The Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad ‘Maoist’ conspiracy case is a grand experiment with truth where the State is daring the people to stand up for justice.
‘TRUTH or dare’ is a mostly verbal party game requiring two or more players. Players are given the choice between answering a question truthfully, or performing a ‘dare’. The premise is simple: Players take turns asking one another ‘truth or dare?’ If they choose truth, they have to answer a question of the asker’s choosing. If they choose dare, the asker dares them to do something rather than make a confession.
Suppose the State were to subject its citizens to a macabre version of this game by cooking up a conspiracy case and locking up people behind bars. Then tell them that in order to win their freedom, they have to choose the ‘truth’ of the conspiracy or the ‘dare’ to dissent.
This is the absurd logic that plays out when you try to make sense of the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. Read more
Do join this fascinating conversation on 30 September, with trade unionist and advocate Sudha Bhardwaj, organized by #Spark.
#ShankarGuhaNeogi #BhagatSingh
E-Book: From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada
By Sudha Bharadwaj (Author)
Publisher : Juggernaut (10 October 2023)
Language : English
Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put down their heads and work themselves weary. Sudha Bharadwaj watched through the bars of her cell, and she wrote. This is her remarkably granular account of the world of women prisoners in Yerawada Jail in Pune. Bharadwaj was incarcerated here, in a high-security wing called Phansi Yard, from November 2018 to February 2020. She takes us through jail life, her own and the other women’s, from one season to the next, weaving in lively portraits of her fellow prisoners, their children and even their pets, and reflecting on everything from absurd rules, caste hierarchies, food, fistfights and friendships, to the dismal absence of legal aid for the most defenceless of women. Pre-order
NIA gets more time to reply to plea for furnishing copies of evidence to the accused
A few accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad Maoist links and criminal conspiracy case have previously argued that their applications for cloned copies under Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure have been pending for more than five years.
On Tuesday, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria allowed the agency time to file an additional reply to the applications filed by accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad Maoist links and criminal conspiracy case.
… The matter is posted for further hearing on the applications filed under Section 207 of the CrPC on July 28. Read more
Faulty investigation and severe loopholes in investigation, surrounds the controversial BK-16 case. International outcry has not helped move the trial five years down even while the targeted languish, families await the return of their loved ones
In June 2021, European Union parliamentarians, Nobel Laureates, renowned academics, and internationally known figures wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, the then Chief Justice of India as well as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and other authorities in India, demanding to the release of political prisoners arrested with relation to the Elgar Parishad and Bhima Koregaon incident.
Amidst contested accusations of an anti-India conspiracy, militancy, and violence, five long years have passed since the BK-16 have been imprisoned without trial. Read more
Who are the acclaimed ‘BK-16’?
22/06/2023
cjp / by CJP Team
Five years have passed, and human rights defenders (HRDs) and their families continue to await justice.
Surendra Gadling
Status: Detained without trial
Charges:Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) since June 2018
Location: Taloja Central Prison, Mumbai
Gadling is a human rights lawyer and a Dalit activist. Over time, Gadling established himself as a keen advocate and a key figure in cases related to extrajudicial killings, police misconduct, false accusations, and injustices against Dalits and Adivasis in the region… Read more
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
Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others
17/06/2023
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
Chief minister of Telangana, K. Chandrashekar Rao, is said to have inquired about the case with the state police chief and asked him if it can be diluted.
The Telangana government is said to have decided not to pursue the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case filed against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, and 150 others after chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao directed the state police chief to “drop” the case, The Hindu reported. Read more
Work of fiction by police, says Professor Haragopal on UAPA charges against him, 151 others
17/06/2023
The News Minute / by IANS
The former professor of political science was reacting to the booking of a case under UAPA by Tadvai police of Mulugu district last year.
Human rights activist and former University of Hyderabad professor, G. Haragopal, who, along with 151 others, were booked by the Telangana Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged links with Maoists, said on Friday that they had no information why the action against them was taken. Read more
KCR intervenes to drop UAPA charges against rights activists
17/06/2023
The Statesman / by Statesman News Service
The move came in the wake of outrage of outrage over registration of cases against human rights activist Prof Haragopal and 151 others under the the draconian law.
