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HC Rejects Default Bail To Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawade & Rona Wilson

HC Rejects Default Bail To Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawade & Rona Wilson

Bombay HC rejects default bail of five accused in Bhima Koregaon case

26/07/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The petitioners had moved the High court challenging special court orders in 2022 that denied them default bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday rejected the default bail petitions of five persons accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Bar and Bench reported.
A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam C Chandak issued the order on petitions filed by lawyer Surendra Gadling, activist and researcher Rona Wilson, poet and political commentator Sudhir Dhawale, forest rights activist Mahesh Raut, and former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen.
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Bombay High Court rejects default bail of five accused

26/07/2024

Bar & Bench / by Satyendra Wankhade

A Division Bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam C Chandak passed the order on pleas filed by the five accused challenging 2022 special court orders that denied them default bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday denied default bail to Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Shoma Sen in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
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Bombay High Court Rejects Default Bail To Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawade & Rona Wilson

26/07/2024

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court today rejected the default bail to Dalit rights’ activist and advocate Surendra Gadling and co-accused Mahesh Raut, in the infamous Elgar Parishad case of 2018.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Shyam Chandak pronounced the order in their chamber. Bail was also denied to Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawade and researcher Rona Wilson.
Read more

Also Read:
▪ Explained: The Shoma Sen bail judgment (The Leaflet / Apr 2024)
▪ 4 accused seek bail from Bombay HC on parity with Sudha Bharadwaj (India Today / March 2023)
▪ Bombay HC grants default bail to Sudha Bharadwaj, but declines the same to eight other accused (The Leaflet / Dec 2021)

In What Language Does Truth Speak to A Tormented People. Statement by Sudhir, Rona, Surendra & Mahesh

In What Language Does Truth Speak to A Tormented People. Statement by Sudhir, Rona, Surendra & Mahesh

The Wire / by Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling and Mahesh Raut

Intimations on the sixth year of continuing incarceration of the BK-16.
We live in a moment where truth is treason. Under the fascist onslaught of Brahmanical Hindutva, truth has become consumed with fear – the fear of being watched, being surveilled, being criminalised, neutralised, or even eliminated. But the fear, at the end, is itself a whistleblower.
We, the BK 16, known after the eponymous Bhima Koregaon case, complete six years of incarceration on June 6, 2024 under the stringent anti-terror law, UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act], where the onus is on the accused to prove their innocence; under heavy odds against the Modi dispensation that dubs speaking truth to power treason, anti-Hindu, an act of terror.
Read full statement

Also read:

‘We are all prisoners of conscience’, say those facing trial in Bhima Koregaon case on the occasion of fourth anniversary of their arrests (The Leaflet / June 2022)

Join Protest: June 6 Marks The Sixth Year Of Wrongful Incarceration In Bhima Koregaon Case

Join Protest: June 6 Marks The Sixth Year Of Wrongful Incarceration In Bhima Koregaon Case

by Campaign Against State Repression (May 27):
6 Years Of Wrongful Incarceration In Bhima Koregaon case
JOIN Demonstration at Jantar Mantar 6 June
Release All Political Prisoners !!
Repeal UAPA !!
Repeal NIA !!

Also read:
▪ CASR: Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case (Countercurrents.org / June 2023)
▪ Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice! (PUDR / June 2023)
▪ CDRO: Five Years Since The First Arrests In Bhima-Koregaon Case (Countercurrents.org / June 2023)


‘We are all prisoners of conscience’, say those facing trial in Bhima Koregaon case on the occasion of fourth anniversary of their arrests (The Leaflet / June 2022)

▪ IAPL: Unite against State Repression on Peoples Movements! (Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) / July 2018)
▪ IAPL press note about arrest of Advocate Gadling & other people’s activists (Sanhati / June 2018)
▪ PUCL Statement condemning Arrests of Activists in Maharashtra (Kractivist.org / June 2018)

Arrested: June 6, 2018

 

by Campaign Against State Repression

Release All Political Prisoners !!

