Mekhala Saran
@mekhala_saran
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Global Media and Digital Communications @SOAS University of London Formerly: Principal Correspondent - Legal @thequint Views are personal
United Kingdom
Joined June 2016
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Pinned Tweet
Grateful to Sahba Husain for trusting me with her story of love in the time of captivity.
‘Every time I stepped out, the camera was on’: Love and resilience in captivity with Gautam Navlakha via
@scroll_in
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This time, travelled home only for this.
For democracy. For truth. For a hate-free Uttar Pradesh.
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On board
@IndiGo6E
's Allahabad to Delhi flight today.
For
@kunalkamra88
. For India. Against intimidation tactics and unhealthy precedents.
#YouDivideWeMultiply
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A MALE cop, double my size, had the audacity to stick out his hand from the gate and hit me on my face. My other female collegues, were also pushed and shoved, their phones snatched, by shameless male cops. Male colleagues were also hit.
Cops thrashed lawyers for doing their job.
URGENT UPDATE from Jagatpuri Police Station (Lakshmi Nagar):
Cops assaulted ICLU lawyers who went there to release a detainee. My female friend was slapped by a male policeman. Male cops also recorded videos of female lawyers.
Please take immediate action
@DelhiPolice
.
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-No 'retraction' automatically results in a
#POCSO
case being thrown out.
- Experts say such changes create doubts
- Big political figures are often denied bail BECAUSE of their power & influence (eg Manish Sisodia)
I write on claims about 'false claim'
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Prof Saibaba's acquittal comes as tremendous relief. But let's spare a thought for his co-accused
#PanduNarote
who died in August after falling very very ill in jail. Had he survived he'd have probably got a chance to return to his family too.
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But, will GN Saibaba get his lost years back? Will Pandu Narote get his life?
(Resharing a piece I had written after Pandu Narote's demise).
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Minor life update: After about two years as a full-time senior deskwriter at The Quint (which came after various other consultant/freelancer stints), I've shifted to reporting. Hope to tell stories of meaning and impact, and look forward to learning and growing. DMs are open.♥️
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My latest for
@TheQuint
Dear
#KanganaRanaut
- in making
#Manikarnika
you were neither fighting a war, nor eradicating poverty, nor finding a cure for cancer, so stop the drama, writes a former fan
@mekhala_saran
.
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On the day after Justice MR Shah's retirement, I reflect upon his time as a Supreme Court judge.
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In this piece, for
@TheQuint
, I write about the life and work of the brave, conscientious, extraordinary
#DanishSiddiqui
, even though the body of work he leaves behind is too exemplary and too extensive to be summed up in a mere article.
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I've been doing a lot of research/reportage on press freedom & political incarcerations, and it's frankly exhausting. How are we not talking more regularly abt the fact that people EXACTLY like you & me are behind bars? Do you know what happens when someone goes to jail? (Thread)
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The Supreme Court has an opportunity to set things straight. Really hope it rises to the occasion and doesn't squander it. The whole world will be watching.
#ArvindKejriwal
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“The press must remain free if a country is to remain a democracy -" CJI Chandrachud.
As Kashmiri journalist
#FahadShah
completes 500 days in prison, revisiting some of my older pieces on the ordeal meted out to him. (A thread)
No incarcerated journalist should be forgotten.
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By that logic Bajrang Muni shouldve never even been booked under hate-speech related charges. Curious: is it okay for UP police to say something, but not for a journalist? By your logic, Mr ASG, should we all just declare some people above the law, shut our minds & sit at home?
ASG : Bajrang Muni is a respected mahout religious leader in Sitapur with large following. When you call a religious leader hate-monger, it raises problems.
#MuhammedZubair
#AltNews
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The house in which
#JavedMohammad
lived with his family was razed to rubble yesterday. But this isn’t the first such instance. What does the existing pattern of demolitions suggest? What can the courts do about it? I delve into these questions.
