For information and sharing.
Dr. V. Suresh, National General Secretary, PUCL.
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270-A, Patpar
Ganj, Opposite Anand Lok Apartments, Mayur Vihar I, Delhi 110
091
Phone 2275
0014 PP FAX 4215 1459
Founder:
Jayaprakash Narayan; Founding President: V M Tarkunde
President:
Ravi Kiran Jain; General Secretary: Dr. V. Suresh
28th August, 2018
PUCL
STRONGLY Condemns and denounces THE ARRESTs
under
the draconian UAPA OF -
1.
Sudha Bharadwaj, PUCL National
Secretary
2.
Gautam
Navalakha of PUDR,
3.
Prof. Anand
Teltumbde of CPDR,
4.
Vernon
Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, advocates, and
5.
Vara Vara
Rao, noted poet and rights
activist.
6.
Kranti Tekula
of Virasam, Hyderabad.
PUCL also
denounces the simultaneous multi-city raids conducted today,
28th August 2018 in a concerted and pre-meditated manner across the
country at the premises of other eminent human rights activists
including:
·
Father Stan Swamy in
Jharkhand;
·
Senior Writer and Poet Varavara
Rao, as also the houses of his two daughters and sons-in-law, Anala and the
Hindu journalist KV Kumaranath; and Pavana and her husband, Prof. Satyanarayana,
of English and Foreign Languages University;
·
Namaste Telangana journalist
Kranthi Tekula in Hyerabad;
·
Anand Teltumbde in
Goa;
·
Gautam Navlakha in
Delhi,
·
Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves
and Susan Abraham, Advocates in Mumbai.
PUCL
asserts that the arrests and raids are nothing but a targetted crackdown and
attack by the police and state on civil liberties and democratic rights
activists across the country in a concerted attempt to crush human rights
interventions and silence voices of dissent;
Such
systematic and pre-meditated crackdown on human rights activists is
unprecedented and unheard of in a democracy and PUCL strongly condemns this
unconstitutional crackdown by the state and police;
PUCL
stands firmly in solidarity with advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, National Secretary,
PUCL and the other human rights activists who face raids and have been arrested
under false and fabricated charges.
We
would like to point out that in a Habeas Corpus petition filed before the Delhi
High Court, his transfer on transit warrant to Pune has been stayed pending
further hearing of the habeas corpus petition tomorrow 29th August,
and he is currently under house arrest. As per sources, Anand Teltumbde’s house
in Goa was raided by the police in a completely illegal manner, in his absence,
after procuring keys from the security guard. While some news channels state
that the raids and arrest have been made in the Pune case of Bhima Koregaon
caste violence, where the prime accused are Hindutva right wing groups and
leaders who are enjoying state impunity and at large, some other news agencies
are alleging that the arrests are linked to claims of alleged plot to
assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra
Fadnavis.
It is
pertinent to note that just last month on 4th July 2018, a
scurrilous, motivated, fabricated and malicious media propaganda and hate
campaign was run by Republic TV and its anchor Ms. Shivani Gupta, Deputy Editor
Mr. Shrawan Sen and its Managing Director, Mr. Arnab Goswami, by way of a series
of programmes presented as “Super Exclusive Breaking News” and also showcased by
way of a national debate on Prime Time TV. Relying on a fabricated letter
allegedly addressed by her to a Maoist named ‘Comrade Prakash’, the channel
repeatedly aired, completely false, unsubstantiated and scurrilous accusations
against Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, falsely profiling her as “Urban Naxal”. The
allegations were categorically denied by Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj in her
rebuttal statement. The programmes were aired with headers
of“#UrbanNaxalsExposed” and similar allegations were made against other human
rights activists like Mr. Gautam Navlakha in part 2 of the programme, via a
second letter supposedly procured by the Channel. PUCL has previously issued a
statement dated 7th July 2018 strongly condemning the incident and
demanding strict action against the Channel. Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj also
issued a legal notice in respect of the Channel’s illegal acts.
