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Senior activist Ajay Kumar’s arrest ‘imminent’ in same vein as Rona Wilson, Stan Swamy

Senior activist Ajay Kumar’s arrest ‘imminent’ in same vein as Rona Wilson, Stan Swamy

Counterview / by Counterview Desk

The civil rights coalition, Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as condemning the “intensifying harassment” of activist, writer, lawyer and intellectual Ajay Kumar and is family by India’s investigative agencies, has said that “the arrest of Ajay Kumar under fabricated charges is imminent”, and may happen in the “similar vein” to that of his former associates like Prof GN Saibaba, activist Rona Wilson, late Father Stan Swamy, trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj, others.
Read more/full statement


Also read:
Stifling of right to protest, freedom: Open letter to CJI Chandrachud (SabrangIndia / Jan 2024)

Stifling of right to protest, freedom: Open letter to CJI Chandrachud

Stifling of right to protest, freedom: Open letter to CJI Chandrachud

Stifling of right to protest, freedom: Open letter to CJI Chandrachud

03/01/2024

SabrangIndia / by SabrangIndia

The open letter has alleged that peaceful protests were met with fake encounters, abductions and demolition of houses belonging to the protesters by police and other government instrumentalities

Text of the Open Letter:

To D.Y. Chandrachud,
The Chief Justice of India,
Supreme Court of India
2nd January 2024

Dear Justice Chandrachud,

We write this letter to you as a members of democratic-minded civil society and activists who are working on issues concerning democratic ethos of the people and the protection of their civic, democratic, and constitutional rights.
Read more / full letter


Open letter from civil rights activists to CJI Chandrachud on freedom curbs

03/01/2024

The Telegraph online / by R. Balaji

The letter alleged that peaceful protests were met with fake encounters, abductions and demolition of houses belonging to the protesters by police and other government instrumentalities
A group of civil rights activists and organisations on Tuesday wrote an “open letter” to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on the alleged suppression of free speech, peaceful protests and rallies by police, leading to the stifling of democratic dissent in the country.
Read more


Open Letter to CJI Chandrachud highlights Concerns Over Erosion of Democratic Rights

03/01/2024

The Mooknayak / by The Mooknayak English

The letter questions India’s commitment to being the world’s largest democracy and refers to the words of jurist John Rawls, stressing the importance of justice and the need to reform or abolish unjust laws and institutions. The plea is for the judiciary to uphold equal liberties and protect rights secured by justice, emphasizing that such rights should not be subject to political bargaining or social interests.
Read more

We don’t want more Bhima Koregaon bogus conspiracy case / Condemn the NIA’s raid in Andhra-Telangana

We don’t want more Bhima Koregaon bogus conspiracy case / Condemn the NIA’s raid in Andhra-Telangana

Condemn the NIA’s raid in Andhra-Telangana to suppress democratic voices critical of war of corporate plunder

06/10/2023

Countercurrrents / by Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization

On 2nd October, 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids across various locations belonging to various democratic and pro-people activists in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.  The organisations that have been targeted, include, Coordination of Democratic Rights Organizations (CDRO), Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (AP CLC), Chaitanya Mahila Sangam (CMS), Pragatisheela Karmika Samakya (PKS), Patriotic Democratic Movement (PDM), Praja Kala Mandali (PKM), Vasantha Meghum, Virasam (RWA), Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), Kula Nirmulana Porata Samiti (Struggle Committee for Caste Annihilation; KNPS), Amarula Bandhu Mitrula Sangham (ABMS), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) and Human Rights Forum (HRF).
Read full statement


We don’t want more Bhima Koregaon bogus conspiracy case in the name of National Security

03/10/2023

Asianspeaks.com / by Campaign Against State Repression (CASR)

“In the overall situation in India, no form of democratic assertion is left untouched by the NIA’s repression in the name of Maoist links, whether they be organizations fighting for the rights of minorities, anti-caste organizations like KNPS, women’s rights organizations like the CMS or even Gandhian or Marxist-Leninist organizations. All forms of democratic assertions are under threat in this current spate of repression…”

