A day after the arrest of the Mumbai-based Dalit activist and editor of Vidrohi magazine, Sudhir Dhawle (42), by the Gondia police in Wardha on charges of waging a war against the State, more than 150 human rights activists, social activists, writers and journalists protested here on Tuesday against the detention. Mr. Dhawle, also a freelance journalist, was arrested on charges of having links with the banned Communist Party of India...

Condemning the conviction of physician and human rights activist Binayak Sen as a travesty of justice, more than 250 physicians, medical professionals and students here on Tuesday demanded his immediate and unconditional release. Dr. Sen along with Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal and city-based businessman Pijush Guha was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 24 by a Raipur court on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit sedition under Section 124(a) of IPC. Assembling...

The Supreme Court today stayed a Delhi High Court order that had refused to quash a criminal case slapped against political commentator Ashish Nandy for an article on the Gujarat riots. It also issued notices to the Gujarat government on an appeal filed by Nandy against the high court order that dismissed his plea for quashing the case registered against. The high court had asked Nandy to defend himself in a lower...

The Gondia police have arrested Sudhir Dhawle (42), Editor of Vidrohi magazine and freelance journalist based in Mumbai, on charges of waging war against the state. He was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “The charges are the same as those slapped on [rights activist] Binayak Sen,” Mr. Dhawle's lawyer Surendra Gadling told The Hindu. He claimed that the police took Mr. Dhawle into custody on Sunday night itself from...

The sentencing of Dr. Binayak Sen involves unverified charges, and unreasonable and unconstitutional findings. The constitutional validity of the charges of sedition and conspiracy that were used to implicate rights activists such as Binayak Sen merely for their anti-establishment political thoughts needs to be challenged. The action ridicules the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression. The sections of the Indian Penal Code that deal with “conspiracy to wage war against the government”...