Conversations with family and friends of Jamia alumni association’s president Shifa-ur-Rehman show a man who cared deeply about the students at his alma mater and believed in the anti-CAA movement. The Delhi police say he conspired to instigate communal violence in the national capital. Two years of incarceration, without trial or bail, has mired an […]
25-year-old Athar Khan from Delhi’s Chand Bagh was detained by the Delhi Police on July 2nd, 2020 and has been imprisoned under a draconian UAPA in a Delhi violence conspiracy case for more than a year now. The incident had left his loved ones distraught and shaken. “It was a very difficult time. I would […]
I often wonder, how long is this dark tunnel? Is there any light in sight yet? Am I near the end, or am I only midway through? Or has the ordeal just begun? Rohit Kumar wrote an open letter to Umar Khalid on August 15. On September 12, he received a response from the jailed rights […]
On 20 June, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh arrested Islamic scholar Umar Gautam along with his aide Mufti Jahangir alleging that they have converted around 1000 people including differently-abled persons to Islam. The ATS also accused Gautam of committing forced conversion and alleged that he has links with the Pakistan intelligence agency ISI. […]
As they complete four years in prison, those accused of instigating violence wonder how much more time the judiciary will take to digest that all the evidence fabricated against them is fake. —— In a poignant letter from the prisons where they have been languishing for the past four years, those facing trial in the Bhima […]
23 October 2022 will mark 1000 days of incarceration of Sharjeel Imam, a research student at Jawaharlal Nehru University and one of the country’s rights defenders who were targeted by the Hindu nationalist BJP government for their disagreements and dissents. In January 2020, during the historic agitation against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and […]
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail on medical grounds to poet and activist P Varavara Rao in the Bhima Koregaon case. A bench headed by Justice U U Lalit observed that the medical condition of the 82-year-old Varavara Rao, who is currently out on interim bail on health grounds, has not improved […]
A Delhi court on Monday directed the jail authorities to provide proper medical treatment to Khalid Saifi along with medication and tests. Saifi, an accused in the larger conspiracy of Northeast Delhi violence, had moved an application. He is in custody in connection with the North East Delhi riots larger conspiracy case. Additional Sessions Judge of Karkardooma Court Amitabh Rawat on […]
Concluding his arguments in the appeal for bail in the alleged case of larger conspiracy behind the Northeast Delhi riots, activist Umar Khalid’s counsel Thursday argued that completely unconnected incidents have been put together in the chargesheet to show a conspiracy. The division bench of Justice Siddharth Mirdul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar since April 22 has […]
A Delhi court on Monday, 25 July, directed authorities in the Tihar Jail to provide a medical report of Khalid Saifi, who has been charged for his alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots. This comes after Saifi’s counsel filed an application stating that his client was suffering from “high fever, high sugar, and diarrhea” […]
By Anand Mohan J / Indian Express JNU student Sharjeel Imam, who is in judicial custody in connection with the February 2020 Northeast Delhi riots, Monday alleged that he was assaulted by convicts at Tihar Jail and called a terrorist during a search inside his cell. This is the first time a Northeast Delhi riots accused […]
Elgar Parishad accused Sudhir Dhawale is set to go on a one-day hunger strike in Taloja jail to protest the poor condition of the medical facility in the jail, on Tuesday which marks the death anniversary of Father Stan Swamy, a co-accused in the case. Dhawale has intimated Jail Suprintendent Uttam Pawar about the strike. In his letter […]
By Pheroze L. Vincent / Telegraph India US-based academics Noam Chomsky and Rajmohan Gandhi have spoken out in support of human rights activist Umar Khalid, whose bail hearing in a Delhi riots conspiracy case is expected to resume from Monday. Chomsky said the case was “one of many that shed a grim light on India’s […]
By ALIZA NOOR / Maktoob Media “Areeba keeps asking us where her ‘Baba’ is. What all to explain to a 4-year-old?” says Sabina Akhter, wife of Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan who has been in jail for over 1,400 days now. Aasif, who in 2019 was given the John Aubuchon Press Freedom award, has been in jail […]
When Hany Babu was arrested, on July 28, 2020, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence, his daughter Farzana seemed unflappable. Surprising for a Standard XI student? Well, one night three months later, Farzana could not go to sleep. She persistently dialled Hany’s mobile, and, after failing to get a response—judges […]
By P S Gopikrishnan Unnithan / India Today Khadeeja Kutty, the mother of jailed Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, passed away at the age of 90 in Malappuram on Friday. She was reportedly under treatment for age-related illness for a few months now. Kappan and his alleged associates, who were suspected to be linked to the radical […]
