'Investigating agencies are not acting as independent authorities; they have stopped being neutral.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party's carping ally said the police assertion about security threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maoists was just a 'conspiracy theory'.
'This action sends out a very nasty message in a very strong way -- that nobody is exempt.' 'It is also an attempt to extend the definition of who is an anti-national, who's a terrorist, a definition that's becoming looser under this regime.' 'The sad part is that by the time the courts acquit those arrested, they would've spent years in jail and been taught a lesson.'
On August 31, a fresh report was supposed to be submitted, and his plea for bail on health grounds was to be decided. Before that could happen, the 81-year-old poet was stealthily discharged and taken back to the Taloja jail hospital on August 25. Not even his lawyer on record, Advocate Satyanarayanan, was informed.
'The circumstances indicate that the government is not serious about the commission...' '...We are not at the mercy of the government.'
'Such a serious threat -- to assassinate the prime minister of India, no less -- was not handed over to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad for investigation, but to the Pune crime branch.' 'So much for seriousness in tackling such a grave issue,' says N Suresh.
'When there was no crime committed, everything had to be fabricated. They see it as a war, and everything is fair in love and war.'
'I also stopped speaking to the media because I felt used by them.'
'If we accept this, then in a few years we will not see a democratic India that we know'
'It is a reassertion of their lost martial stride, of a history that is papered over by turning it into a memory largely of the upper castes.'
'The Congress should have accepted our demands.' 'Gone are the days when it could decide how many crumbs to throw at us.' 'Now, we make the demands.'
She has been in custody as an undertrial since her arrest in 2018.
The one thing holding back the plucky youngster who has never hesitated to plunge into unknown territory, is funds
Bhushan has been raising issues pertaining to judiciary and recently he was very critical and vocal of the way in which the top court handled the matters related to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
'There is no one who will be able to have a dignified life, when your brother and sister of another community are not being treated as human.'
'I asked him why were he and other writers being targeted.' 'I saw his point of view, that he and others being writers, their work was popular and well-appreciated by people, especially the youth.' 'This made the State fear them.'
The Bombay high court on Friday granted two weeks' time to the National Investigation Agency to file its reply on the petitions of activists Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha, both accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, seeking clone copies of all the electronic devices seized from them by the central agency.
The Union home ministry has received a factual report from the Maharashtra government on the prevailing situation in the state in the wake of caste-based violence there, a ministry spokesperson said.
Talking to reporters in Kolhapur, Pawar said it was not right on the part of the Centre to hand over the probe into the case, which was with the Pune police, to the NIA as law and order was a state subject. NCP leader and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said Uddhav Thackeray had overruled him on the probe in the case.
Swamy's counsel said there was negligence on part of the Taloja prison authorities, who failed to provide immediate medical attention to the Jesuit priest.
The case relates to Elgar Parishad, a conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017. Pune Police had alleged that it had been backed by Maoists, and provocative speeches made there led to caste violence near Bhima-Koregaon war memorial the next day.
'Our Left is squeamish about democracy. They are so mechanical they have only dogma.'
A court in Mumbai on Thursday once again sought a reply from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 83-year-old tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy's request that he be provided a straw and sipper in jail.
The poet and professor's 'life breath is now in the hands of those sworn to uphold his Constitutional right to life.' 'Will they be true to their oath?', asks Jyoti Punwani.
'The category of crime and criminals called Maoist or Naxal or #UrbanNaxals is an illegitimate creation of right-wing propaganda media frenzy.' 'It is a fiction repugnant to the Constitution and the law of the land,' argue Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.
'I can't help it if people don't love the minorities, the Dalits and Adivasis; they are as much of this country as any other Indian.' 'If I love them, it does not mean I do not love my country.' 'It is ironic and funny that they have laid such severe anti-national charges against me.'
'We are talking about history, about things that transpired.' 'If we don't know our history, we will never be able to evolve as individuals.'
Maharashtra police on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. Near simultaneous searches were carried out at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi. Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj and Farreira were arrested. Although Navalakha was also arrested, the Delhi high court ordered police not to take him out of the national capital at least until Wednesday. According to unconfirmed reports, others whose residences were raided are Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year. Here are their brief profiles:
This is not the first time the Nagpur Jail authorities are being accused of negligence towards their inmates.
'After exiting jail, I thought some of my IIM-A classmates would contact me. None did.' 'The case indeed scared people, which perhaps was the objective of the State.'
The case pertains to the organisation of Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017 which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence, resulting in the loss of life and property and statewide agitation in Maharashtra, an NIA spokesperson said.
'Stan's death is the culmination of a series of acts of abominable cruelty on the part of the Indian State.'
'Just waiting outside the prison gate, thinking that your mother is inside those walls even though you know she is innocent, affects your psyche.'
'Anybody and everybody who opposes this government for whatever reasons will be branded a terrorist and charged in such a manner that all human rights will be taken away.'
'You are with each other 24x7, so how can you ignore someone crying next to you?' 'How can you not share a piece of chicken with someone who is sitting next to you and watching you eat it?' 'Of course, you will share.' 'And you become friends with the kind of people you never thought you'd even know.'
Congress-NCP-Sena leaders discount reading too much into the meeting between the Maharashtra CM and prime minister.
'At this age we all know that death is inevitable, but everyone wants to die with dignity.' 'The judges have given the answer.'
'I was under the illusion that this could never happen to me because my background was such -- corporate CEO, IIT professor, IIT alumnus, IIM...'
"We are of the considered opinion that hoisting saffron flag and shouting slogans would not amount to any offence punishable under the Atrocities Act," the judges said.
'It is not happening in the same manner as it was happening during the time of the Peshwas.' 'Whatever happened during the Peshwas cannot happen now.'
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