Browsed by
Tag: Vernon Gonsalves

The BK16

The BK16


All the people who are the focus of this blog have been accused of being associated with what has come to be known as the “Bhima-Koregaon” or “Elgar Parishad” case.
To mark the bi-centenary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon in 2018, more than 200 Dalit, Bahujan, Ambedkarite and other organisations came together. The coalition organised the hugely successful and massively attended event, ‘Elgar Parishad’ (loud declaration committee), on December 31, 2017 in Shaniwarwada in Pune, once the seat of Peshwai power. This event, as per the organisers, was organised to expose the Navi Peshwai — an era of increasing repression on movements, alienation of minorities, increasing caste atrocities, anti-poor development policies and more.

Charges against the Activists

● That they had made inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad.
● That they are acting on behalf of, or are members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoists).
● That they were plotting to assassinate the Prime Minister.

Lack of Evidence

As it turns out, most of those arrested were not even at the Elgar Parishad event, the charges about the links to Maoists entirely shown to be based on fabricated evidence and so far the charges about the assassination plot had not even a single piece of evidence produced.

The Case of the Reliance Workers Satyanarayan Karrela, Babushankar Vanguri, 
Shankar Gunde, Ravi Marampelli and Saidulu Singapanga

The BK16: Who is …?

Who is Varavara Rao?
All posts related to Varavara Rao
Who is Sudha Bharadwaj?
All posts related to Sudha Bharadwaj
Who is Sudhir Dhawale?
All posts related to Sudhir Dhawale
Who is Arun Ferreira?
All posts related to Arun Ferreira
Who is Surendra Gadling?
All posts related to Surendra Gadling
Who is Vernon Gonsalves?
All posts related to Vernon Gonsalves
Who is Mahesh Raut?
All posts related to Mahesh Raut
Who is Shoma Sen?
All posts related to Shoma Sen
Who is Rona Wilson?
All posts related to Rona Wilson
Who is Gautam Navlakha?
All posts related to Gautam Navlakha
Who is Anand Teltumbde?
All posts related to Anand Teltumbde
Who is Hany Babu?
All posts related to Hany Babu
Who are the Kabir Kala Manch artistes Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor?
All posts related to Jyoti Jagtap
All posts related to Sagar Gorkhe
All posts related to Ramesh Gaichor
All posts related to Kabir Kala Manch
Who is Stan Swamy?
All posts related to Stan Swamy

Mumbai Police Land at Arrested Activist’s House to Inquire About His Whereabouts

Mumbai Police Land at Arrested Activist’s House to Inquire About His Whereabouts

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Civil liberties activist Vernon Gonsalves is lodged at Taloja jail along with others arrested in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case.
Mumbai: In a strange turn of events, two policemen from Mumbai’s crime branch landed at civil rights activist and lawyer Susan Abraham’s residence in Andheri asking the whereabouts of her husband Vernon Gonsalves, who has been in jail since 2018. Gonsalves, who was arrested in August 2018 for his alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad case, is currently lodged at Taloja central prison located in Thane district.
Read more

JAILED ACTIVIST´S WIFE WRITES TO MUMBAI TOP COP, CJ AFTER POLICE VISIT HER HOME

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

“My son Sagar and I were shocked and disturbed at this uncalled for visit at a time when the risk of transmission of Covid-19 between police (frontline workers) and community members is very high,” the letter states.
Activist Vernon Gonsalves’ wife, advocate Susan Abraham, has written to the Mumbai Police commissioner and Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court stating that while her husband is lodged in Taloja jail in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case, police officers from the crime branch visited their home, making inquiries about his whereabouts. Gonsalves has been behind bars since August 2018.
Read more

81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive

81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Hindu / by Gautam S. Mengle and Sonam Saigal

One positive at Byculla women’s jail.
As many as 81 more inmates at the Arthur Road Central Jail tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the number of cases among prisoners lodged there to 158. A prisoner at the women’s prison in Byculla has also tested positive.
Read more

SUPERINTENDENT OF ARTHUR ROAD JAIN IN QUARANTINE

09/04/2020

Mumbai Mirror / by Somendra Sharma and David Delima

… Families of prisoners and undertrials in jails across the city made frantic calls to their lawyers on Friday morning, after hearing the news that 103 people lodged at Arthur Road jail had tested positive for Covid-19 …
“I have not spoken to my father properly since February, when I last saw him in court. I don’t know if he is safe as there as been zero communication from the authorities. We have no way of getting in touch with any official,” said Sagar Gonsalves, son of incarcerated activist Vernon Gonsalves.
Read more