By Ajaz Ashraf / Mid Day The sparkle of Nargis’s gold nose stud cannot match that of her smile, which imparts a cheery glow to the conversation we are having in her third-floor apartment in Delhi’s Khureji Khas locality. We are discussing her husband Khalid Saifi, a founder of United Against Hate, who languishes in […]
By NEETA KOLHATKAR / Rediff There were some things Koel Sen never dreamt she would ever do. But life turned upside down for the film-maker and columnist when her mother Professor Shoma Sen was arrested in March 2018 for her alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon case. Professor Sen was, as a consequence, suspended from her post as […]
Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe, an accused in Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon accused, has written to Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, alleging harassment by the Taloja Jail superintendent. He has threatened to go on a hunger strike until death. “It is with extreme distress that I inform you that since the very beginning the prison administration has treated […]
By Vidya / India Today In memory of late Father Stan Swamy, a co-accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case in Pune, Sagar Gorkhe has written a letter to Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Waise Patil threatening to go on a “hunger strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration.” Stan Swamy had […]
SAGAR Gorkhe, an activist and performer with cultural troupe Kabir Kala Manch, accused of inciting violence in the Bhima Koregaon (Elgar Parishad) case, has written to Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil announcing his hunger strike in protest against the conditions at Taloja jail. Meanwhile, septuagenarian activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha, who is a co-accused lodged […]
Student activist Umar Khalid, languishing in jail for allegedly being one of the conspirators of the February 2020 northeast Delhi riots, on Tuesday told the high court that the prosecution needed to decide what exactly was the case against him and his incarceration for the past two years were solely based on hearsay statement of […]
Kashmiri rights activist Khurram Parvez, jailed by India since November last year on “terrorism” charges, has been named as one of the 100 most influential people of 2022 by the United States-based Time magazine. Parvez, 44, is chairman of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), […]
By Charul Shah / Hindustan Times Mumbai: Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, who has been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence case, has approached the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court seeking a mosquito net, alleging that the net he was using was taken away by the prison authorities. Navlakha, who was arrested on […]
A lady in a house at Wadsa, Gadchiroli district, rages and switches off the television every time Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears on it. The lady is an aunt of Mahesh Raut, who, at 34, is the youngest of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case and has been languishing in prison since his arrest on […]
By Ajaz Ashraf / Mid Day I called up Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya, husband of Shoma Sen, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, on May 9, with a request: could he tell me their story—she languishing in jail and he alone outside? He said it was on this day in 1991 that Shoma and he […]
By Ajaz Ashraf / Mid Day Writer Sahba Husain rattles out from memory all the dates of twists and turns during her ongoing struggle to keep the flame of love and resistance burning. She remembers the date (August 28, 2018) when the Pune Police raided her home to arrest her partner and human rights activist […]
A Delhi court on Friday framed charges against former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain and five others under several provisions of the Indian Penal Code in the 2020 North East Delhi violence case, Bar and Bench reported. They have been charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, mischief causing damage, mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy […]
Mumbai: In a set back for three accused in the Elgar Parishad case, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected their review application seeking default bail. The three — Varavav Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira– had also sought factual corrections in the order refusing them default bail last December. A division bench of Justice SS […]
By Aliza Noor / Aljazeera Lucknow, India – Nargis Saifi’s voice chokes as she remembers how the first Eid al-Fitr greeting, as soon as the new moon was sighted, always came from her husband in 12 years of their marriage. “The day before Eid when ‘chaand raat’ [the night of the first moon after Ramadan] takes place, […]
