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On 5th birthday in jail, friends wish for Shoma Sen’s release

On 5th birthday in jail, friends wish for Shoma Sen’s release

Shoma Sen

Times of India / by Shishir Arya

“On your 5th birthday in incarceration, Shoma…we will fight for justice,” says a post by Tusharkanti Bhattacharya, for his wife who is one of the 16 accused in Bhima Koregaon case. With the message he also posted her picture that was published in a Bengali journal Azaadi which carried an article on various political prisoners.
On Monday, Shoma Sen, a Nagpur University professor when arrested five years ago, turned 64.
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Also read:
● Part 1: ‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’ (Rediff.com / May 2022)
● Part 2: When Your Mother Is In Prison… (Rediff.com / May 2022)
● Part 3:’I have to get Ma out of prison’ (Rediff.com / June 2022)

Sipper and straw, to mosquito nets and phone calls: Elgar accused in court for relief

Sipper and straw, to mosquito nets and phone calls: Elgar accused in court for relief

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Varavara Rao is currently on bail on medical grounds, and had challenged in the Supreme Court the High Court order rejecting his appeal.
… Incidentally, the High Court had also noted the claims made by Rao’s counsel on the lack of medical facilities at the Taloja prison and the poor hygienic conditions there, saying there was substance in the argument.
In the trial in the case, the Elgar Parishad accused have repeatedly brought up the lack of facilities in prison, and denial of access to the same.
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Default bail pleas of five Elgaar accused: Matter already decided by Bombay HC, says NIA Court

Default bail pleas of five Elgaar accused: Matter already decided by Bombay HC, says NIA Court

Free Press Journal / by Staff Reporter

A special court that recently rejected the default bail pleas of five of the Bhima Koregaon – Elgaar Parishad accused, has said in its reasoned order for doing so, that the ground on which they were seeking bail was already considered and decided by the Bombay High Court and they had no right to raise it in their present pleas.
The applications were filed by Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhavale, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut.
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Also read:
● NIA special court rejects default bail application of five accused (The Leaflet / June 2022)

NIA special court rejects default bail application of five accused

NIA special court rejects default bail application of five accused

Poster campaign, 2019. Click to enlarge

Mumbai court rejects default bail to 5 accused

29/06/2022

Bar & Bench / by Satyendra Wankhade

The bail pleas had been pending since 2018 when accused, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut approached a Pune court challenging extension of time granted for filing of chargesheet.
The applications were filed in 2018 seeking default bail on the ground that the extension granted by the court to the investigating agency for filing chargesheet was in violation of law.
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NIA special court rejects default bail application of five accused

28/06/2022

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

Earlier today, the default bail applications of human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist Surendra Gadling, activist and researcher Rona Wilson, women’s rights activist and professor Shoma Sen, activist Mahesh Raut, and activist, actor and publisher Sudhir Dhawale, co- accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, were rejected by a Special National Intelligence Agency (‘NIA’) court in Mumbai.
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NIA court rejects default bail of five accused in Bhima Koregaon case

28/06/2022

The Hindu / by Special Correspondent

The grounds for filing the petition was that the 90-day extension that was granted to the prosecuting agency for filing the chargesheet was illegal
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday rejected the default bail plea of five accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case.
Special NIA judge Rajesh Katariya rejected the pleas of former professor of Nagpur university Shoma Sen, advocate Surendra Gadling, activist Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Mahesh Raut. All of them were arrested on June 6, 2018 from different locations.
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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)
● Bombay High Court rejects default bail plea of Varavara Rao and seven other accused (The Leaflet / May 2022)

Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each

Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanwala

In the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, leading activists, lawyers, scholars and artists have been arrested without trial under the charges of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (‘UAPA’). According to the police, allegedly provocative statements and speeches made at the Elgar Parishad meeting in Pune on December 31, 2017, instigated the violence at Bhima Koregaon the following day on January 1, 2018 that led to death of one and injuries to several others …

The Leaflet brings to its readers a brief profile of each of the arrested persons, and the developments in the case pertaining to each.
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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….”
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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.
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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)

Part 3: ‘I have to get Ma out of prison’

Part 3: ‘I have to get Ma out of prison’

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘After the pandemic began, they suddenly shut down the prisons; for three months, we did not know what was happening.’
‘There were no phone calls, no letters, no news from inside.’
‘We were struggling to get any kind of information about them, about their health.’
Your mother is in jail.
You are outside, doing everything possible to secure her release.
Then, COVID strikes.
And, for nearly three months, in the outside world, you are seeing the devastation it has wrought.
And, every second, you are wondering how your mother is surviving the dreaded disease within those prison walls.
But you don’t know.
The situation is chaotic and you have no word.
That is the trauma that Koel Sen, film-maker, columnist and daughter of Professor Shoma Sen, one of the 16 arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case, went through in the first half of 2020.
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Also read:
● Part 2: When Your Mother Is In Prison… (Rediff.com / May 25)
● Part 1: ‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’ (Rediff.com / May 2022)

When Your Mother Is In Prison…

When Your Mother Is In Prison…

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘Just waiting outside the prison gate, thinking that your mother is inside those walls even though you know she is innocent, affects your psyche.’
There were some things Koel Sen never dreamt she would ever do.
But life turned upside down for the film-maker and columnist when her mother Professor Shoma Sen was arrested in March 2018 for her alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon case. Professor Sen was, as a consequence, suspended from her post as head of the English literature department at Nagpur University.
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Also read:
● ‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’ (Rediff.com / May 2022)

And he waits for Shoma Sen

And he waits for Shoma Sen

Midday / by Ajaz Ashraf

Falling in love while trying to affect a change in the society, as their hearts beat for adivasis and dalits, the couple has now spent in jail nine out of 31 years of their life together.
I called up Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya, husband of Shoma Sen, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, on May 9, with a request: could he tell me their story—she languishing in jail and he alone outside? He said it was on this day in 1991 that Shoma and he were married. 
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Also read:
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday / May 2022)

‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’

‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’


Shoma Sen. Pic: Koel Sen @ fb

Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar

‘The only way to kill time in prison is to read and she can’t even do that properly any more.’
‘Her knees, too, are in terrible shape. I could see how she was trying to hide her pain every time she got up from the bench where she was seated.’
Koel Sen, her daughter, tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar how this “travesty of justice” has taken a huge toll on the family.
Three years, 11 months to the day.
That’s how long Professor Shoma Sen, the former head of the English literature department at Nagpur University — she was suspended after her arrest — has been in prison for her alleged involvement in the *Bhima Koregaon case.
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