The Print / by Ruchi Bhattar

Despite nearly 200 listings in trial court, proceedings haven’t moved beyond preliminary stage. Surendra Gadling was arrested in Surajgarh arson case in January 2019.
Human rights lawyer Surendra Pundalik Gadling has spent more than six-and-a-half years in custody as an undertrial in the 2016 Surajgarh arson case, with the trial still stalled at the stage of framing of charges.
Gadling, also an accused in the Elgar Parishad–Koregaon Bhima case, was granted interim bail last week in this matter by an NIA court in Mumbai to attend the last rites of a family member.
Read more

Video: 6yrs, no charges framed

en | 4:51 | 2025
Maharasthra human rights lawyer and activist Surnedra Gadling was arrested in Surajgarh arson case in January 2019. Despite nearly 200 listings in trial courts over 4 years, proceedings haven’t moved beyond preliminary stage. He’s also accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Ruchi Bhattar explains more in this video.
Watch video

---

Also read:
▪ Judiciary ‘turning justice into punishment’: PUCL slams bail denial in UAPA cases (Countercurrents / Sep 2025)
▪ SC to hear bail plea of Bhima Koregaon accused Surendra Gadling on Sep 17 (Hindustan Times / Sep 2025)
▪ In Surendra Gadling’s case, adjournment becomes the verdict (Frontline / Aug 2025)
▪ How Long is Too Long? – On the Maximum Period that an Undertrial Prisoner can be Detained (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)
▪ When Push Comes to Shove: Tracking Judicial Recusals and Transfers (The Wire / Apr 2023)
▪ A poet, a lawyer, a professor: These are the five activists held for sparking Bhima Koregaon clashes (Scroll.in / Jun 2018)