Statement By Campaign Against State Repression

CASR STRONGLY CONDEMN THE NIA RAID IN TELENGANA AND ANDHRA PRADESH
In the early hours of 2nd October, 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided 62 different locations in the states of Andhra Pradesh (53) and Telangana (9) as part of their recent string of raids all over the country against democratic rights organizations.
Read full statement


NIA Conducts Coordinated Raids on Rights Activists Across 62 Locations in Andhra, Telangana

03/10/2023

The Wire / Sukanya Shantha

The raids were in connection with the 2021 Munchingiputtu CPI (Maoist) conspiracy case. Devices and literature belonging to functionaries and lawyers of the Indian Association of People’s Lawyer and Human Rights Forum, along with various other rights bodies were seized.
Officials of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) arrived in groups of four and five in 62 locations across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on October 2, in coordinated raids at the homes of human rights activists and researchers.
The raid teams – comprising of NIA officers from Delhi and the local police – arrived between 5.30 am and 6 am on the day, and stayed at the locations till afternoon.
Read more


Also read:
Chronology Samajhiye: 5 Days, 4 Agencies Under Modi Govt Control Target Opposition, Journalists, Activists (The Wire | Soumashree Sarkar | Oct 6, 2023)
Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices (Countercurrents / June 2023)
● Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others (The Wire / June 2023)

Three years ago on this day Hany Babu was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case

Three years ago on this day Hany Babu was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case

Three years ago on this day, around 4.30 in the evening, Hany Babu was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case

28/07/2023

By Jenny Rowena @ insta

Three years ago on this day, around 4.30 in the evening, Hany Babu was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case.
Today, so many marginalised students miss a teacher who always stood by them, and so many more who could have gained from the way he interrogated the elite brahminical pedagogy of the English department are denied of his presence.

And my daughter and me, miss a father and husband who was so deeply committed to us. And was always growing together with us.

Yet in one sense, Babu’s incarceration is just one among the many cruel injustices happening around. A sign of the times when the Savarna Hindu State is destroying whole communities and regions and has invaded even the insulated university space, and is crushing any kind of oppositional voice that stands in its way. But in another sense, this is our very own personal pain. Which cannot be conveyed in words. But we are not defeated, and Babu is doing all that he was doing outside, inside in prison too – reading, writing, teaching and helping inmates to fight their cases.

I do not know what exactly we need to do to gain Babu’s release and the release of so many other political prisoners who have all been punished for their public stances of resistance. No campaign and no pressure seem to touch this government and the violent and blood thirsty groups that support it. Sometimes it’s easy to fall into despair. But that’s not how political prisoners live. They live with the power of being on the side of compassion and justice. With the solidarity and prayers of those who bravely stand with them in this. And the undying intellectual curiosity that I see in each of the Bhima Koregaon people, and Babu, really makes it clear that prisons are never enough to crush some people. And that they will come out of this stronger and better than before. And till then, some of us will continue to fight for their release.

In whatever way you can, please support us in this.



Hany Babu completes three years in prison, “we are not defeated,” says wife Jenny Rowena

28/07/2023

Maktoobmedia.com / by Maktoob Staff

Delhi University professor and noted academic Dr. Hany Babu, who is one of the UAPA prisoners in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, completed three years of incarceration on Friday, 28 July, 2023.
On 28 July, 2020, the National Investigation Agency arrested Babu, an anti-caste activist and a staunch proponent of social justice.
Read more

Telangana turns into experimental theatre to misuse suppressive laws: CASR meet

Telangana turns into experimental theatre to misuse suppressive laws: CASR meet

Counterview / by Our Representative 

Speakers at a media conference, organised by the civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as discussing “suppression of democratic voices” using suppressive laws in the light of the Tadwai case, where 152 activists of Andhra-Telangana were named under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), have demanded repeal of the “draconian” law.
Read more


