'In a grim reminder of the 2016 Una flogging incident, three other oppressed caste men were tied up, beaten, forcefully tonsured and paraded around with shoes hung around their necks in Lucknow’s Barauli Khalilabad village... The incident happened on 4 June after the three men - one belonging to the OBC and the other two belonging to Scheduled Castes - were allegedly caught stealing a fan from a house of a 'Brahmin man', the local police told The Quint...'
'On rare occasions, the Indian government—which prides itself on visions of universal digital literacy, online services, and biometrical identity schemes—still conducts certain official communications by radiogram. An operator sitting at a radio transmitter taps out a message, and then a receiver spits out the transmission in another part of the country, generating an instant legal document.
'Two days after the video of a vegetable seller being beaten up with a stick by a man who asks for his ID surfaced online, Delhi Police tracked down the accused and arrested him. The accused, Praveen Babbar, is a resident of southeast Delhi’s Badarpur Extension and runs a tour and travel business. In the video, Babbar can be seen hitting the vegetable seller with a stick. After that, he asks for his ID, starts hitting and abusing him. “…tum logo ne jihad macha diya hai,” he can be heard saying...'
'Just as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray declared on Sunday that 163 emergency safe spaces were up and running in the state to shelter stranded the homeless, including migrant labourers, 40-year-old Shanta Sawant was in fact turned away from one of them. At some places in Mumbai, local residents have taken exception to such centres being put up in their locality and have claimed that this puts them at risk...'
'To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. To the Indian Police, every situation can be solved with a bit of violence. That seems to be the dictum of police authorities around the country, as India enters Day 2 of the three-week lockdown announced on Tuesday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pictures and videos have emerged from around the country of people being brutally hit by lathis, of doctors being assaulted and of vegetable vendors being slapped around and extorted for bribes...'
'In a case of media vigilantism, a reporter from news channel Republic TV was spotted live on March 24 standing by a team of policemen at the DND flyover which connects Delhi to Noida in Uttar Pradesh, heckling a doctor on his way to work for ‘violating the lockdown’. When the senior doctor, Anish Singhal, who is the director and medical superintendent of the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Hospital in Noida, showed the reporter his identity card, the reporter termed it ‘fake’. In fact, the channel ran a banner which said, “A man shows fake ID card and tries to venture out”.
'The Karnataka government's move to make addresses of those under home quarantine public on Tuesday evening has raised concerns among citizens, who say this is a serious breach of privacy that could have serious social implications. This move comes at a time when videos are being shared of airline crew being ostracised by their housing societies for flying in COVID-19 affected zones in their line of duty.
'In february this year, Amulya Leona, a student activist, was taken into custody by Bengaluru police after she raised 'Hindustan Zindabad' and 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogans at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rally organised by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in the city. She had been charged with the offence of sedition and for promoting enmity at the Upparpete police station. On February 20, Public TV telecast a TV show where statements were made allegedly calling for violence against her.
'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...'
'The Allahabad high court has asked the Yogi Adityanath government to take down all posters in Lucknow giving photographs and personal details of people involved with the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests. A high court bench headed by Chief Justice Govind Mathur had taken suo moto cognisance of the matter. The bench said the state’s action violated Article 14 of the constitution and was an “unwarranted interference in privacy of people”, LiveLaw reported. The district magistrate and police commissioner have been asked to submit a compliance report to the court by March 16...'