@thequint
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"He was just doing his work as a journalist. How could we have expected it?" asks
#FahadShah
's brother Aqib. Legal experts also have questions regarding the FIR, related to the
#UAPA
charges, and why they may have been added. Read.
@TheQuint
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My professor wrote this in her feedback to my International Political Communications essay, and I can't remember the last time I felt so fulfilled 😭
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The joy of receiving a book in your post with your essay in it//Chalo, at least something good came out of my anxiety.
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In this interview with me, journalist Fahad Shah describes how 21 months in prison changed him. Having followed his story (all four cases + PSA) closely since his first arrest in Feb 22, this conversation feels rich, insightful and long overdue.
@TheQuint
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Fahad Shah finally gets bail in the UAPA case against him. J&K HC has also quashed/set aside major charges. Waiting for the order copy for finer details
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Six different lock-ups, four cases, fresh UAPA charges, one PSA detention order...I write for
@TheQuint
about what the past four months have been like for Kashmiri Journalist
#FahadShah
, editor of
@tkwmag
.
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#MunawarFaruqui
finally got interim bail, thanks to the SC! But the story doesn't end there. It does not even pause. Why are two of his friends- Nalin Yadav and Sadaqat Khan - still in jail? And how and when will they get bail? I try to find out.
@TheQuint
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Gautam Navlakha Gets Bail, But the Elgar Parishad Ordeal Continues
My latest for
@thewire_in
.
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Life update: earlier this month I bade goodbye to the bravest, brightest team at The Quint. TQ gave me a lot, allowing me to manage their legal beat & to tell, commission & edit stories that are different & yet so imp. More soon on what's next, but for now only gratitude and ❤️
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Sushila tells me she hasn't been able to eat or bathe because her belongings were crushed under the weight of Haryana govt's bulldozers. As authorities allege encroachment & raze hutments, several
#BanjaraMarket
shopkeepers plead: “resettle us anywhere.”
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Can't ask questions because national security.
Can't protest an act because UAPA.
Can't hold the democratically elected government accountable because sedition.
Can't criticise the judiciary because contempt.
Happy Independence Day eve, friends.
#standwithprashantbhushan
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कन्हैया नहीं, ये उमर है
बस नाम, नाम का अंतर है
एक नेता है, एक अंदर है
मुट्ठी में कैद बवंडर है
बस नाम, नाम का अंतर है
#UmarKhalid
Umar Khalid, who's one of the accused in Delhi riots, completes 500 days in prison today.
His bail hearing is more likely going at the speed of a trial.
Bail is the rule, jail is the exception, but there's might be an exception for this rule too.
#UmarKhalid
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Hi, I'm looking for
#journalism
related opportunities (within student visa limits) in London. I'm presently studying Global Media & Digital Communications at SOAS and was formerly Principal Correspondent - Legal at TheQuint. I've 5 yrs experience, an English Hons & an LLB. Pls RT
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What Russia is doing in Ukraine is an incredibly disturbing representation of the extent to which men can go to satisfy their fragile egos and masculine fantasies.
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As PM Modi inaugurated the new parliament — “temple of democracy,” he called it — the
#wrestlers
protest was forcefully & quite undemocratically - one might argue, quelled by the police.
But what does the law say on this subject? I attempt to find out.
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When I heard about the attack on
@UmarKhalidJNU
, I was angry, stunned. I remembered my mother has been telling me a lot lately to not express my opinions too loudly. But I must. This independence day, I share this with
@TheQuint
.
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Delhi High Court has urgently listed the Delhi Police's plea against order discharging
#Sharjeel
,
#Safoora
,
#Asif
& others in
#JamiaViolence
case. Now would be a good time to recall why the order being challenged is important & makes perfect sense legally.
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An assistant-professor in Kolkata was allegedly subjected to moral police, 'slut-shamed' and compelled to resign by university authorities. All for some photos she had posted on her personal instagram account. Here's why thats SO problematic (even legally).
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Friends in UK, I'm looking for employment. While I specialise in legal journalism and writing long-form features - with focus on human rights, political incarcerations & press freedom - I'm also a strong researcher + analyst. Plus I've 5-yrs newsroom experience, and a law degree.