Also read:
Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices (Countercurrents / June 2023)
● Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others (The Wire / June 2023)
The Govt is out to silence Dissenters through Arrests: Justice Hosbet Suresh (Sabrangindia / Oct 2018)

Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices / Arbitrary FIRs

Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices / Arbitrary FIRs

Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices

21/06/2023

Countercurrents.org / by Campaign Against State Repression (CASR)

The draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act has once again been invoked, this time in Tadwai, Telangana against an astonishing number of 152 activists and intellectuals, which includes retired Prof. G. Haragopal, Prof. Gaddam Laxman and Prof. Padmaja Shaw. What is more ridiculous and serious at the same time is that Late Justice H. Suresh also finds mention in the accused list. The FIR has come to light only after People’s Democratic Movement president Chandramouli applied for bail and FIRs filed against him were retrieved by the police where the names of the 152 activists mentioned above were also included.
Read full statement


Dead judge, 151 others in Telangana police FIR

21/06/2023

TOI / by Srinath Vudali

Former Bombay HC judge H Suresh, who died in 2020, and another dead man were among 152 people that Telangana police had charged last year under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for their alleged Maoist links.
Following a backlash from civil rights outfits , who pointed out that two of the accused had died long before the case was registered, the Telangana government directed police to drop six prominent people from  the FIR.
Read more


Arbitrary FIRs on Social Activists

19/06/2023

Statement by National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

click to enlarge

Dead wrong

21/06/2023

TOI / by TOI Editorials

Telangana charging the deceased with UAPA brings to life how the most severe laws are casually misused by govts:
The Telangana case in which police charged two people dead for two years under the anti-terror law UAPA is a classic example of the casual misuse of one of India’s most stringent laws. The data is damning. Analysis of NCRB data by various experts show the conviction rate of people charged under UAPA is below 3%.
Read more


Also read:
● Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others (The Wire / June 17, 2023)
● Activists Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others Booked Under UAPA Last August; Accused Unaware (The Wire / June 16, 2023)
● Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (PUCL / Sep 2022) Download report
The Govt is out to silence Dissenters through Arrests: Justice Hosbet Suresh (Sabrangindia / Oct 2018)

Press Conference & Public Meeting: “Conspiracy of Conspiracy Cases”

Press Conference & Public Meeting: “Conspiracy of Conspiracy Cases”


Poster by Campaign Against State Repression

Wives of Khalid Saifi, Hany Babu, GN Saibaba demand release of ‘political prisoners’

12/01/2023

Maktoob / by Maktoob Staff

Life partners of jailed human rights defenders Khalid Saifi, Hany Babu and GN Saibaba who gathered in national capital Delhi on Thursday under the banner of Campaign Against State Repression, demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners incarcerated under the Bhima Koregaon and CAA-NRC cases.
This event titled “conspiracy of conspiracy cases” was held to discuss the recent developments in Bhima Koregaon and CAA-NRC case where top intelligence officers have disclosed that there was no connection between the Elgaar Parishad event and Bhima Koregano violence, as well as multiple international forensic reports revealing that the evidence was planted on the BK accused.
Read more


Civil rights leaders allege corporate loot of resources, suppression of democratic rights

14/01/2023

Countercurrents / by Our Representative

Civil rights activists have alleged, quoting top intelligence officers as also multiple international forensic reports, that recent developments with regard to the Bhima Koregaon and the Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC) cases suggest, there was “no connection between the Elgaar Parishad event and the Bhima Koregaon violence.”
Activists of the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) told a media event at the HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi, that, despite this, several political prisoners continue to be behind bars on being accused under the anti-terror the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Read more


Also read
Press Release by Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), Dec 5, 2022

Click to enlarge

CASR meeting: GN Saibaba, others called new generation freedom fighters, victims of state terror (Countercurrents / Oct 2022)

