The New Indian Express / by Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Over 300 prominent citizens appealed for the release of 11 jailed activists, including Varavara Rao and Sudha Bhardwaj, who are yet to get bail despite prisons being overcrowded and some inmates testing COVID positive.
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Indian Cultural Forum / by ICF Team
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the health of 11 respected fellow citizens:
1. Mr. Varavara Rao
2. Ms. Sudha Bhardwaj
3. Ms. Shoma Sen
4. Mr. Anand Teltumbde
5. Mr. Gautam Navlakha
6. Mr. Arun Ferreira
7. Mr. Vernon Gonsalvez
8. Mr. Surendra Gadling
9. Mr. Mahesh Raut
10. Mr. Sudhir Dhawale
11. Mr. Rona Wilson
These activists, many of them eminent scholars, writers and poets, have worked for the welfare of India’s poorest and most marginalised people over decades. Yet they have been turned into politcal prisoners and incarcerated. They have not been granted bail despite the fact that in the prisons of Maharashtra where they are being detained, some inmates have died and many others have tested positive for COVID-19.
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Newsclick / by Parth MN
Even after 2 deceased inmates were found COVID-19 positive, testing is not being done in Taloja where rights activists, mostly 60+, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case have been lodged.
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The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal
As of June 13, 17, 695 screenings and 1681 swab tests were conducted in 10 Central Prisons in Maharashtra and in the Additional Director General, Prisons (ADGP) office of which 269 tested positive, 115 recovered and four died, the Bombay High Court was informed on Monday.
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The Wire / by Susan Abraham
The police’s relentless pursuit of human rights activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence did not spare judges either.
The Bhima Koregaon case, in which 11 prominent human rights activists, lawyers and academics languish behind bars, that too during a pandemic, has now become the template for similar arrests taking place in different parts of the country 2014 under the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah regime.
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By Pedesterian Pictures
Though there is a mountain of evidence to prove their innocence, the 9 activists arrested, allegedly for their role in the Bhima Koregaon violence still remain in jail. And the witch-hunt only continues, resulting in the arrests of Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde, also charged with UAPA for the same case. While it is very evident that the case against Anand Teltumbde is fabricated, he was asked to surrender amidst the deadly pandemic along with Gautam Navlakha.
We demand the immediate release of all the 11 activists.
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Release All Political Prisoners!
Repeal UAPA and all other draconian laws!
Rise in rage against state repression!
Siasat.com / by N Venugopal
New Delhi: Hindutva – the official guiding principle of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and all the members in its parivar – is an embodiment of lies, fabrication, distortion, deception, obfuscation, hatred and unleashing violence. If one thought that this characterization is an ideological subjective opinion, it is better to look at this glaring example of Bhima Koregaon violence case, a subject of gross obfuscation of facts and inhuman incarceration of public-spirited individuals over the last two years.
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Samaj Weekly / by 21 Organizations
We, the undersigned twenty-one organizations, strongly condemn the shameful imprisonment of India’s finest public intellectuals and social justice defenders, Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Mr. Gautam Navalakha who’ve been in custody since April 14, 2020. Dr. Teltumbde & Mr. Nalvlakha join nine others – journalists, lawyers, writers, academics & organizers- Surendra Gadling, Arun Fereira, Vernon Gonsalves, Mahesh Raut, Sudha Bharadwaj, Dr. Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao- who have been imprisoned in the same fabricated Bhima-Koregaon case.
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Mumbai Mirror / by Jyoti Punwani
Meet the women engaged in an endless battle with the state to free family members arrested under stringent laws.
On Friday morning, the Bombay High Court rejected the parole application of GN Saibaba, the Delhi University professor undergoing a life sentence in Nagpur jail since 2017 for “Maoist links”.
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The Quint / by Ankita Sinha
On 11 May 2020, two police officials with the Mumbai Crime Branch reportedly paid a visit to social activist Vernon Gonsalves’s home, with the intent of finding out Gonsalves’s whereabouts. They questioned his wife, Susan Abraham, who is also an advocate and his son Sagar.
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