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Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists formed a solidarity committee for BK16

Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists formed a solidarity committee for BK16

By SOLIFONDS

Parliamentarians and trade unionists establish solidarity committee for arrested human rights activists, lawyers, intellectuals and cultural workers in India

Press Release Nov 30, 2020
Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists have formed a solidarity committee for political prisoners in India. With this they protest against the criminalization of human rights activists and government critics in India and demand their release. They also call on the Indian government to ensure that they are released, that irregularities in the proceedings against the arrested persons are investigated and that rights of the prisoners are fully guaranteed. The committee was initiated by the Solidarity organization SOLIFONDS, which has been in contact with the well-known arrested lawyer and trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj for years. …

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Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

Tweets by American Bar Association – ABA Justice Defenders Program

#India: During the #16DaysOfActivism, we remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj. We urge authorities to secure her immediate release in the absence of clear evidence of criminal conduct. @NIA_India #FreeSudha #FreeBhimaKoregaon #16days #OrangeTheWorld
The @chr_aba report found that Ms. Bharadwaj has been subject to numerous fair trial violations, including prejudicial public statements by the police and lack of independent public witnesses. @UN_SPExperts @UNIndepJudges

Also read: The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon (Oct 2019)


CIVICUS: This #16Days we continue the call for #India to free #WHRD Sudha Bharadwaj, an activist and human rights lawyer who has spent over 2 years in detention.

Musical Event: Here to Stay – Ideas Cannot be Arrested

Musical Event: Here to Stay – Ideas Cannot be Arrested

mid-day / by Shunashir Sen

A musical event this weekend will highlight the plight of political activists locked behind bars
Justice delayed is justice denied. That’s the maxim that some people have brought up in connection to political activists who have been imprisoned without their bail pleas being heard, some for years on end. The country’s criminal justice system is in the spotlight at a time when people are voicing their concern about the pending cases of activists Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen and hundreds of others like them who have been spending their nights in jail cells.
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India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties / Protect our Republic, my lords

India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties / Protect our Republic, my lords

Arnab Goswami & India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties

16/11/2020

Article 14 / by Zaid Wahidi

On 11 November 2020, the Supreme Court granted bail to television show-host Arnab Goswami, who had been in judicial custody for seven days on an abetment to suicide charge related to a 2018 case. The merits aside, the manner in which the judicial machinery functioned to protect Goswami’s liberty was extraordinary… However, when the Supreme Court’s own approach to cases concerning personal liberty is tested on the touchstone of these observations, the reality could not be more of a contrast…
Sudha Bharadwaj: Imprisoned For 811 Days
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Protect our Republic, my lords

16/11/2020

The Hindu / by Sriram Panchu

The judiciary’s quick intervention in the Arnab Goswami case turns the spotlight on other serious cases that languish.
The facts are brief. Mr. Arnab Goswami of Republic TV, a media group perceived to be supportive of the ruling party, was arrested by the Mumbai Police on November 4, 2020 on a charge of abetting the suicide of Anvay Naik … The High Court heard his case for five hours on a holiday, and said exactly this on November 9…
There is however the disturbing contrast between the breakneck speed of the Supreme Court in this case with other cases which involve large scale and serious violations of fundamental freedoms.
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Five cases on personal liberty decided by Justice DY Chandrachud

15/11/2020

Bar & Bench / by Murali Krishnan

Supreme Court Bench headed by JusticeDY Chandrachud, on November 11 granted bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief, Arnab Goswami in an abetment to suicide case against him…
Below are a few cases in which Justice Chandrachud was confronted with issue of personal liberty/ bail.
Bhima -Koregaon arrests
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What About Personal Liberty Of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, VV Rao & Stan Swamy?

What About Personal Liberty Of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, VV Rao & Stan Swamy?

SC Protects Arnab’s Personal Liberty, Why Not Sudha Bharadwaj’s?

15/11/2020

Kashimir Pen / by Web Desk

Leading human rights and constitutional lawyer Karuna Nundy applauded the Supreme Court for acting out its self-professed role as ‘sentinel on the qui vive’ and protecting personal liberty when ordering Arnab Goswami’s release on interim bail – but had some tough questions about the consistency of the court’s approach.
She noted that even though the Republic editor-in-chief had not only damaged people’s reputations by calling them terrorists and anti-nationals, and actually influenced the taking of state action against them – from Umar Khalid to the Bhima Koregaon accused – it was still a good thing that his case was heard on a priority basis by the apex court.
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Video: SC Protects Arnab’s Personal Liberty, But What About Sudha Bharadwaj’s?

