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Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice!

Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice!

Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice!

06/06/2023

By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)

Five years behind bars for five activists
Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice!
Release all 15-surviving accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
June 6, 2023 will mark five years that five activists are behind bars. They include Mahesh Raut, an anti-displacement campaigner, Rona Wilson, a political prisoners’ campaigner, Shoma Sen, a feminist activist and professor, Sudhir Dhawale, a Dalit rights activist and Surendra Gadling, a lawyer who takes people’s rights cases pro-bono.
Read full statement

Five Years Since The First Arrests In Bhima-Koregaon Case

06/06/2023

Countercurrents.org / by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO)

6th June 2018. The nation’s conscience suffered yet another attack by the arrests of leading intellectuals and democratic rights activists by the Pune police in connection with the so-called Bhima-Koregaon (BK) case. These arrests snowballed into a series of arrests in subsequent months. Five years have passed, and barring a few activists out on bail, the arrested persons are still languishing in jail without a charge sheet being filed. Through this statement, the CDRO once again tries to remember the incidents leading to these arrests and subsequent events; so that people can unite in a struggle for the release of the BK-16 and the repeal of draconian laws.
Read full statement

Five years of Bhima Koregaon arrests: CDRO marks ‘black day’

06/06/2023

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

It was on this day in 2018 that five activists were first arrested by the Pune police in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad Maoist links and criminal conspiracy case. To mark this day, and by means of highlighting the plight of the arrested persons, the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation and People’s Union for Democratic Rights have issued press statements demanding the immediate release of all the persons behind bars in connection with the case.
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Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case

07/06/2023

Countercurrents.org / by Campaign Against State Repression

June 6th became a day of one of the most audacious attack by the Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist state on the Democratic rights and political activists and began new era of rampant use of UAPA and conspiracy cases, which was, although known to the working class, the peasantry and the oppressed, have been largely unknown to the Urban democratic movement. June 6th, 2018 marks the first arrest in the infamous Bhima Koregaon ‘Conspiracy’ case, after series of raids in April 2018. The police arrested Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut.
Read full statement

Five years after arrest, Bhima Koregaon case accused yet to get copies of proof against them

05/06/2023

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Special Public Prosecutor rubbished the allegation and said most of the material have been shared with them
It has been six years since Sudhir Dhawale, an activist; Surendra Gadling, a criminal lawyer practising in Nagpur; Shoma Sen, professor and Head of Department, English at Nagpur University; activists Rona Wilson and Mahesh Raut were arrested in the caste-based violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon in Pune in 2017.
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Also read:
● Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested & the developments in the case pertaining to each (The Leaflet / June 2022)
● Marking three years since the first arrest (The Leaflet / June 2021)
● Two years of Bhima Koregaon Arrests (The Leaflet / June 2020)
● What has happened to the five activists who were arrested a year ago (Scroll.in / June 2019)
● IAPL press note about arrest of Advocate Gadling & other people’s activists (Sanhati / June 2018)

Fourth Drone Bomb Attack on Indigenous People in Bastar, Chhattisgarh

Fourth Drone Bomb Attack on Indigenous People in Bastar, Chhattisgarh

IndiaMatters UK / by over 60 international organisations and individual campaigners, activists and academics

Fourth Drone Bomb Attack on Indigenous People in Bastar, Chhattisgarh
Stop This State Terror Now!

Press Note

Indigenous (Adivasi) people in Bijapur district of Bastar, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, have been traumatised by yet another aerial bomb attack from the security forces which have been using drones to carry out these operations. Although the Indian Air Force is not officially deployed for combat in Chhattisgarh, the repeated use of aerial bombardment on civilian populations suggests a new dimension to the state terror being inflicted on the Adivasi population of Bastar for years.
… Social activists who have been speaking out against this injustice have also ended up in prisons … there are the well known sixteen democratic rights activists falsely implicated in what has come to be known as the Bhima Koregaon case. These sixteen were locked in prison between 2018 and 2020 on the basis of an essentially fabricated case prepared by the notorious National Investigative Agency against them under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Read full statement