103 TEST COVID-19 POSITIVE IN MUMBAI’S ARTHUR ROAD JAIL

07/04/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The Maharashtra home department had promised to release over 11,000 prisoners but so far fewer than 7,000 have been released as the health crisis rages.
Mumbai: The delay in the process of decongesting Maharashtra’s prisons has already led to the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in Mumbai’s Arthur Road central prison.
Read more

Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

By Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves / Documented by Mumbai Rises To Save Democracy

22. April
It is my father’s birthday today. He turns 63. Due to the brutality of our government and the failure of our judiciary he will be spending his birthday in a prison cell. At the time of a serious global pandemic when he falls in the category of people most vulnerable he will be spending his birthday in an overcrowded prison with no adequate health facilities.
Today I thought of sharing a about how he has been spending his time in the the past year and a half in Yerwada prison, Pune.
Read more

ABA calls for release of Bhima-Koregaon accused

ABA calls for release of Bhima-Koregaon accused

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Activists age, health issues put them at high risk amid pandemic, says centre.
The American Bar Association’s (ABA)’s Center for Human Rights has called for the release of all human rights defenders arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case in the interest of flattening the COVID-19 curve, upholding the fundamental rights of detainees and enhancing national security, as their detention was arbitrary.
Read more

Also read: American Bar Association’s report (Oct 2019)
The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon

Sign Petition: Release The Bhima Koregaon Political Prisoners

Sign Petition: Release The Bhima Koregaon Political Prisoners

By Concerned Citizens / #NoJailDuringCovid

This appeal is being written to highlight how the activists, lawyers and teachers arrested in what has now come to be known as the Bhima Koregaon/ Elgaar Parishad case should be released keeping in mind the direction of United Nations and to highlight that their release can’t be any harm to the society or danger to the legal procedures.
Read more & sign online petition

40 eminent poets write open letter demanding poet Varavara Rao’s release

40 eminent poets write open letter demanding poet Varavara Rao’s release

Asiaville / by Asiaville Desk

As the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic looms large and prisons are potentially becoming dangerous hotspots of contagion, 40 eminent poets from across India have penned an open letter to the Prime Minister of India seeking urgent release of celebrated octogenarian Telugu poet Varavara Rao.
Read more

Dalit leaders, Amnesty condemn SC order on arrests of Teltumbde, Navlakha

Dalit leaders, Amnesty condemn SC order on arrests of Teltumbde, Navlakha

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Meanwhile, the petitioners in the case wrote an open letter to the CJI, alleging that the prosecution had produced no evidence even after 18 months.
Several Dalit leaders, including MPs and MLAs, issued a statement on Monday calling the imminent arrest of activist Anand Teltumbde in the Bhima Koregaon case a “national shame”.
Read more

As Anand Teltumbde is about to go to jail, an editor pays tribute

As Anand Teltumbde is about to go to jail, an editor pays tribute

The Wire / by S Anand

S Anand, Teltumbde’s publisher at Navayana, recounts his uncompromising clarity and forthrightness.
“Every thinking Indian is a potential ‘urban Maoist’; it is just the mercy of the police that such Indians are not all under arrest.” Anand Teltumbde, 30 June 2018, in ‘Economic and Political Weekly.’
To expect such small mercies – because you studied or taught at IITs and IIMs, because you have a PhD in cybernetics, because you chair Big Data Analytics at a premier management institute, and because you are married to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s granddaughter – is clearly folly.
Read more

‘Especially Inhuman’: Romila Thapar, Others Write to CJI Bobde On Teltumbde, Navlakha

‘Especially Inhuman’: Romila Thapar, Others Write to CJI Bobde On Teltumbde, Navlakha

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

‘Like all fair-minded citizens, we are shocked that the prosecution has not been held accountable to the spirit of the law.’
New Delhi: As the Supreme Court’s one-week period to surrender comes to an end on April 14, the arrest of social activists and intellectuals Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha in the Elgar Parishad case is now inevitable. The two, if arrested, will join the nine other human rights activists and lawyers languishing in Maharashtra’s jails for close to two years.
Read more