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“It doesn’t matter if the boy is Muslim or Hindu, he is a student. When he did not do anything wrong, why should we file any report against him?” the girl's mother told me.
Read my report for
@TheQuint
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#1YearOfCAA
| In this piece, I recall how Allahabad HC quashed charges against Dr Kafeel Khan, how Karnataka HC held prohibitory orders amid anti-
#CAA
protests illegal & more...
SC and HCs reacted differently to
#CAA
Protesters. Read how on
@TheQuint
!
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In this piece for
@TheQuint
, I attempt to remind us of
@Masratzahra
and Siddique Kappan and
@PJkanojia
& so many others who have been subjected to draconian laws, gag attempts and worse. Here's hoping the fight for press freedom won't end with Arnab.
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As
@angshuman_ch
turns 30 today, here's a little thread on why everyone should have an Angshuman in their lives. >>
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:) Grateful that this happened. Also super grateful to the Supreme Court for restraining that poisonous programme.
.
@mekhala_saran
's report for
@TheQuint
on
#SudarshanNews
' 'UPSC Jihad' show cited in today's intervention petition at the
#SupremeCourt
that led to a restraint on the programme.
So proud :')
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"When you try to term a bunch of journalists as “tenth-fail”, you don’t only seem deeply unaware, but also woefully tone-deaf. The term “tenth-fail” carries a strong stench of elitism, Kangana." I write an open letter to
#KanganaRanaut
on
@TheQuint
.
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Read about the Bhima Koregaon 16, the Delhi riots conspiracy case, the conviction & release of GN Saibaba, the death of Pandu Narote, writings by former political prisoners...Why's this important? Because every time someone else loses their rights, your own rights become fragile.
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Delhi HC resumes hearing in
#RanaAyyub
's petition challenging a travel ban enforced by the Enforcement Directorate. Advocate Vrinda Grover is representing Ayyub.
@TheQuint
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My first day with the brilliant
@ICLU_Ind
yesterday.
Our team yesterday visited Gendikhatta in Uttarakhand to speak to the community leaders of van gujjars. They're a nomadic community with their idea of home being threatened by successive governments. We spoke at length about how to get their documents in order.
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UP AAG, on her part, argued that
#Zubair
promoted “malicious and provocative content” under the guise of fact-checking, gets paid for tweets, Bajrang Muni has a lot of followers and Zubair, in fact, tweeting about ‘Baba Bajrang Muni’s’ speech was cause for communal tension.
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I've started MA Global Media and Digital Communications at SOAS, University of London. I plan on studying how digital journalism shapes (and is shaped by) the news cycle in the global south, and how digital networks/different societies deal with attacks on press freedom. (1/2)
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The
#MannKiBaat
handle, on 10 May, amid this crippling
#pandemic
, asked people to “celebrate the power of positivity.” But
#Modi
govt’s push for
#positivity
, at a time like this, is more aggressive than just that 1 (now deleted) tweet.
My piece: |
@TheQuint
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To what extent should a performer have to pay the price for thin-skinned members of the audience; or should art be sacrificed for political purposes, under vague & arbitrary pretexts?
In this piece, I argue why
#MunawarFaruqui
deserves bail.
@TheQuint
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Best to explain why a "fundamental right for Hindus to protect cows" is probably not a great idea right away, or we will keep advocating it till, well, the cows come home. My video for
@TheQuint
.
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It's been a month since
@umairronga
's 70-yr-old father NA Ronga – an Advocate & chairman of the HCBA – was detained under PSA.
Here I analyse what his case reveals about the horrors of preventive detention & how it is shockingly common in J&K.
@TheQuint
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No legal journalist who has lived long enough in this mother of democracy to remember a time before 2014, would have thought they'd ever be writing a piece explaining that
#RahulGandhi
has rights too.