Also read:
● Security forces’ operations in adivasi areas compared with Russia-Ukraine war (Counterview.net / April 2022)
● In Jharkhand, Scheduled Tribes Still Battle Flimsy Criminal Cases Filed With Little Evidence (Indiaspend.com / Oct 2021)
● Gadling in jail. Reason? As lawyer-activist he has been ‘unpleasant’ to India’s topcops (Counterview.net / Dec 2020)
● Gadchiroli’s 300 Gram Sabhas Pass Resolution in Support of Activist Mahesh Raut (The Wire / Oct 2018)
● Condemn the State Sponsored Massacre Scripted as ‘Encounter’ in Gadchiroli and Bijapur in Central India (wssnet.org / May 2018)
● How corporate land grab is sought to be legitimized in Chhattisgarh by misusing legal framework (Counterview.org / Feb 2018)

Press Release / ‘Release of all accused in Bhima-Koregaon case’ / 3 Opposition MPs raise voice

Press Release / ‘Release of all accused in Bhima-Koregaon case’ / 3 Opposition MPs raise voice

by VR Jayanthi (Aug 5):

3 Opposition MPs raise voice against continued imprisonment of undertrials

05/08/2022

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

CPI Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam hails Stan Swamy as ‘martyr’
Three Opposition MPs on Thursday spoke out against the continued imprisonment of the undertrials in the Elgaar Parishad case.
CPI Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam hailed Stan Swamy, the priest who died in custody after being arrested in the case, as a “martyr.”
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Press conference by CDRO: ‘Release of all accused in Bhima-Koregaon case’

04/08/2022

Times of India / by Mohua Chatterjee

Three members of Parliament from different states and across parties demanded the release of all the the accused of the Bhima-Koregaon case, who are in jail since June 2018.
Rajya Sabha MPs Binoy Viswam (CPI) who hails from Kerala and Ajit Bhuyan (Independent) who represents Assam and Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu Tholkappiyan Thirumavalavan (VCK) spoke at a press conference held by the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO).
Read more

by Ajit Kumar Bhuyan (Aug 4):
We, the opposition MPs of Parliament addressed a press conference at Press Club of India today demanding- Immediate release of all the accused of the Bhima-Koregaon case. And repe of the NIA act and disbandment of the agency as it goes against the ethos of our federal nature.

There is no room for fake encounters, says NHRC chief Arun Mishra

There is no room for fake encounters, says NHRC chief Arun Mishra

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The head of the country’s statutory human rights body said that speedy justice was key to rule of law.
National Human Rights Commission chief Arun Mishra on Friday said that suspects in cases should not be jailed without trial and that there was no room for fake encounters. Mishra, a former Supreme Court judge, added that justice was the source of a peaceful society…
As recently as on Wednesday, South African non-profit organisation Civicus put India on a list of countries with “repressed” democratic values. The report had flagged the use of draconian anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, repression of the farmers’ protest and the imposition of curfews in Jammu and Kashmir.
Read more

Also read:
● In Jharkhand, Scheduled Tribes Still Battle Flimsy Criminal Cases Filed With Little Evidence (Indiaspend / Oct 2021)
● The ‘Encounter Raj’ mindset: Stop mocking those who stand for human rights. Demonising them endangers every citizen (Times of India / July 2020)
● Chhattisgarh: Story of another ‘encounter’ (The Indian Express / Dec 2019)
● Press Release Of The Joint Fact Finding in Gadchiroli by CDRO, IAPL and WSS (WSS / May 2018)

2020 Witnesses the Deliberate Destruction of Democratic Rights Organizations in India

2020 Witnesses the Deliberate Destruction of Democratic Rights Organizations in India


Solidarity poster, July 2020

Groundxero / by Partho Sarothi Ray

The large scale destruction of lives and livelihoods in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in India and its inept handling by the government has been accompanied by another sort of destruction, much more deliberate and calculated. It is the destruction of the democratic rights organizations (DROs) of India, as part of a vicious plan of the BJP government to irreparably shrink the democratic space for a future that we can only tremble to think about.
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CDRO: Release of all those arrested in the fabricated Bhima Koregaon case

