Thread by @Article14live

As #SupremeCourt orders no further action on pending #Sedition cases, our year-long investigation of sedition data & stories—used by most petitioners in current case—lays bare how cases rose 28% every year after 2014. 1/n

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25 #Sedition cases filed after anti-#CAA protests, 22 after #Hathras gang rape, 27 after #Pulwama bombings: 519 sedition cases by #Modi govt (2014-2020), against protest movements, journalists, intellectuals. 2/n

96% of sedition cases filed against 405 Indians for criticising politicians & govts between 2010 & 2021 registered after 2014: 149 accused of making “critical” and/or “derogatory” remarks against #NarendraModi, 144 against #YogiAdityanath. 3/n

In #Karnataka, where more citizens face #sedition cases for social-media posts, police used sedition for #Facebook goof-ups, accidental #WhatsApp statuses, Farmers, labourers arrested for captions they couldn’t read. 4/n

#Karnataka police on their spree of 46 #sedition cases in 10 years, in violation of SC guidelines: ‘Let courts decide innocence.’ But for the poor, this means 2-13 months in jail, debt for legal expenses. 5/n

Our empirical, investigative research into the use of sedition over 12 years, using 1300 legal documents, 800 media reports, 125 FIRs & >70 interviews with those accused of sedition, provides unprecedented insight into India’s use of a law discarded by most democracies. 6/n

A year in the making, our database reveals that >13,000 have been charged with sedition in 867 cases across India & Indians have spent 3 million hours in prison on charges of sedition over the decade (2010-2021). 7/n

Since 2014 when the BJP came into power, there has been a 190% increase in the number of women charged with sedition. Among these women were an artist, a filmmaker, an academic, an adivasi, an activist, a student, a homemaker, a politician. 8/n

Between 2010 & 2021, 106 cases filed against social media users— Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, Tiktok—for “anti national” or “pro Pakistan” content. All except one, were filed after 2014. 9/n

39% of 279 sedition cases filed by #UPA govt (2010-2014) were against those protesting nuclear plant in #TamilNadu, rest mostly against alleged Maoists. Former PM Manmohan Singh Singh blamed a "foreign hand" for stoking these large-scale protests.10/n

Those accused of sedition spent an average of 50 days in prison until a trial court granted bail, up to 200 days until a High Court did so. Trial courts rejected bail more than allowed it. At high courts, for every bail rejected, 7 were granted. 11/n

When a court grants bail, it may compel payment of a bail bond: from Rs 10,000 to Rs 200,000. Nearly everyone accused of sedition that we interviewed reported selling land, jewellery, livestock & taking on debt to pay legal fees & bail bonds. 12/n

Our data found that of 126 people for whom trials have concluded, 98 were acquitted of all charges, 13 of charges of sedition only, and 13 were convicted. That is a conviction rate of 0.1%. 13/n

You can log in to the database here: A Decade of Darkness. 14/n
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