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 Statement by Campaign Against State Repression: Facts: In the early morning of  December 15, Ambedkarite Activist Somnath had chest pain and died in police custody. He had been arrested after a protest against desecration of a replica of Constitution in Parbhani District of Maharashtra. Medical examination found that there were internal and external injuries on his body, suggesting custodial torture.

Before the protests a replica of the Constitution was desecrated in Parbhani district in Maharashtra  on December 10, International Human Rights Day. After the desecration, a call of bandh was given by some organisations in Parbhani to condemn  Maharashtra police's act of shielding the perpetrators by declaring them as “mentally deranged”. After the protest on December 11, the police registered 8 FIRs against 50 Known and Unknown people and started combing operations in nearby Dalit Bastis, Bhim Nagar and Priyadarshini Nagar, brutally beating men and  women. Those arrested by the police were sent to judicial custody without medical examination,.. 

The CASR says that ..Similar events unfolded in 2018, Elgaar Parishad program at Bhima Koregaon memorial where Brahmanical Hindutva forces attacked the masses gathered to oppose the "New Peshwai" in the form of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism of RSS-BJP. Instead of arresting the attackers, police raided the poor Dalit Bastis and unleashed brutality to suppress the anti-fascist vision of the oppressed and exploited people. Repression continued in the form of an attack on democratic progressive forces under the pretext of "Urban Naxalism", later known as Bhima Koregaon 16,

Somnath belongs to the Waddar community that is listed as denotified tribes by the government. These communities are treated by the Indian state as habitual offenders and  Police simply pick them up and send them behind bars, whenever any kind of criminal offense happens in the areas near their bastis.

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Urban Naxal Bogey: Move for Harsher Bill to Curb Civil Rights? https://thewire.in/politics/urban-naxal-bogey-move-for-harsher-bill-to-curb-civil-rights P. Raman   The Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, iis seen as an attempt to test waters....many of its provisions can be misused against activists, protesters and opponents. ..

 For the BJP, “urban Naxal” means almost everything anti-BJP. The term “anti-national” has a limited reach and application but “urban Naxal” can be used to target political parties, intellectuals, atheists, those who criticise patriarchy, feminist groups, trade unions, slum groups, lawyers, farmers’ movements, journalists and those NGOs that are championing the causes of the oppressed classes. It can cover anyone critical of the establishment.

The left-wing extremist groups have over the years felt the need to establish units of intellectuals, students and youth.  In the late 1960s and the 1970s, when the Naxalite movement began taking root in the rural interiors, it also influenced sections of the urban youth. There was violence in Kolkata and in several universities. A parallel media popular among sections of youths and intellectuals emerged in English and the regional languages. Youth musical squads spiritedly sang songs like ‘Amar baadi, tomaar baadi, Maor baadi Naxal baadi (My house, your house, Mao’s house, Naxalbari)’. 

Elgar Parishad case: NIA arrests activists Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor  https://scroll.in/latest/972501/elgar-parishad-case-nia-arrests-activists-sagar-gorkhe-ramesh-gaichor In a video recorded before their arrest, the activists alleged the NIA was forcing them to give statements to implicate those arrested in the case. Sep 08, 2020