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Amnesty International condemn the way in which the authorities have targeted and harassed human rights defender Khurram Parvez through the misuse of the justice system, 150 days on, from his arbitrary detention. Our organisations call on the government of India to immediately and unconditionally release him and drop the […]
By MEKHALA SARAN / The Quint On an evening of early February, while the winter still hugged the valley like a blanket, 37-year-old Aqib Shah had just returned to their home in Soura, Srinagar from his work as a contractor and builder, when his mother received a phone call. It was his younger brother Kashmiri journalist […]
By Suhasini Raj / New York Times After being held in jail for close to four years awaiting trial on charges of aiding militants, the Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan was granted bail by the courts last week, and he thought he could finally return home to his wife and his daughter, who was just 6 months […]
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain has been acquitted by a Delhi court in a 2015 case that accused him of defacing public property by putting up a board wishing people ‘Happy New Year’. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Arun Kumar Garg on Wednesday, April 13, ruled that there was “not even an iota of evidence” […]
New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) The families of those who have been slapped with charges under the stringent UAPA in connection with the February 2020 Delhi riots gathered at an iftar celebration here on Friday and shared how their lives changed after their loved ones were arrested. The gathering was organised by the Students’ Islamic […]
By SUKRITI VATS / The Print New Delhi: A human rights organisation demanded Wednesday that jailed activist Gautam Navlakha be granted immediate bail and given a speedy trial as he has already completed two years in prison. The Delhi-based civil liberties group, the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) said the 70-year-old undertrial was suffering from […]
By Mark Sappenfield / CS Monitor Four times in 40 days, Fahad Shah was close to coming home. The Monitor contributor from Kashmir had been arrested as part of the Indian government’s effort to tamp down on dissent in the majority-Muslim state; his colleagues worked tirelessly to get him out on bail. Each time, he would […]
By Safwat Zargar / Scroll Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan was on Sunday booked under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, days after he was granted bail by a special court in Srinagar, a senior police officer told Scroll.in, on conditions of anonymity. The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act allows authorities to hold individuals in custody […]
New Delhi, April 11, 2022 – Authorities in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir must immediately and unconditionally release Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan and cease detaining journalists for their work and subjecting them to legal harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Sunday, April 10, authorities in Jammu and Kashmir re-arrested Sultan, a journalist with […]
By ARBAB ALI AND SHANIA ALI / Article14 Delhi: When Zia (11) and Arhaan (9) asked about their father, Nooreen Fatima had a story ready for her children: “A jail is a huge house where hundreds of people live and are fed tasty food. It’s quite comfortable there.” Their father, Shifa-ur-Rehman, president of the Alumni Association of Jamia […]
MUMBAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday urged the Bombay High Court to not grant to jailed human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists link case, the relief of house arrest, arguing doing so would result in difficulties, including the inability to prevent him from using social media while out […]
ELGAAR PARISHAD case accused Anand Teltumbde on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had wrongly attributed him as a terrorist while levelling charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act while there were no charges of direct violence against him. Senior advocate Mihir Desai, representing Teltumbde, told a division bench […]
By Aishwarya Iyer / Scroll Locked up in barrack 16 of Delhi’s Mandoli jail, Ishrat Jahan would leave traces of herself in a diary. She would write down her thoughts, what she had done that day, what her family was doing, fragments of poetry. Not everything could be written down. Jahan, a former Congress councillor, […]
Responding to former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) leader and student activist Umar Khalid being denied bail yet again while facing charges under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) simply for peacefully voicing his dissent against the discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Amnesty International India’s Chair of Board, Aakar Patel, said: The repeated denial of bail […]
An Indian court has denied bail to a prominent activist arrested 18 months ago for allegedly instigating riots in the national capital, Delhi. Umar Khalid was accused of being a “key conspirator” in the violent clashes that killed 53 people, mostly Muslims, in February 2020. Mr Khalid denied the charges, saying he only took part […]