13/11/2020


en | 7:32min | 2020

The Quint / by The Quint

Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy explains why there are concerns over the consistency with which the apex court will apply its order granting Arnab Goswami interim bail, with Sudha Bharadwaj’s case a prime example.
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Video: What About Liberty Of Anand Teltumbde, Varavara Rao, Stan Swamy, Asks Kapil Sibal

12/11/2020


en | 11:23min | 2020

NDTV / by NDTV

The Supreme Court’s order on Wednesday in the Arnab Goswami case has major implications beyond just this one instance. Justice Chandrachud observed, “Forget Arnab Goswami for a moment, we are a Constitutional court…. If we as a Constitutional Court do not lay down law and protect liberty, then who will?” He went on to add, “If we don’t interfere in this case today, we will walk on path of destruction. You may differ in ideology but Constitutional courts will have to protect such freedoms…” The remarks come at a time when thousands languish in jails in want of bail. These include the old and the infirm, like 81-year-old Varavara Rao accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case and Father Stan Swamy who suffers from Parkinson’s.
After the Supreme Court’s observations that ‘constitutional courts have to protect freedoms’, will this set a precedent in other pending cases as well? We speak to senior advocate and Congress MP Kapil Sibal who was in Supreme Court in connection with this case.
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Political Prisoners – X

Political Prisoners – X

Indian Cultural Forum / by ICF Team

A Turkish folktale, lately popular worldwide, relates that there was once—upon a time—a copse of trees that mistook an axe for a friend. “Look, it’s got a wooden handle!” cheered the trees. “The axe is one of us!” Pretty soon, those became famous last words. Variants of the plot are found in Hebrew and Kannada, Urdu and Greek, for when a folktale goes global we often discover it was global all along.
In The Leaflet (October 25), Annie Domini asks how we can “accurately recapture the evil of a State that finds solidarity to be a crime”.
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Law and the Subversion of Justice in India

Law and the Subversion of Justice in India

Institute of Postcolonial Studies / by Yug Mohit Chaudhry

While purporting to investigate the Hindutva-fuelled riots of 1st January 2018 following the Elgaar Parishad commemoration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, an iconic event in Dalit historiography, the state has imprisoned some highly respected intellectuals, scholars and social activists…
Many of these sixteen are role models and heroes of our times: they have sacrificed themselves for the weak and the poor, deepened democracy, and given dignity and meaning to those surviving on the margins of existence ignored by successive governments. If at all they erred, it was in excess of love for those they served.
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Concern over Arnab’s Health in Jail. What about Activists Like Varavara Rao and Stan Swamy?

Concern over Arnab’s Health in Jail. What about Activists Like Varavara Rao and Stan Swamy?

Concern over Arnab’s Health in Jail. What about Activists Like Varavara Rao and Stan Swamy?

09/11/2020

ARRÉ / by ARRÉ BENCH

Jailed poet Varavara Rao is suspected to have dementia; he also suffers from multiple ailments including neurological disorders. Activist Stan Swamy, also in jail, has Parkinsons. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is concerned about the health of Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami.
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Was it freedom of expression when Arnab Goswami called activists anti-national?

06/11/2020

Counterview / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

India’s prime time ‘hyper entertainer’, Arnab Goswami, was arrested by the Maharashtra police for charges of ‘abetment of suicide’ of an architect and his mother, who has worked for the so-called ‘number one’ channel, but did not get paid …
In fact, Fadnavis should face an independent commission for upturning the entire Bhima Koregaon violence case into a conspiracy theory and then putting so many intellectuals in jail.
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Arnab Goswami arrest does not set India down a slippery slope – it’s been sliding down one for years

05/11/2020

Scroll.in / by Shoaib Daniyal

Dramatic scenes flashed on India’s TV screens on Wednesday morning as Arnab Goswami, the editor-in-chief of the Republic TV network, was arrested from his home in Mumbai.
Goswami has played a big part in changing India’s media landscape, pioneering a loud, jingoistic brand of journalism that does not shy away from flaunting its leanings towards the Bharatiya Janata Party…
Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, has explicitly blamed Goswami for making “false, malicious and defamatory allegations” against her by sharing a “fabricated letter”.
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The Maharashtra Police Is Getting Dangerously Politicised and Partisan

05/11/2020

The Wire / by Ashish Khetan

The police has shown no compunctions in going after the critics of the political outfit in power – be it the left-leaning academics under the BJP’s rule or a rightwing media head under the present Shiv Sena-led coalition…
Param Bir Singh, the current police commissioner, has a troubling track record of leading investigations that suit the political party in power. In August 2018, while he was serving as the additional director general of police (law and order) under the BJP-Shiv Sena government, Singh held the infamous press conference in which he released the ‘conclusive evidence’ against the human rights activists and academics accused in the Bhima Koregaon case of waging war against the nation, even as the matter was being heard by the Supreme Court.
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From Kashmir to Gujarat, Journalists Continue to Get Arrested. But It Hasn’t Angered Our Netas Like Arnab’s Arrest

04/11/2020

ARRÉ / by ARRÉ BENCH

The arrest of Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami has been condemned by ministers, many calling it an attack of press freedom. But will they continue their outrage when the next journalist is assaulted in Delhi or arrested in Gujarat?
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No trial, No bail: Activist Sudha Bharadwaj spends third birthday in jail

No trial, No bail: Activist Sudha Bharadwaj spends third birthday in jail

The Siasat Daily / by Sruthi Vibhavari

Popularly called the ‘people’s lawyer’, Activist and Professor Sudha Bharadwaj spent her third consecutive birthday in jail. Declining health and serious ailments are her companions in the prison, as several bail petitions have been repeatedly squashed by the courts. Today, she remains incarcerated in Byculla Women’s Prison without a trial.
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