CDRO: Release of all those arrested in the fabricated Bhima Koregaon case

Countercurrents / by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO)

CDRO is shocked to hear the news of the arrest of Father  Stan Swamy in connection with the infamous Bhima-Koregaon (BK) case. We note with disgust that Father Stan Swamy is the latest victim of the witch hunt operation carried out by the BJP-government in the name of BK case. It is a well-known fact today that the NIA, in the BK case, could not find any convincing material implicating the incarcerated activists and proving several alleged trumped-up charges including “criminal conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister”.
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Rights bodies protest in Kolkata, alleges BJP govt trying to crush democratic movements

Rights bodies protest in Kolkata, alleges BJP govt trying to crush democratic movements

THE ROADS WERE NEVER QUIET!

By Release The Poet

CDRO called to observe Sept 22nd as a protest day countrywide against the ‘witch-hunts’ & undemocratic arrests of Bhima Koregaon-15 & others. The city of Kolkata reciprocated too.
Few glimpses of 22nd’s on-road protest, joined by 20+ organisations at Bowbazar, Kolkata.

Rights bodies protest in Kolkata, alleges BJP govt trying to crush democratic movements

Outlook / by pti

Kolkata, Sep 22 (PTI) Several Left-wing outfits and rights bodies staged a demonstration in Kolkata on Tuesday against the arrest of activists by the BJP-led government at the Centre, which they alleged was using the NIA to crush democratic movements.
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Academics, Artists and Activists Condemn NIA Actions and Express Solidarity

Academics, Artists and Activists Condemn NIA Actions and Express Solidarity

Renowned Academics, Artists Support K. Satyanarayana, Condemn NIA ‘Harassment’

The Wire/ by The Wire Staff

New Delhi: A group of more than 700 academics, activists, artists and others have come together to condemn the harassment and arrests of right activists, academics and lawyers in the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case. They have expressed their solidarity with Professor K. Satyanarayana, who teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in Hyderabad, and has been summoned for questioning the case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
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More Than 1,000 Scientists, Academics Condemn NIA Action in Elgar Parishad Case

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

New Delhi: A group of 1,039 scientists and academics have released a statement condemning the National Investigation Agency (NIA) action in the Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case.
Statement
…Most recently, we understand that the NIA has summoned the well-known scientist and activist, Prof. Partho Sarothi Ray, of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (Kolkata) to Mumbai on 10th September for questioning in this case…
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CDRO condemns the witch-hunt by the NIA and the choking of pro-people voices

Countercurrents / by Co-Ordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO)

Press Release, 8th September 2020
After the arrests of leading public intellectuals like poet Varavara Rao, Prof. Soma Sen, Prof. Anand Teltumbde, Mr. Gautam Navlakha, Ms. Sudha Bharadwaj, and others, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has trained its gun yet once again on democratic right activists, lawyers and other intellectuals.
One of their latest targets is Prof. Parthosarathi Ray, a leading biologist of the country, an Associate Professor working in Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, and also a leading personality of the democratic rights movements of the country.
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CLC & Left Parties Demand Unconditional Release of Public Intellectuals arrested in BK Case & Prof. Saibaba

CLC & Left Parties Demand Unconditional Release of Public Intellectuals arrested in BK Case & Prof. Saibaba

CDRO Online / by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organaisation

A round table meeting was held on 14th July 2020, at the Godavarikhani, Ambedkar Bhavan on the issue of arrested intellectuals in Bhima-Koregaon case. This meeting was attended by different public associations, Civil Liberties Committee (CLC), leftist parties like CPI, CPIM, CPI-ML New Democracy and Dalit groups like All India Ambedkar Youth Association (AIAYA), Madiga Reservation PorataSamithi (MRPS) and Mala Mahanadu.
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