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Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices / Arbitrary FIRs

Blatant use of UAPA by Telangana Police to suppress dissenting voices / Arbitrary FIRs

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.
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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.
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Arbitrary FIRs on Social Activists

19/06/2023

Statement by National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

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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%.
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Also read:
● Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others (The Wire / June 17, 2023)
● Activists Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others Booked Under UAPA Last August; Accused Unaware (The Wire / June 16, 2023)
● Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (PUCL / Sep 2022) Download report
● The Govt is out to silence Dissenters through Arrests: Justice Hosbet Suresh (Sabrangindia / Oct 2018)

Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others

Telangana Govt to ‘Drop’ UAPA Case Against Prof Haragopal, Sudha Bharadwaj, 150 Others

Drawing by Arun Fereirra

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Also read:
● The UAPA Versus Khurram Parvez, an Extreme Law Versus a Rights Defender (The Wire / June 2023)
● Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (PUCL / Sep 2022) Download report
● Telangana govt bans Revolutionary Writers Association, 15 other orgs (Siasat / April 2021)
● Andhra govt, Centre ‘collude’ to repeat Bhima Koregaon type case against rights activists (counterview.net / April 2021)
● The Govt is out to silence Dissenters through Arrests: Justice Hosbet Suresh (Sabrangindia / Oct 2018)

Virasam leaders to stage protest on May 31

Virasam leaders to stage protest on May 31

The New Indian Express/ By Express News Service

WARANGAL: Demanding the release of Revolutionary Writers’ Association (Virasam) leader P Varavara Rao and 10 others, who were arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, members of the civil liberties associations of Warangal district are mobilising support for an agitation to be staged at Indira Park Dharna Chowk on May 31.
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The poet as the revolutionary – Talking with Varavara Rao (Part 1& 2)

The poet as the revolutionary – Talking with Varavara Rao (Part 1& 2)

Varavara Rao

First published: 2016

■ A POET AGAINST THE STATE: TALKING WITH VARAVARA RAO (Part 1)

RAIOT / By Ramu Ramanathan

In the first of the two part interview with Varavara Rao, founder member of Virasam (Revolutionary Writers’ Association), by playwright Ramu Ramanathan, the Maoist ideologue and Telegu poet reaffirms the role of an intellectual and reflects on the history of repression of the Indian state, and on the issues surrounding the statehood of Telangana
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■ The poet as the revolutionary – Talking with Varavara Rao (Part 2)

RAIOT / By Ramu Ramanathan

In the second part of the ongoing series of interviews with Varavara Rao, founder member of Virasam, by playwright Ramu Ramanathan, the Maoist ideologue and Telegu poet narrates his revolutionary journey, about people’s movements in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, about writing and publishing revolutionary literature and how the movement has produced some great writers.
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