new regulations include video streaming platforms and online news portals within their ambit.
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Laws Around Electronic Evidence Compromise India’s Criminal Justice System

Laws Around Electronic Evidence Compromise India’s Criminal Justice System

article14 / by Mani Chander

Police and investigative agencies currently claim unfettered access to your WhatsApp, private emails or chats with your doctor, lawyer or psychologist. Can they force you to unlock your phone and disclose passwords? In the absence of clear laws, they do what they wish.
…
Seize All You Can? The Bhima-Koregaon Case
Recent cases indicate that investigating agencies often search and seize records without demonstrating probable cause, necessity or proportionality.
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Video: Bhima Koregaon accused continue to wait for bail

Video: Bhima Koregaon accused continue to wait for bail

InOldNews / by InOldNews

Vira Sathidar, a poet, writer, activist, and also one of the editors of a radical Anti-Caste Marathi Magazine ‘Vidrohi’ talks about incarceration of Sudhir Dhawale, founder of Vidrohi. Sudhir Dhawale along with two other activists- Surendra Gadhling and Prof. Shoma Sen were arrested by Police from Nagpur and are still in jail. These were among the first few arrests of Human rights activists by Modi Government under charges of being involved in Bhima Koregaon Violence and in a plot to assassinate PM Modi. The magazine stopped its publication due to various reasons, one being the constant threat of police surveillance.
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The Targeted Silencing of Thinker, Student, Reporter / Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

The Targeted Silencing of Thinker, Student, Reporter / Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

The Targeted Silencing of the Trinity of Thinker, Student, Reporter

28/03/2021

The Wire / by Pamela Philipose

Academia and journalism are intertwined. Both create and question knowledge, both demand a critical engagement with society, and both have a distinct interface with the public.
What is more, journalism and academia routinely draw from – and contribute – to the other. In a conversation carried by The Wire (‘Watch | The State of India’s Academic Freedom’, March 25), reference was made to the elements that constitute academic freedom…
Courageous individuals who stood up and spoke out felt the full force of a vengeful state machinery. If we are to consider the Bhima Koregaon arrests, four of the 16 people put behind bars were formally attached to universities. Anand Teltumbe, a former IIT professor, was a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management; Shoma Sen, the head of the English Literature department, Nagpur University; Sudha Bharadwaj, was visiting professor at the National Law School, Delhi; Hany Babu, was professor of language and linguistics at Delhi University.
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Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

27/02/2021

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF)

27 March
8pm IST
Register here: http://shorturl.at/hzHM5

Anti-caste academic research and activism in India are increasingly threatened with criminalisation and surveillance from the state: from the arrests of academics and students to the militarisation of campuses, from the banning of books, plays and film screenings to the censorship of activities deemed as detrimental to the reputation of the government. The persecution of academic-activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence is a case in point. …

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Is Ignoring Criticism of Human Rights Abuse Affecting India’s Image?

Is Ignoring Criticism of Human Rights Abuse Affecting India’s Image?

The Leaflet / by Arun Srivastava

The government’s intolerance of criticism by foreign institutions’ of its failure to listen to the global concern of the sharp rise in the violation of human rights and its persistent unwillingness to take action against the violators leading to the erosion of the democratic values in the country, has motivated lawmakers of western countries to push a bill in their respective parliaments decrying the claim of the Modi government of India being a democratic country.
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Artwork in Solidarity with Anand, Sudha, Rohit and all Political Prisoners (pics)

Artwork in Solidarity with Anand, Sudha, Rohit and all Political Prisoners (pics)

By Ashoka Students

Click to enlarge pics

Ashoka students call for class boycott next week, demand university reinstate Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Arvind Subramanian

20/03/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

In a statement issued late Friday night, the elected student body said that the two professors’ controversial exit had eroded their trust in the university administration to protect students from “external pressures”.
… “Here, it is crucial to acknowledge the socio-economic capital required to make these demands and protest for these changes given the larger political context of the country. The state crackdown on academics and activists has only worsened during the pandemic. We stand in complete solidarity with all the academics and activists who have resisted the state’s brutality, organized in support of targeted groups and been subject to imprisonment and torture for it including, but not limited to the Bhima Koregaon 16, peaceful anti-CAA protestors and most recently Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar,” the statement reads further.
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Government’s game of prosecution – prosecution as a tool to silence critics

Government’s game of prosecution – prosecution as a tool to silence critics

Frontline / by A.G. Noorani

(Print edition: March 26, 2021)
The present dispensation uses prosecution as a tool to silence critics and opponents in a way that makes the legal process a punishment in itself.
Julio Ribeiro, a prince among police officers of the highest rank, notable alike for his high integrity and superb efficiency, rendered a great service by bringing home to the Indian reader the allegations of manipulating and planting in the Bhima Koregaon case. He had heard Mark Spencer, head honcho of Arsenal Consulting, a private digital forensics company. Ribeiro had heard Spencer on an Indian national TV channel “certifying that the police in India had been taken for a ride by an extremely clever hacker”. His article in The Indian Express on February 22 is entitled “The truth is out there” under the sub-heading “Allegations of manipulating and planting evidence in Bhima Koregaon case must be investigated.
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Former civil servants urge Govt to bring legislative changes to prevent “planting” of incriminating material

Former civil servants urge Govt to bring legislative changes to prevent “planting” of incriminating material

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

A group of former civil servants has expressed concerns at reports alleging the planting of incriminating material in Rona Wilson’s computer, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
“The reports that the police and other investigative agencies may have violated constitutional guarantees and judicial pronouncements in the practices adopted in search and seizure operations, as well as the possibility that they may have been party to planting incriminating material in personal digital devices and harvesting evidence therefrom, have caused us grave concern”, the statement signed by former civil servants reads.
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