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After
#MunawarFaruqui
announced his exit from comedy, I wrote a piece that I won't call
#satire
because I know you don’t like
#comedy
. But “everyone is entitled to their opinion (except
@munawar0018
,
@thevirdas
,
@kunalkamra88
& their ilk, ofc).”
@TheQuint
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I'm hoping to get my 1st novel published, but I'm terrified of pitching to publishers and never hearing back from them. This isn't my first manuscript, I literally gave up on the one I wrote before this after a renowned publishing house didn't bother sending even a 'no'.
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Hi, so in some personal news: I have passed all my papers, and, in effect, graduated with an LLB degree.
Happy for everyone who has to deal with me. I'll be 10% less vexed, and 5% more chill for the next few weeks. ❤️
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On the evening of 26 Feb,
@umairronga
was expecting
#FahadShah
's release, when he found out that the scribe had been arrested again...But several legal experts agree that his repeated incarceration may be an abuse of the legal process. Here's how
@TheQuint
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Happy Birthday to the most incredibly, unnervingly, envy-inducingly talented man. I'm just lucky that I can swim in the folds of your remarkable existence and watch you light up the world with the glow of your kindness and empathy.
@angshuman_ch
❤️
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"When Fahad Shah first visited the Pulwama police station in early February last year, he told his mother that he might be asked to spend the night there. It has been over a year to that day and Shah is yet to return home..."
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- 54% of jails in India are overcrowded
- 77% of prisoners are under-trial
- 658 doctors for 1,319 Prisons (source: IJR 2022)
Q: How many more Stan Swamys, Pandu Narotes & Suresh Pawars will it take for authorities to pay heed to the plight of prisoners?
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Chavhanke used his prime time slot to cast aspersions on the UPSC, the Muslim community & ex PM Manmohan Singh, masquerading conspiracy theories as legitimate issues.
I write here about what went down at his UPSC Jihad show last night.
@TheQuint
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Through this poem, I share with
@TheQuint
how a name change can make one feel homeless.
But it will never be
#Prayagraj
for me, especially since this change seems so politically motivated and divisive.
#ForeverAnAllahabadi
, just like so many of you!
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SC tells Gautam Navlakha "you can't escape your liability". What liability? Have we forgotten who imposed it on him? Have we forgotten that all evidence increasingly suggests that the entirety of the
#BhimaKoregaon
case is a farce?
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Maharashtra govt's appeal against HC order discharging
#GNSaibaba
listed before a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar on 8 Dec. Incidentally, Justice Shah was on the special bench which had suspended the HC order & stayed his release post an urgent Saturday hearing in Oct.
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Honoured that my report on the incarceration of BK-16 amid COVID, in crowded jails, despite age and co-morbidities, has been mentioned as a suggested reading in this letter by Nobel laureates, other prominent figured, appealing for their release.
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First, families rarely get complete info in the beginning. So there are several hours/days that the family spends in complete confusion + terror + begging cops/lawyers/acquaintances in high up places for any information possible. Meanwhile the arrestee is equally confused/scared.
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While the girl's parents combat the suffocation of their loss, with politicians (from all walks and parties) pressing their long noses against the brittle glass of their lives, the narrative has shifted...It is now all about
#RahulGandhi
Twitter.
@TheQuint
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#Natasha
,
#Devangana
,
#Asif
FINALLY get bail. But many, like
#UmarKhalid
,
#SharjeelImam
,
#IshratJahan
and
#KhalidSaifi
, continue to battle anxiety, sickness, COVID risks& loneliness, as part of their unnerving& unrelenting incarceration. My report
@TheQuint
.
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Pandu Narote was an agricultural worker. He was only 33 years old. I'm told he had not met his wife or his daughter since his conviction in 2017. Point is: Pandu Narote did not have to die a UAPA convict. Nobody deserves that plight.
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Article 21: No person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty, except by procedure established by law.
Yet
#StanSwamy
(84),
#HanyBabu
,
#SudhaBhardawaj
, other
#BhimaKoregaon
accused are denied bail amid a crippling pandemic. My report:
@TheQuint
.
