Press Conference Demands Release Of Bhima Koregaon Accused

On August 4, the 0Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation, organised a press conference and demanded the release of accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Members of Parliament Dr. Tholkappiyan Thirumaavalavan (Lok Sabha MP, Tamil Nadu, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan (Rajya Sabha MP, Assam) and Bijoy Viswam (MP, Kerala) addressed the media persons at the Press Club of India.

They expressed worry and anguish due to the recent arrests of several journalists, intellectuals, lawyers, students and workers on serious charges, including sedition.

The reason for press conference was stated to be the infamous Bhima Koregaon case. The press release stated that the Pune Police, and later on the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested several distinguished public intellectuals and noted human rights defenders since June 2018 under the draconian UAPA, a veritable weapon to keep anyone in jail without bail for years.

In July 2021, one of the arrested activists, 84-year old Fr. Stan Swamy, died due to the jail authority's indifferent and non-cooperative role and the court's denial of timely bail.

The arrests were made in the name of inciting violence during the commemoration of two hundred years of the victory of the Dalits against the mighty Peshwas at the Bhima-Koregaon. However, as was evident, most of the activists arrested were not all associated with the Bhima Koregaon celebration. 

Further, it was claimed by the investigating agencies that the intellectuals and democratic rights activists had Maoist connections. All the arrests made by the Pune police and the NIA were based on so-called recovered incriminating materials from the computer of Mr Rona Wilson and Advocate Surendra Gadling. However, independent research by International experts on cyber security and digital forensics, like Arsenal Consulting, SentinelLabs and Citizen Lab of Toronto, as well as computer faculty and experts from Indian institutes (IIT Bombay and Goa Institute of Management), had brought out evidence of using malware, military-level sophisticated spyware and planting of incriminating evidence.

All the arrested persons had a very praiseworthy and open record for upholding the rights of the oppressed and opposing government policies, irrespective of the parliamentarian party in power, which harms society's marginalised sections. 

The Parliamentarians said that they firmly believed that, except for trying to protect the life and livelihood of the most oppressed sections of society, these activists had not done anything illegal and wrong.

But because of the conditions of the UAPA act, these activists had been languishing in jails for 3-4 years, and since many of them are senior citizens, their health has become a significant concern.

Though it was more than four years for some of them, there had been no attempt to initiate a hearing of the case in court or the submission of a charge sheet by the NIA. “Thus, the judgement of Justice Krishna Iyer wherein he said that granting bail is the rule, and jail is an exception", has been overlooked”, said MP Binoy Viswam.

The demands to the central government were the immediate release of all the accused of the Bhima-Koregaon case and the repeal of the NIA act and disbandment of the agency as it went against the ethos of the federal nature of the country.