'A writ petition challenging mass sedition cases against Adivasis in Jharkhand’s Khunti district has been filed in the state High Court. The petition, filed in August by lawyer Sunil Vishwakarma on behalf of a newly formed village organisation called the Adivasi Nyay Manch, has asked for the cases to be transferred to a special investigation agency. As reported by Scroll.in, at least 10,000 Adivasis who participated in the Pathalgadi movement have been charged with sedition in 14 FIRs filed by the district police in 2017 and 2018.
'A former Indian Administrative Service officer who quit the service in August in protest against the “denial of freedom of expression to the people of Jammu and Kashmir” on Wednesday lashed out at the Union Home Ministry for filing a chargesheet against him. Kannan Gopinathan, who was the collector of Dadra and Nagar Haveli when he resigned, has been accused of insubordination. On Tuesday, he tweeted that an official from Daman had called him and asked him for his address. The official reportedly told him that he would receive a chargesheet.
'Following severe criticism for arresting two law students under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Kerala government has announced that it will set up a high court judge-appointed committee to look into the charges. According to a report in Asianet, the state has agreed to provide permission for prosecution only after the committee submits its report. The two men — Allan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal — are both CPI(M) workers in Kozhikode, according to a report in New Indian Express. The duo was picked up by police at Pantheerankavu on the night of November 1.
Submitted by narendramodifacts on Tue, 10/29/2019 - 15:01
Here are a few recent instances of people being punished for speaking truth to power. Or just doing their jobs. There are, of course, many many more examples like this.
Government employees... beware of speaking up! (Or even just doing your job.)
'Writer and journalist Doddipalya Narasimhamurthy was arrested from Raichur in coastal Karnataka on October 25, according to a report in the New Indian Express. He has been booked for ‘treason’ among other charges including criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder and extortion. Narasimhamurthy had been in charge of bringing out publications such as Nyayapatha and is the secretary of the Gauri Media Trust, formed after the journalists’s death. He is also the general secretary in Karnataka of Yogendra Yadav’s political outfit Swaraj India.
'An FIR was lodged here on Thursday against nearly 50 celebrities, including Ramchandra Guha, Mani Ratnam and Aparna Sen, who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concern over the growing incidents of mob lynching, police said... He said nearly 50 signatories of the letter were named as accused in his petition in which they allegedly “tarnished the image of the country and undermined the impressive performance of the Prime Minister” besides “supporting secessionist tendencies”...
'During the recent parliamentary debate on the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act had been repealed in 2004 not because it had been misused but to safeguard vote bank politics. This, despite the fact that the misuse of POTA is well established and its repeal in 2004 was welcomed as a significant step by India towards recognising that counter-terrorism cannot justify the violation of civil liberties and rights of citizens.
'The Jharkhand Police have charged 30,000 unnamed people (mostly Adivasis) under several serious sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including sedition, for resorting to ‘Pathalgarhi’ – a tribal tradition of erecting stone slabs to demarcate the area of their villages’ jurisdiction, declaring their autonomy and self-rule in areas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.
'Lingaraj Azad, activist and adviser to Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, a tribal outfit opposed to mining in Niyamgiri in Odisha was arrested by the police in Kalahandi on Wednesday, March 6. The Hindu reported that Azad’s arrest, who is also the national vice president of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad and national convener of the National Alliance of People’s Movements, was confirmed by Kalahandi Superintendent of Police Battula Gangadhar.
'In the wake of Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde’s illegal arrest by Pune police and his subsequent release, the five petitioners who had approached the Supreme Court against the arrest of the civil rights activists, have called the development a “mockery of constitutional guarantees, of due process and of democracy”. Teltumbde, who was granted relief from arrest until February 11 by the apex court was regardless arrested on Saturday after a Pune court refused to grant him anticipatory bail in a case related to the Bhima Koregaon violence.
