Mahesh Raut is an activist working with Adivasi in Gadchiroli. [1] He is the youngest accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case. [2]
Raut was born in Lakhapur village in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra's Vidarbha region. He did his schooling at Navodaya School in Gadchiroli. He briefly worked as a primary school teacher in 2007. In 2009, he joined TISS, Mumbai to study social work. [3] After completing his degree from TISS, Raut was selected for the Prime Minister Rural Development (PMRD) fellowship. [4] In 2018, he suffered from acute ulcerative colitis. [4]
Raut is a co-convener of the Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vilas Andolan (VVJVA), [5] which fights the displacement of marginalised communities. Under the VVJVA, he has campaigned along with the Adivasi communities of the region to sell Tendu leaves directly into the market without the involvement of the middlemen. He is also a member of the Bharat Jan Andolan, a human rights NGO. He has campaigned against mining projects in Gadhciroli, including the Surajgarh mining project. [4] [3]
On 6 June 2018, he was arrested from his house [6] by the Pune Police, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He is currently lodged at Taloja central jail. [7]
Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is an Indian social movement spearheaded by native tribals (adivasis), farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against a number of large dam projects across the Narmada River, which flows through the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is one of the biggest dams on the river and was one of the first focal points of the movement. It is part of the Narmada Dam Project, whose main aim is to provide irrigation and electricity to people of the above states.
Medha Patkar is a politician and activist working on certain political and social issues raised by tribals, dalits, farmers, labourers and women facing injustice in India. She is an alumnus of TISS, a premier institute of social science research in India..
Sudhir Dhawale is an Indian activist, actor and publisher of the bi-monthly Marathi magazine Vidrohi. He is also the founder of organisation, Republican Panthers.
Anand Teltumbde is an Indian scholar, writer, and civil rights activist who is a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management. He has written extensively about the caste system in India and has advocated for the rights of Dalits. He is also a longtime critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and was imprisoned in 2020 along with other activists and intellectuals who were critical of the government. His arrest has been condemned by other academics and human rights organizations, and legal experts have said that the charges against him appear to be fabricated.
National Alliance of People's Movements is an alliance of alter-globalisation activist groups in India. It is an umbrella organisation for various civil society organisations and individuals working towards similar goals.
Gautam Navlakha is an Indian human rights activist, journalist, and prisoner. He has written on left-wing extremism and is a critic of army and state atrocities in Kashmir. He is a member of People's Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi. He is also an editorial consultant of the Economic and Political Weekly. He resides in New Delhi.
Sudha Bharadwaj is a trade-unionist, activist and lawyer who has lived and worked in Chhattisgarh for over three decades. She is an active member of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha.
The 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence refers to violence during an annual celebratory gathering on 1 January 2018 at Bhima Koregaon to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. The violence and stone pelting by a crowd at the gathering resulted in the death of a 28-year old youth and injuries to five others. The annual celebration, also called Elgar Parishad convention, was organised by retired justices B. G. Kolse Patil and P. B. Sawant. Justice Sawant stated that the term "Elgar" meant loud invitation or loud declaration.
Umar Khalid is an Indian former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, former leader of Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU. He was allegedly involved in the Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition row and is an accused under the UAPA law. Khalid is also associated with United Against Hate, a campaign founded along with Nadeem Khan in July 2017 in response to the series of lynchings.
The Elgaar Parishad was an event held on 31 December 2017 to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima. It was organised by a coalition of 260 non-profit organisations at Pune's Shaniwar Wada Fort, and had approximately 35,000 people in attendance. The program consisted of a number of cultural performances, speeches and slogans.
Surendra Gadling is a human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist based in Nagpur.
Rona Wilson is an activist, researcher and the public relations secretary of the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP). He has worked with people accused in terrorism cases, including those booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He is an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence.
Shoma Sen is a women's rights activist and assistant professor and was head of the English literature department of the Nagpur University. On 8 June 2018, she was arrested by the Pune Police for her alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon riots
Arun Ferreira is an Indian activist. He was arrested in 2007 for alleged links to the Indian Naxalite movement and spent five years in prison before he was acquitted in 2012. He began a career as a criminal lawyer defending political prisoners. He was arrested again in August 2018 and is currently lodged in Taloja prison along with other accused of the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence
Sambhaji Bhide is a Hindutva activist from Maharashtra. Bhide, a native of Sangli district, was a full-time worker for the Hindu-nationalist organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, before leaving to form his own organisation, the Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, in the late 1980s. The organisation claimed to spread the teachings of Shivaji and his son Sambhaji.
Milind Ekbote is a resident of Shivaji Nagar, Pune. He is the president of Dharmaveer Sambhaji Maharaj Pratishthan and Samasta Hindu Aghadi (SHA), and the founder of Shiv Pratap Bhoomi Mukti Andolan.
Stanislaus Lourduswamy, SJ, popularly known as Stan Swamy, was an Indian Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit order, and a tribal rights activist for several decades. Swamy was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India.
Somnath Waghmare is an Indian documentary filmmaker based in the state of Maharashtra. His most prominent and most recent film, Battle of Bhima Koregaon, was critically received and screened in India and abroad. Till now, all his films have been documentary films and they have dealt with various social issues like the persecution of women and Dalit assertion in Maharashtra. He made his directorial debut with the short documentary feature I Am Not a Witch (2017). His upcoming films are Chaityabhoomi and Gail and Bharat.
Vernon Gonsalves, born 1957, is a trade unionist, activist and academician, and an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence. His wife, lawyer Susan Abraham, is also a workers rights activist. Vernon was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Milind Baburao Teltumbde alias Jeeva or Deepak was a Maoist insurgent leader and Central Committee member of CPI (Maoist). He is the younger brother of Dalit activist and scholar Anand Teltumbde.