Indian freedom fighter Sudha Bharadwaj receives bail for brutality | Issues of Human Rights

New Delhi, India – An Indian court has granted bail to well-known human rights activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, three years later, along with more than a dozen others, accused of inciting violence in a village west of Maharashtra. .

One week after the Bombay High Court handed over a “permanent bail” to Bharadwaj, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday issued the ruling, asking a 60-year-old human rights activist to pay a bond of 50,000 rupees ($ 663). present his passport and stay in Mumbai to investigate. The court also ordered him not to speak to the media about the matter.

Bharadwaj was was arrested in August 2018 in the Bhima-Koregaon case, which means Maharashtra village, located 170km (106 miles) southeast of India’s economic capital Mumbai.

On January 1 each year, members of the Dalit (formerly “non-aligned” group gathered in Bhima-Koregaon to take part in the war in 1818 when the Dalits allied with the British army to defeat the Hindu rulers of Pesha.

The festivities in 2018, however, were marred by violence after a Dalits-led rally allegedly attacked by unfortunate Hindus, who often hate the 200-year-old war. Almost one person has been killed and many more injured in the violence that has resulted in demonstrations in Maharashtra and other parts of India.

‘Terrible procrastination’

The NIA accused 16 freedom fighters, including Bharadwaj, of making derogatory remarks about the Bhima-Koregaon ritual and accused them of “draconian” Unlawful Activities Prevention ACT.UAPA). He was also charged with collaborating with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Colin Gonsalves’ attorney general told Al Jazeera that the charge against Bharadwaj was “a simple and complex case”.

“Although I am very happy with the delivery of the official bail [to Bharadwaj], I have to regret that three years are surprisingly late, ”Gonsalves said.

Bharadwaj was born in 1961 in Boston, United States, to well-known academic parents. After graduating from high school, he studied mathematics at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, a state-run university in northern India.

As a lawyer for trade and human rights, Bharadwaj has spent almost 30 years working with the most oppressed people in India, especially in the disputed region of Chhattisgarh.

Auxiliary and author Harsh Mander told Al Jazeera Bharadwaj that “a needy citizen who chose to be a youth and then devoted his whole life to the dignity and justice of the poorest of the poor”.

“Accusing him of Maoist violence is cruel,” Mander said.

When the Bombay Supreme Court granted bail to Bharadwaj, it denied the other eight defendants in the Bhima-Koregaon case: Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.

With the exception of Rao, 81, a well-known Telugu poet currently on medical bills, all other defendants are being held in the Taloja Central Prison near Mumbai.

In July this year, an 84-year-old tribal activist and Jesuit priest, Father Stan Swamy, was also arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case. he died at another hospital in Mumbai on the day when his brief bail application was due to be heard in court.

Swamy was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and was repeatedly denied bail. His death infuriated many, and The United Nations says he was “grieved and distressed” by his death.

The government is abusing UAPA

Supreme Court Attorney and civil rights activist Vrinda Grover told Al Jazeera why UAPA is called “an insulting law” by human rights groups and because it “deviates from the norms and principles of terrorist law and gives the government and its allies the right to freedom.”

Grover said the Bhima-Koregaon case had not been started and the cases had not been settled after three and a half years, although various activists had been arrested.

“But the accused remain in jail for the UAPA cases,” he said.

Although UAPA has been in operation since 1967, the Modi government changed the law in 2019, allowing the authorities to label people as “terrorists”. In the past, the government would select organizations, not individuals, as criminals by law.

Last week, Indian Prime Minister Nityanand Rai told parliament that as of 2016, at least 7,243 people have been arrested under UAPA. At the same time, only 212 people – less than 3 percent of total arrests – were prosecuted, according to government data.

Legal experts and freedom fighters have called for the abolition of UAPA, saying it had “a devastating effect” on free speech in democracy.

“Honestly, I think the real purpose of UAPA is to [an] anti-speech laws, “attorney Gonsalves told Al Jazeera.

“It is the only law that is used to threaten freedom of speech and nationwide, and those who oppose the government are being held accountable under this law.”

Lawyer Grover said the Bhima-Koregaon case is “an old study” of how UAPA makes “the policy a punishment”.

“Stan Swamy’s death in prison is an example of this,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The state has more and more power under the UAPA and the same is true of those who suffer from long prison terms before trial.”

Meenakshi Ganguly, executive director of Human Rights Watch in South Asia, told Al Jazeera that the UAPA was “repeatedly misused to crack down on” freedom fighters and people who oppose government policies that they see as unfair.

“This is an anti-terrorism law, which shows that the authorities do not seem to be able to distinguish between those who want to promote human rights and those who violate that right with non-discriminatory violence,” he said.

Opponent Mander said it was “strange” that the Indian liberation movement against Britain, led by Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders, violated laws that authorized the colonial government to permanently imprison dissenters and dissidents.

“Today, UAPA and the colonial era are doing the same. “It is being used extensively by the Indian government which is known for its democratic intimidation and detention of protesters – freedom fighters, students and the media,” he said.

“The misuse of these laws undermines India’s claim to being the world’s largest democracy.”