JOIN Demonstration at Jantar Mantar 6 June
Release All Political Prisoners !!
Repeal UAPA !!
Repeal NIA !!


Also read:
▪ 7/16 Bhima Koregaon Accused Get Bail, Courts Raise Prima Facie Doubts About Evidence (Live Law / May 2024)
▪ SC grants bail to Gautam Navlakha: All about the Bhima Koregaon violence case, other accused (The Indian Express / May 2024)
▪ Bhima Koregaon: The process continues to clot as punishment as another year passes by (The Leaflet / Jan 2024)

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.
Read more

CASR: 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.
Read more

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)

From Bhima Koregaon to PMLA, Justice Khanwilkar’s Legacy Will Not Favour Liberty

From Bhima Koregaon to PMLA, Justice Khanwilkar’s Legacy Will Not Favour Liberty

From Bhima Koregaon to PMLA, Justice Khanwilkar’s Legacy Will Not Favour Liberty

30/07/2022

The Quint / by Vakasha Sachdev

From his decisions on Bhima Koregaon in 2018 to PMLA in 2022, Justice Khanwilkar consistently enabled state power.
The legacy of Justice AM Khanwilkar, who retired as a Supreme Court judge on Friday, 29 July, can best be summed up by the first case where he came to prominence.
In August 2018, the Maharashtra Police made the second set of arrests in what would come to be known as the Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

Justice AM Khanwilkar’s Legacy: Regression of Fundamental Rights

30/07/2022

Live Law / by Manu Sebastian

When it came to the exercise of judicial review and protection of fundamental rights, Justice Khanwilkar displayed a narrow and technical approach.
… Here is a look at some judgments/orders authored by Justice Khanwilkar in cases relating to civil liberties.
Rejecting plea for SIT probe in Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

Also read
● The Executive(’s) Court: On the Legacy of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar (The Wire / July 2022)
● Not A Case Of Arrest For Dissent, SC Turns Down Plea For SIT In Bhima Koregaon Case By 2:1 Majority, Chandrachud Dissents [Read Judgment] (Live Law / Sep 2018)
● Justice Chandrachud dissents again: Bhima Koregaon case needs impartial investigation (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

Five Bhima Koregaon accused write open letter on four years of incarceration [read letter]

Five Bhima Koregaon accused write open letter on four years of incarceration [read letter]

click to enlarge posters

‘We are all prisoners of conscience’, say those facing trial in Bhima Koregaon case on the occasion of fourth anniversary of their arrests [read letter]

05/06/2022

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

As they complete four years in prison, those accused of instigating violence wonder how much more time the judiciary will take to digest that all the evidence fabricated against them is fake.
In a poignant letter from the prisons where they have been languishing for the past four years, those facing trial in the Bhima Koregaon case, have asserted that their suffering is nothing in comparison to many other prisoners, who have spent years altogether with a smile on their face. “Looking at them gives us some a different kind of energy. [sic] Even in these inhuman places, they live with great optimism….”
Read more


Read their letter in full here

Five Bhima Koregaon accused write open letter on four years of incarceration

05/06/2022

The Hindu / by Special Correspondent

Reiterate their commitment to fight for the underprivileged and downtrodden.
It has been four years since Prof Shoma Sen, advocate Surendra Gadling, activist Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale were arrested for the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad conference. They have written an open letter that they are still committed to take up the cudgels for the labourers, underprivileged and the downtrodden.
Read more


siddhesh gautam (Jun 6):
Bhima Koregaon: four years of injustice, 2022
From 6th June 2018 to 6th June 2022, four years of imprisonment, four years of wrongful incrimination, four years of injustice and an eternity of separation and pain.

#FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners   #freebk16

Also watch/read:

VIDEO: THE BHIMA KOREGAON CONSPIRACY CASE – THREE YEARS TOO MANY …

06/06/2021

By Family and Friends of BK16

Three years ago, on 6 June 2018, the first arrests of human rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case occurred. Today, 16 of the finest citizens of India face trumped up charges in this fabricated case.
Join the Family Members and friends of BK16 on a webinar and Book Release.
Book Release by Bhanwar Meghvanshi, leading writer and Dalit Intellectual

hindi + en | 4h 30min | 2021
Watch video at PUCL fb

SALAAKHON MEIN QAID AVAAZEIN (IMPRISONED VOICES)

06/06/2021

By Family Members and friends of BK16

“Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein”
Edition: June 2021
Language: Hindi
Paperback: 69 pages
Access a PDF copy of the book here (15MB)

Immediate Justice needed in Bhima-Koregaon Conspiracy

Immediate Justice needed in Bhima-Koregaon Conspiracy

Music clip: The BK16


en | 30sec | 2021
Watch music clip

Immediate Justice needed in Bhima-Koregaon Conspiracy

12/06/2021

The Milli Gazette / by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ

It was the virtual ‘midnight knock’! The irony was that the knock took place in broad daylight, and expectedly in a blatantly unjust, uncivilised and unconstitutional manner. On 6 June 2018, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson were arrested from their residences in various parts of the country. The arrests of others then continued in a phased manner: on 28 August 2018, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao and Vernon Gonsalves; on 14 April 2020, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha; on 28 July 2020, Hanybabu Tarayil; on 10 September 2020, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and (the next day) Jyoti Jagtap – all three from the Kabir Kala Manch were arrested from Pune; finally on 8 October 2020, Fr Stan Swamy was arrested from Ranchi.
It is three years now since the first arrests in the Bhima-Koregaon conspiracy case were made. Today, sixteen (referred to as the BK-16) of the country’s committed citizens continue to languish in jail, with bail being denied to them and with absolutely no signs of any trial beginning.
Read more

Video: The Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case – Three Years Too Many …

Video: The Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case – Three Years Too Many …

By Family and Friends of BK16

Three years ago, on 6 June 2018, the first arrests of human rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case occurred. Today, 16 of the finest citizens of India face trumped up charges in this fabricated case.

Please join the Family Members and friends of BK16 on a webinar and Book Release.
Book Release by Bhanwar Meghvanshi, leading writer and Dalit Intellectual


hindi + en | 4h 30min | 2021
Watch video at PUCL fb

Read the book (Hindi): SALAAKHON MEIN QAID AVAAZEIN (IMPRISONED VOICES).

Three years after Bhima Koregaon: How criminal law was violated

Three years after Bhima Koregaon: How criminal law was violated

The Leaflet / by Nihalsing B Rathod

Recalling his bruising experiences with an unjust criminal justice system as part of the legal team of the activists arrested in the questionable Bhima Koregaon violence case three years ago, Nihalsing B Rathod, in this second of a three-part series, recollects how basic tenets of criminal law were violated by the Pune Police in arresting Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Fereira, and Vernon Gonsalves at various points, and extending their detention, as well as that of Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Mahesh Raut. All this while, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde exhausted all legal options to evade arrest, as the judiciary looked on, condoning the deprivation of the activists’ liberty and denying their bail applications, sometimes making gestures that filled the activists’ legal team with hope but ultimately continuing the farce that is the Bhima-Koregaon travesty.
Read more

Also read part one: Bhima Koregaon: Marking three years since the first arrest (June 7, 2021)

Bhima Koregaon: Marking three years since the first arrest

Bhima Koregaon: Marking three years since the first arrest


Click to enlarge posters

The Leaflet / by Nihalsing B Rathod

Recalling the first set of arrests made in the questionable Bhima Koregaon violence case almost exactly three years ago, Nihalsing B Rathod, in this first of a three-part series, recollects the personal horrors of trying to track Surendra Gadling in the immediate aftermath of his arrest, details the events leading to the arrest of five more activists in August 2018, and explains how basic tenets of criminal law were violated by the Pune Police in making these arrests.

The morning of June 6, 2018, gave me a horrific memory that perhaps will never fade. Early in the morning, I received a phone call that police were at the house of Advocate Surendra Gadling again. The memory of the raid of April 17, 2018, was still fresh.
Read more