Court rejected a petition challenging the decision of 12 village assemblies in 2013 to refuse permission for a bauxite mine operated by a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources and a state-owned company. In July, the US-based Dow Chemical Company and its subsidiary Union Carbide Corporation failed, for the fourth time, to appear before a Bhopal court to face criminal charges related to the 1984 gas leak disaster. In Jharkhand, police shot dead three men demonstrating against a power plant in August, and four villagers were killed by the police following a protest against a stateowned coal mine in October. EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS In April, a former Manipur state policeman told journalists that he had been involved in more than 100 extrajudicial executions in the state between 2002 and 2009. In July, the Supreme Court, hearing a case related to over 1,500 extrajudicial executions in Manipur, ruled that armed forces personnel should not enjoy “blanket immunity” from trials in civilian courts, and that the allegations needed to be looked into. In April, a Central Bureau of Investigation court convicted 47 police personnel of extrajudicially executing 10 men in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, in 1991. Security forces were accused of carrying out several extrajudicial executions in Chhattisgarh through the year. In February, an Adivasi man was killed by Chhattisgarh police in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, in an alleged extrajudicial execution. The same month, an Adivasi man was killed in an alleged extrajudicial execution in Rayagada, Odisha. In both cases, the police claimed that the victims were Maoists. In July, five people, including an infant, were shot dead by security forces in Kandhamal, Odisha. The security forces claimed that the deaths had occurred during crossfire in an encounter with Maoist groups. In November, eight pre-trial detainees were shot dead by the Madhya Pradesh police near Bhopal after they escaped from prison. Amnesty International Report 2016/17 FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION The central authorities continued to use the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) – which restricts civil society organizations from receiving foreign funding – to harass NGOs. The authorities suspended the FCRA registration of Lawyers Collective in June and cancelled it in December. In October the government refused to renew the FCRA licences of 25 NGOs without offering valid reasons. In December, it cancelled the licences of seven other NGOs, including Greenpeace India, Navsarjan, Anhad, and two NGOs run by human rights defenders Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand. Media reports quoted government sources as saying that the NGOs had acted against “national interest”. In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association said that the FCRA restrictions were not in conformity with international law, principles and standards. In June, the UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, freedom of expression, and freedom of association called on the Indian government to repeal the FCRA. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Regressive laws continued to be used to persecute people who legitimately exercised their right to freedom of expression. In February, three students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University were arrested by police in Delhi for sedition after they allegedly raised “anti-national” slogans. The same month, Delhi police also arrested an academic for sedition for allegedly raising “anti-India” slogans at a closed-door event. The sedition law was also used to arrest people for writing “anti-national” Facebook posts in Kerala, for printing a map in Madhya Pradesh which did not show all of Kashmir within Indian borders, and for organizing a protest for better working conditions for police personnel in Karnataka. In August, police in Karnataka registered a sedition case against unnamed representatives of Amnesty International 185