By Zafar Aafaq / Aljazeera New Delhi, India – When Ishrat Jahan walked out of a prison in the Indian capital last week, she was hugged by her sister and they burst into tears as relatives gathered around to welcome her back home after more than two years of imprisonment. “I missed my family a lot. This […]
By APOORVA MANDHANI / The Print New Delhi: After spending two years in jail, facing three charge sheets, getting married, developing ‘Covid symptoms’, allegedly being beaten up by fellow inmates and claiming that the prosecution was deriving “sadistic pleasure” by increasing the duration of her incarceration, former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan was granted bail Monday in […]
ACTIVIST ARUN Ferreira, who was arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, has filed an application before the special court seeking an inquiry over his claim that he was given a different Covid-19 vaccination certificate from the one accessed by his family from the CoWin app. Ferreira has annexed both the certificates with his plea. Lodged at Taloja […]
New Delhi: A Delhi court refused to grant bail to activists Gulfisha Fatima and Tasleem Ahmed in the case concerning what the Delhi police believes is a “larger conspiracy” behind the northeast Delhi riots of February 2020. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed Fatima’s bail plea, saying in view of the charge sheet and the accompanying […]
By ABHINAV SEKHRI / Article14 New Delhi: As news trickled in on 14 March 2022 that a special court in India’s capital had granted bail to former Congress party councillor Ishrat Jahan after more than 15 months in jail, following her arrest in the case concerning the larger conspiracy around the communal riots which ravaged […]
By Anand Mohan J / Indian Express Observing that “she was neither physically present in Northeast Delhi for riots nor was she part of any group”, a Delhi court granted bail Monday to former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan, an accused in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case relating to the 2020 riots. In custody since […]
ON SATURDAY EVENING LOCAL TIME, Fahad Shah, a thirty-three-year-old independent journalist and the editor in chief of the Kashmir Walla, was arrested by the police of Shopian, Kashmir. This arrest came just hours after Shah had been released on bail in the nation’s capital, Srinagar; he had previously been arrested on February 4, on charges of […]
New Delhi: Close to two years after the Delhi police arrested him on 26 April 2020, Shifa-ur-Rehman, president of the Alumni Association Jamia Millia Islamia (AAJMI), is one of the longest incarcerated accused of the Delhi riots conspiracy case, and someone who has not quite caught the attention of the press and the public in the same way that other social […]
Founder of the United Against Hate campaign, Khalid Saifi, who is accused in a UAPA case in connection with the Northeast Delhi riots, told a Delhi court through his lawyer that the prosecution is attempting to communalise the narrative. Appearing on behalf of Saifi before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat, the submissions for bail were […]
New Delhi: Prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson – incarcerated for close to four years over what the Pune Police and NIA believe are his connections to the Elgar Parishad case – was subjected to digital attack since at least 2013, a new report has found. The report, published by the California-based cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, has stated that […]
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai on Monday, February 14, rejected the bail applications filed by Delhi University professor Hany Babu and three other accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. Special Judge DE Kothalikar rejected the bail pleas filed by Babu and his co-accused Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap, […]
By VARSHA TORGALKAR / TRT World Shikha was 24 when her father, journalist-activist Prashant Rahi, was arrested in 2007, accused of waging war against the Indian state. Fourteen years later, she and her father are still fighting a battle against the state to prove his innocence. Rahi, 62, was acquitted on January 7 but remains in […]
By Niha Masih and Gerry Shih / Washington Post NEW DELHI — In early 2021, India was jolted by revelations that a jailed human rights activist and vocal government critic was targeted by hackers who planted incriminating evidence on his laptop before he was arrested on terrorism charges. Now, a year later, a report by U.S. experts says […]
On Saturday, February 5, the Srinagar newsroom of the Kashmir Walla, an independent news organisation, was more tense than usual. The previous evening, its editor Fahad Shah had been arrested in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district for “uploading anti-national content” on social media – described by the police as “tantamount to glorifying terrorist activities”. The “content” in […]
By Hanan Zaffar and Shaheen Abdulla / Aljazeera New Delhi, India – It has been two years since 62-year old Afshan Rahim met her activist son, who is in jail facing sedition and several other charges under the ‘anti-terror’ law for making speeches during the mass protests against a controversial citizenship law. “Each day is like a horror. I am worried […]