Online petition on the issue of Blockade at Chengara land Struggle
Dear Friends
As most of you are aware, around 5000 families protesting in Chengara are facing violence and are completely cut off even from basic necessities like food and medicine by a bunch of goons with the connivance of the Government of Kerala.
There are several activities taking place on the ground to provide some relief to the protestors. In addition, we thought it is important to show solidarity in the form of a petition addressed to Constitutional authorities in this country, to put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice for the peaceful protestors.
Please do sign this petition and circulate it widely amongst your contacts.
The petition can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/chengara/petition.html
Related posts
AJAY TG IS BACK HOME
In the face of Chhattisgarh State government’s continuing onslaught against Human rights defenders, Ajay TG’s release has been won due to lack of any evidence. Given this positive development, now we need to intensify efforts to end Binayak’s imprisonment. Message from Kavita forwarded below.
BACK WITH PASSION FOR ANOTHER INNINGS
Dear friends,
Ajay TG was released from Jail today the 5th of August only after 8 pm. It took them till four pm today to get all the papers ready. The work of notarising the property list of Ajay took no time in the jail in the morning. However, the Bail sureties that were to be presented by Shobha, Ajay’s wife and the other person required that the Tehsildar verify and counter sign it. The Tehsildar asked the Patwari to verify the papers. The Patwari was not available till very late. However all the work was done and the papers were finally filed in Court by 4pm. Following which the release order was made out and sent to the Jail and then the formalities in Jail took a more than an hour. The entire process made it late evening. It was worth the waiting for all.
Related posts
MEDICAL EVIDENCE SUPPORTS DETAINEES’ ACCOUNTS OF TORTURE IN US CUSTODY
Cambridge, Mass. (PRWEB) June 18, 2008 – Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has published a landmark report documenting medical evidence of torture and ill-treatment inflicted on 11 men detained at US facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, who were never charged with any crime. The physical and psychological evaluation of the detainees and documentation of the crimes are based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims. The report also details the severe physical and psychological pain and long-term disability that has resulted from abusive and
unlawful US interrogation practices. Read more
Related posts
Updates on Ajay TG & text of Bail Order
From: Kavita Srivastava
Jaipur,
5th July, 2008.
Dear friends,
I have been to Raipur twice in the last ten days. From the 24-26 June, I was there to express solidarity with the ten day fast that Sandeep Pandey and three others had undertaken, demanding the release of Binayak Sen and Ajay TG and against the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, 2005. On the last two days of the fast a national seminar against State Repression and Repressive laws was organised by the Chhattisgarh PUCL, timing it with emergency day.
In this period I also met Ajay TG in Durg Jail and also spent some time with his wife Shobha (also a film maker), there 20 month old son called Aman and several cousins and friends of Ajay including a couple of lawyers in Durg.
The second time I went was during the second phase of Binayak’s trial on 2nd and 3rd of July, 2008. On this occasion too I met Shobha and his lawyers.
Both the visits as usual were undertaken to stand in solidarity with Chhattisgarh PUCL who is facing the ire of the State and support the struggle for justice being undertaken by the families of those in jail.
25th June being Wednesday was the weekly day for visitors for Ajay so I accompanied Shobha to Durg jail. Shobha who had expected a face to face meeting with Ajay and had hoped that their son would get an opportunity to hug the father was very disappointed when we were all told that we could only talk to him through the window. Left with no choice all of us, including Ajay’s cousins living in Bhilai talked to him though the grilled and wire meshed window. Ajay who had lost his younger brother Anura only on the 19th of June in a tragic road accident in Kerala, was visibly upset. He was very keen to talk to me separately so we took a chance and I got the permission from the Jail authorities to meet him inside the jail. They just would not allow Shobha but agreed to Aman coming into the Jailer’s room which was our meeting room. Those thirty minutes spent together between father and son was memorable.
Ajay also spoke to me. He asked me to give a message to all. He said that he was innocent and he felt that his arrest was part of the agenda to finish the PUCL. He had been targeted for several reasons:
- Since he had worked with Nandini Sundar and she had filed the Salwa Judum case in the Supreme Court, it was one way of getting back at her and him and all those who were opposed to the Salwa Judum.
- Since he had made short films on some of the PUCL, Chhattisgarh fact finding misions, like on Gola-Palli and Jiramtarai which had belied the official version of naxalite attacks, he was being taught a lesson for that. These two CDs along with another had been seized from Binayak’s house during the house search in May 2007.
- Since he was one of the persons who had conducted the search on the body of the policemen who had carried out the house search of the residence of Binayak Sen as per rules, the particular policemen had told him that he would be taught a lesson one day.
- Since he had stood by Binayak and he was one of the few who was regularly coming to the court in solidarity, he was made a target.
Incidentally his analysis is what most of the members in and outside PUCL Chhattisgarh also state. He felt that Chhattisgarh PUCL was a target and had to be supported with greater strength and that the people within the PUCL need to sit and form a strategy as to how to fight this onslaught of the State.
I also learnt that the family was coping with this crisis mostly on its own. The support for the legal case they had organised on their own with some inputs from a few friends in the PUCL and outside.
Ajay being denied access to a Magistrate:
It was shocking to learn from Ajay that although four remand hearings had happened he had been produced only once, that was on the day he was arrested, after that he was never taken on the date of the hearing under the pretext that there was not enough security needed to take a Naxalite prisoner out to a court and the times he was produced he was taken to the Babu of the Magisterial Court and made to sign and brought back..