The
current arrest and raids are taking place in the backdrop of the arrests of
five human rights activists – Advocate Surendra Gadling, Professor Shoma Sen,
Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale – who were also arrested under UAPA
on 6th June 2018, relying on a similar fabricated letter produced by
Republic TV allegedly addressed to the same "Comrade Prakash", in the same Pune
case. Following this, on 7th June 2018, Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj had
addressed a press conference organized by the Indian Association of People's
Lawyers (IAPL) in New Delhi to condemn the arrest of Advocate Surendra Gadling
of the Nagpur High Court. Susan Abraham, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves are
in fact representing the Bhima Koregaon accused in Court.
Advocate Sudha
Bharadwaj has been a dedicated trade unionist for more than three decades and
has served as a general secretary of its Chhattisgarh branch, during which time
the branch did remarkable work in the State. She is also associated with the
Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, which was founded by the late Shankar Guha Niyogi.
She started her legal practice in the year 2000 and has since, fought
innumerable cases of workers, farmers, adivasis and poor people in the fields of
labour, land acquisition, forest rights and environmental rights. Since the year
2007, she has been practicing in the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur and
was nominated by the High Court to be a member of the Chhattisgarh State Legal
Services Authority. She also supported young lawyers to set up the Jagdalpur
Legal Aid group as a civil society initiative to provide legal aid to
incarcerated Tribals. She is a visiting faculty at the National Law University
Delhi, where she teaches the course on tribal rights and land
acquisition.
PUCL
believes that the intention of the state and police in targeting the aforesaid
human rights activists by foisting false and fabricated cases against them, is
clear and apparent from their profiles of work. All the aforesaid human rights
activists targeted in this multi-city “operation” by the police have been
tirelessly involved in advocating the cause and fighting for the rights of the
most poor, marginalized sections of society against serious state violations and
unscrupulous corporates. They have stood for the principles of human rights
enshrined in the Indian Constitution and the international standards on human
rights.
PUCL
strongly condemns the actions of the state and police. This simultaneous
crackdown against human rights activists across the country signals the
imposition of an unofficial Emergency in our nation and is a direct attack on
Indian democracy. This is a deliberate strategy of the state to target noted
human rights activists in a clear act of reprisals against them for calling out
the human rights violations by the state and police, and to intimidate those who
are fighting for justice.
PUCL
cautions the public at large on the concerted efforts underway to stifle voices
of dissent and threaten the democratic fabric of the country.
In
light of the above, PUCL makes the following urgent demands:
1.
PUCL calls upon the state and the
police to immediately and unconditionally release human rights activists, Sudha
Bharadwaj, Gautam Navalakha, Anand Teltumbde, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, and
Vernon Gonsalves and withdraw the false and fabricated case against
them;
2.
PUCL calls upon the National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to urgently intervene to ensure the release of
the human rights activists and to order an immediate, transparent, effective
and impartial investigation into the simultaneous multi-city raids and arrests
of the human rights activists by the state and the police on false and
fabricated accusations and charges ;
3.
PUCL also calls upon the
democratic minded citizens of India to condemn the unprincipled manner in which
human rights activists are being targeted and oppose such insidious and
collusive attempts by State agencies and media outfits to silence human rights
activists against the vindictive State policies and action ;
4.
PUCL further condemns the
constant profiling as “Urban Naxals/ Maoists” and criminalisation of human
rights activists working tirelessly against the state’s anti-people actions and
policies, in an attempt to malign them and influence public
sentiment.
Mr.
Ravi Kiran Jain, Dr.
V. Suresh,
National
President, PUCL National General Secretary,
PUCL
Dr. V.
Suresh,
National General Secretary, PUCL - People's Union for Civil
Liberties,
270-A, Patparganj, Opp. Anandlok Apartments,
Mayur Vihar - I, Delhi 110091, India.
Ph.: +91-11-22750014; (Fax): +91-11-42151459.
Personal: +91-9444231497.
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