'Adding to the woes of Dr Kafeel Khan – who has been lodged in Mathura jail since January – the National Security Act (NSA) charges that were slapped against him were extended by a period of three months on Tuesday, 12 May. NSA charges were slapped against Khan in February for three months, which were scheduled to get over on Tuesday evening, his brother Adil Khan told The Quint. The Mathura jail has a capacity of 500 prisoners but has 1,750 prisoners lodged in it, even as the country observes a coronavirus induced-lockdown...'
'On 17 April 2018, the Pune Police raided the Delhi home of Rona Wilson, a noted prison-rights activist, and arrested him for his alleged role in the violence at the Bhima Koregaon memorial in January that year.
'The Allahabad High Court did something on Monday that was completely unusual. It not only delivered a judgment that was critical of the majoritarian government that rules in Uttar Pradesh, it did so after taking “suo moto” action – meaning the court did not wait for someone to even file a petition. The court had seen the Uttar Pradesh government putting up banners in several parts of Lucknow on which were displayed the photographs, names and addresses of people involved in the protests against the Citizenship Act amendment...'
'It has been two-years-and-six-months since Gauri Lankesh, activist and editor of a Kannada weekly, was killed. In the eyes of her assassins, she was a symbol of dissent who frequently crossed the line for two decades—ever since she took over her father’s outrageously bold weekly newspaper. If her death had really struck fear into the hearts of liberals, there should have been an eerie quiet. The slogans in the air must have permanently died down.
'The Delhi government has given a go-ahead to the city police to prosecute former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and two others in connection with a 2016 sedition case, sources said on Friday. The request for sanction had long since been pending before the home department of the Delhi government...'
'Sri Rama Sene leader and head of Karuneshwara mutt Siddalinga Swami on Saturday courted fresh controversy when he suggested that student protesters should “meet the same fate” as the slain journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh. He was speaking at an event by the Yuva Viveka Bharata Sangha and a video of the event emerged on Saturday. "(They are) only 14-15 years, they are talking bad words about Modi and Shah. I think soon they should be made to go where Gauri Lankesh is," Siddalinga Swami said, as the crowd is heard cheering him on...'
'Over 110 scientists on Wednesday appealed to the science and technology ministry to withdraw its offer to fund research to pinpoint ingredients in cow dung, urine and milk for use in medicines, toothpastes and shampoos, saying its call for proposals was “unscientific”. The scientists said the call for proposals document issued by the department of science and technology (DST), a unit of the science ministry, was “flawed” and “will severely undermine the credibility of the Indian scientific establishment as it “presumes the efficacies” of various cow products...'
'...I have carefully listened to the speech Dr Khan made at AMU in December. He has nowhere spoken against any religious community. All that he said was that ‘we (i.e. Indian Muslims) are 25 crore (250 million) people, and we cannot be scared by lynching or making laws’ (“Tumhaari auqaat nahi ki tum humse kuch chheen sakte, hamein daraa sakte, hamein hataa sakte. Hum 25 crore hain”.) Dr Khan was voicing the feelings of many Indian Muslims who have the impression that this government is anti-Muslim.
'Kafeel Khan, the Uttar Pradesh doctor who was jailed after the death of over 60 children at a government hospital in 2017, has been charged under the tough National Security Act (NSA) for a speech against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA at a talk at the Aligarh Muslim University late last year. Dr Khan was granted bail on Monday after he was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police last month from the Mumbai airport following a First Information Report (FIR) against him. However, he was yet to be released from the Mauthura jail...'
'The Uttar Pradesh police on late Thursday night slapped the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against Gorakhpur paediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan, hours before he was expected to walk free from the Mathura jail, four days after he was granted bail by Aligarh’s chief judicial magistrate...'