Incidentally, on the 27th June too (after Shobha and I had brought this to the notice of all in the national convention) he was still taken to the Babu of the remand court where he was made to sign and brought back. After all these hearings are supposed not merely an extension of judicial remand but also an opportunity to share any grievance that the detainee may have, however, that right has been completely denied to Ajay. This was also tried in the case of Binayak Sen when he was prevented from reaching the Court on the grounds that sufficient force was not available. But our protests and lodging written complaints with the Court, DG and the IG gave a message to the authorities
It was definitely a case of the lack of support of a good local lawyer who was neither present for all the hearings and if present did not see that it was wrong, therefore Ajay has never represented his point to the Court. Incidentally we have brought in another local lawyer who hopefully will take on these issues.
Hand Cuffing of Ajay when taken to Court:
The worst part has been that whenever he was taken to Court he was handcuffed and taken. Since he was never produced in front of the Magistrate he was never able to present his point about handcuffing. Here too the local lawyer was not of much help, infact when Shobha raised this with him he felt that there was no escape from the handcuffing.
The legal position is completely clear. Ordinarily the accused must not be handcuffed. This is the settled law through various judgments of the Supreme Court. Only when the Court is completely satisfied by the argument of the prosecution of the likelihood of the accused escaping from custody, the court will permit handcuffing.
In this case neither has Ajay got an opportunity to raise this issue, nor has it been raised by his lawyer. This is the most disturbing thing that unless we monitor what is happening in the court there will be a denial of basic rights even of the most aware and educated of the lot.
We raised this issue with the Jail authorities and gave it in writing to the DGP on the 2nd of July and on the 3rd July too when Shobha and I met the DGP. He has assured that he will look into it and hopefully this should not happen again, otherwise we really need to protest very loudly on the 11 of July which is the next date of hearing.
Well we hope that now with the change of lawyer in Durg things will improve and also our lobbying with the DGP and IG will help.
No legal advise was also made available to them when Ajay got the news of his brother’s death. No bail application was presented in Court.
Ajay also has no access to books. He did apply for it in court but he was refused. Shobha has not been allowed to give books. This was another request that we made to the Jail Authorities. He is only allowed to read one of the local newspapers.
The Text of the Bail order
As you all are aware Ajay was denied bail in the lower court exactly a month after his arrest on the 5th June, 2008. The sections under what he has been booked are 124 (a) (Sedition) and sections 3,4, 8 (1) of the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, 2005.
Related posts
A PLEA TO TAKE UP THE CASE OF FILM-MAKER AJAY T G, HELD ON FALSE CHARGES IN CHHATTISGARH
This is an appeal to you to actively campaign for the freedom for film-maker Ajay T.G, who was recently arrested in Bhilai under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act (like Dr. Binayak Sen) on charges on sedition!
Ajay, who would be about 35, hails originally from Kerala. Coming from a very ordinary family, he has been involved in CPI politics and is still an office-bearer of the local youth federation. He learned film-making at “Jan Darshan” an effort of journalist Lalit Surjan (of Deshbandhu fame) to train local youth in the audio-visual media.
As a research assistant of the well known sociologist Jonathan Parry of the London School of Economics, Ajay made several films on the interface of caste and class among the permanent workmen of the Bhilai Steel Plant, which were widely appreciated
As a member of PUCL, he had the courage to accompany several fact-finding teams including into fake encounters, and capture on film the statements of victims. (Presumably it is this activity of Ajay’s that is being dubbed “sedition”?) Read more
Related posts
-
Gallery
From freebinayaksen.org- Updates from Google News
- Dr Binayak Sen, My Brother, Our Hero - CounterCurrents.org
- Right to a fair trial - Daily News & Analysis
- The country's draconian anti-terrorism laws, clamping down on ... - guardian.co.uk
- Activists rally around jailed filmmaker - Times of India
- Threat to State Security : Incarceration of a Public Health ... - Mainstream
- I'm no Maoist: Filmmaker Ajay TG - MSN India
- Reports From Indian Media
- Documenting reality under a tarpaulin sky - Hindu: Opinion
- Right to a fair trial - DNA: Opinion
- A rare screen - New Indian Express
- Warriors against the State - Hindu: Sunday Magazine
- Plain truths - Hindu:Friday Review: Bangalore
- 'Suspected Maoists' arrest sparks debate - The Statesman
- The other side - Hindu:Metro Plus: Bangalore
- Spotlight - The Statesman
- 'Naxals' held for a year now - DNA: Top News
- 61 yrs of Independence, many still fighting for freedom - CNN-IBN: India
- I'm no Maoist: Filmmaker Ajay TG - New Kerala: India News
- I'm no Maoist: Filmmaker Ajay TG - India eNews: Top Headlines
- letters to the editor - The Statesman
- Arundhati Roy, rights activists rally around freed Chhattisgarh filmmaker - The Indian Express -- Front Page
- If Ajay is Naxal, I am al Qaeda - Deccan Herald
- Watch film on Binayak Sen today - Hindu: Karnataka
- FROM THE DIARY - Hindu:Metro Plus: Bangalore
- The State As Strangler - Outlook
- Some rabid police officers to blame - The Statesman
- Activists rally around jailed filmmaker - TOI: Mumbai