Public meeting ‘Thoughts Criminalised’ in Delhi

Public meeting ‘Thoughts Criminalised’ in Delhi

By Campaign Against State Repression

Press Release

Click to enlarge

 


Also read/watch:
Supreme Court’s suspension of Dr. G.N. Saibaba’s acquittal: ‘Technical grounds are also substantive’, says senior advocate, Mihir Desai (The Leaflet / Oct 2022)
Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is Now the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)
Pandu Narote’s Death: A Reminder of Stan Swamy’s Demise, GN Saibaba’s Struggles (The Quint / Sep 2022)

● Video: Personal Liberty and the Indian Courts

25/10/2022


en | 1h 42min | 2022
The discussion examines the recent three judgements relating to
► The denial of bail of Jyoti Jagtap by the Bombay High Court in the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy case.
► The stay on the Bombay High Court judgement of acquittal/discharge of Dr. GN Saibaba and others by the Supreme Court
► The denial of bail by the Delhi High Court of Umar Khalid in the Conspiracy case of the Delhi Riots of 2020.
Watch video (PUCL fb page)

A Govt of India move to ‘force’ journos to join cacophony of state propaganda: CASR

A Govt of India move to ‘force’ journos to join cacophony of state propaganda: CASR

‘Disproportionate and Politically Motivated’: Diasporic Outfits Condemn Police Raids on ‘The Wire’

05/11/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

As many as 21 Indian diasporic organisations from across the globe saw the raids on ‘The Wire’ as part of an “ongoing deterioration of journalistic and press freedoms in India”.

We Stand with The Wire 
We are writing as diasporic Indian organizations and allies to express our solidarity with The Wire. We strongly condemn the witch hunt to which they are being subjected by the state.
… Egregiously, the phones and laptops of the four Wire editors, the accountant, and the business officer were seized without being sealed and without provision of the hashtag value by the authorities for the seized devices at the time of the seizures. The hash value is the single most important forensic evidence that captures the total state of the electronic devices at the time of seizure. It allows for forensic experts to determine whether any tampering of the device took place after seizure. In short, the hashtag ensures the integrity of the stored data. Given the emerging evidence around electronic surveillance and the reports of planted and ‘fabricated’ evidence used to implicate political prisoners such as the Bhima Koregaon 16, we are highly concerned about any claims by authorities based on the data on the above devices.

Read full statement


A Govt of India move to ‘force’ journos to join cacophony of state propaganda: CASR

05/11/2022

Counterview / by Campaign Against State Repression (CASR)

The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns the raids carried out by Delhi Police at mid night on the house of the various editors of The Wire and its office based in Delhi, on the complaint of BJP Spokesperson Amit Malviya pertaining to series of articles about Amit Malviya enjoying special censorship on the contents being published on social media company named ‘Meta’.

… Be it in the arrest of academics, activists, lawyers, journalists and poets in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case or the incarceration of journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh, Siddiqui Kappan, Fahad Shah of ‘Kasmir Walla’, Asif Sultan and now several more, it is evident that the State is becoming more and more intolerant of any critical voice or dissent. At such times, it is imperative that democratic and progressive voices speak out, else risk being silenced forever.
Read full statement

New generation freedom fighters, GN Saibaba, others are victims of ‘state terrorism’

New generation freedom fighters, GN Saibaba, others are victims of ‘state terrorism’

Counterview / by Counterview Desk

A Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) meeting on 28th October at the Gandhi Peace foundation on, ‘Dangerous Brain: Saibaba and Others’, held to scrutinise the Supreme Court judgement suspending Bombay High Court’s acquittal order of Prof GN Saibaba, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Vijay Tirki and Mahesh Tikri, has demanded that the Apex Court should uphold the Bombay High Court’s order granting acquittal to Saibaba and others…
Citing the case of Jyoti Jagtap, Apoorvanand said that she has been denied bail because she criticized the government through their songs, means that there is no space in this democracy for criticism of the government.
Read more


Also read:
Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is Now the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)