Following an outrage over registration of cases against human rights activist Prof Haragopal and 151 others by Telangana Police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed the state DGP Anjani Kumar to withdraw the draconian law. Read more
Activists Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others Booked Under UAPA Last August; Accused Unaware
16/06/2023
The Wire / by Sumit Jha
The Telangana Police had registered the case in August 2022 accusing them of conspiring to ‘take over the power of the democratically elected government at gunpoint’. The issue came to light only on Thursday, June 15.
… Prominent among those named in the FIR, apart from Prof Haragopal, Prof Padmaja Shaw of Osmania University (OU), Telangana Civil Liberties Committee President Prof Gaddam Laxman, Indian Association of People’s Lawyers’ Justice (Retd) H Suresh, activist Sudha Bharadwaj, human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling, and activist Arun Ferreira. Read more
Telangana Police filed charges under UAPA against 152
16/06/2023
The Statesman / by Statesman News Service
However, the people, including two professors, named in the FIR were unaware of the charges under UAPA until the matter came to light during another trial.
… The charges under the UAPA were brought against the 152 accused after the police carried out combing operations on 19 August, 2022 after receiving a tip off that the Maoists were holding a meeting at Berelli village. When the police reached a temporary shelter, the Maoists escaped into a dense forest. The police seized some Maoist literature and kit bags on the spot and the names of Prof Haragopal and Padmaja Shaw, Prof Gaddam Laxman, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira were apparently found in the literature left behind. Read more
Episode 19 of CJP’s Podcast Series RightsCast
Over the past three decades, Sudha Bharadwaj has served the most marginalized sections of this country as a trade unionist, activist and lawyer. Among 16 activists and academics arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, she was the first to be granted default bail after more than three years in prison.
Listen to her about living in jail and discovering the harsh reality of women in Indian prisons on this exclusive podcast. Listen to the podcast
Also watch/read:
● Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails
By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022 en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails. Watch video
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
Episode 18 of CJP’s Podcast Series RightsCast
How does the Indian Prison system strip the women inmates of their basic rights and dignity? In a patriarchal society, within a prison system that’s designed to focus on male inmates, how do female prisoners navigate their incarceration?
Listen to this in-depth podcast on the conditions of women inmates in India’s prisons where human rights activists, Adivasi leaders, student activists, lawyers and citizens-in-resistance share stories of horror and explore the plight of women in prison. Listen to the podcast
Video: Being inside the Jail is a dehumanising experience | Sudha Bharadwaj | QUAID KE PARE
By Citizens for Justice and Peace hindi | 3:13min Watch video
Video: Healthcare and Mental Health inside Prison | Sudha Bharadwaj | QUAID KE PARE
By Citizens for Justice and Peace hindi | 5:51min Watch video
Also watch/read:
● Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails
By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022
en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails. Watch video
The country’s jails teem with poor and marginalised people detained without justification.
Since there was no one to furnish a Rs.30,000 surety bond, Jai Parkash, 47, spent over 22 years in judicial custody without a trial. On November 21, Parkash, a stout man with swollen hands and a puffy face, was finally released on bail as part of the remissions granted under “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”.
… Quoting the Prison Statistics India report, Raghavan said: “Nearly 85 to 90 per cent of prisoners are SCs, STs, OBCs and Muslims. There is no data available on their socio-economic background, but our work with prison populations in Maharashtra shows that more than 60 per cent have a monthly family income less than Rs. 10,000. Read more
● Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails
By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022
en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails. Watch video
● Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling
By The Wire hindi | 11min | 2021
In August, when human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling was released on interim bail for a week, he made a quick visit to the Nagpur sessions court to meet his colleagues and friends. 51- year-old Gadling, a well-known criminal lawyer in Nagpur, was once a cultural activist, who sang songs of political resistance. The 11- minutes-long rendition tells you what it means to be incarcerated in Indian prisons. From food, water, to medical care, everything is a struggle, Gadling narrates. Watch video