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At the Delhi HC to cover hearing of
#RanaAyyub
's plea challenging travel restrictions by ED. The matter was passed over earlier today as the counsel for ED was not available. It will be taken up once Justice CD Singh finishes hearing all other cases on today's list.
@TheQuint
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Most Indian jails are packed with under-trials and bursting beyond capacity. The health + hygiene conditions are dismal. Then if it's far from home, not only do you have to get used to the jail-environment, you might also need to acquaint yourself with a strange language/culture
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Can you hear the smog?
The crackle in its breath
The gasp in its folds
The rasp in its laugh
The croak in its hold
Metal on your tongue
Wheezing in your lung
Can you hear the smog
Like a festive number badly sung?
#DelhiPollution
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In this report for
@TheQuint
, I cast a retrospective glance on the controversies our courts have previously been enmeshed in and what each separate incident led/didn't lead to.
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So, tell me, how's any of this fair? Political prisoners + their families start to suffer this plight well before they are convicted (ie proven guilty). In most cases, they are subsequently found innocent. Therefore, I urge you, please educate yourself on political incarcerations
1
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After
#PanduNarote
's death, (once again) questions arose about health + hygiene conditions in jail and the treatment of ailing inmates in jail. He'd been ill for several days before he was shift to govt hospital. His lawyer found out about his illness from an external source etc
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You might have several who love and support you, but some friends will turn their backs towards you. The stigma of incarceration is thick and so is the fear of trouble by association. Even those who love you might struggle to completely understand you.
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Also, you don't know how long you're in for, you don't know when the court will admit your bail plea, how many months it will be before the hearings even begin...all this while, you might be subjected to interrogations + have to get used to an entirely new environment.
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In context of Fahad Shah's unending incarceration, Sr Adv Mihir Desai said: "This has been done in the Delhi Riots case, Bhima Koregaon case and several others...they start with one FIR, which ultimately has little to do with what they're charging you."
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Her statements (changed or unchanged) don't even mean all that much with regard to the
#POCSO
case, lawyers say.
But it's unfair to expect a child to withstand all the pressure. If she somehow does, her ordeal deserves better than inconsistent reportage.
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All good orders, but too soon to call it winds of change, no? Sajad Gul remains behind bars 6 months after HC ordered his release. Mahesh Raut, 8 months - case stuck in SC. Many more languishing in seemingly endless wait. Praying for winds of justice to blow in their direction.
Gautam Navlakha. Prabir Purkayastha. Shoma Sen. Kejriwal n Sanjay Singh too. Winds of change?
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So theres the mental torture, the physical torture and the loneliness. And this is barely scratching the surface, tbqh. Some former-prisoners report feeling a sense of guilt for subjecting their loved ones through this pain *even* when they know they've done nothing wrong, really
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2
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The law is expected to regard others the exact same way that it does Brij Bhushan.
But our jails are bursting beyond capacity, 391 prisons have occupancy above 150%, 77% of India's prison-population is under-trial & liberty seems to remain a gift for few.
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Meanwhile, MANY old and ailing people, accused under the
#UAPA
, continue to languish in prisons. Most of them are likely to be acquitted for lack/dubiousness of evidence etc. But in the meantime, how many more times do we want to repeat the tragedy of Stan Swamy & Pandu's deaths?
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"When even for the ordinary law, the threshold is very high, for an extraordinary statute, it must be much higher," Senior Advocate Rebecca John said. "You cannot criminalise peoples thoughts, people’s minds."
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In other news...
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15
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As a deluge of mandir-masjid legal disputes washes over the country, and courts mull over which land, which structure, which fragment of history belongs to which God, here's a bit about the petitions filed over Mathura's
#ShahiIdgahMasjid
.
@TheQuint
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I wrote about the tragedy of Pandu's demise in this piece:
2
11
27
In another (belated) win for press freedom, J&K HC quashes the PSA detention order against journalist Sajad Gul. After over 600 days in custody, HC orders his release.
0
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