‘My Imprisonment Part of Scheme to Suppress Dissent, Intimidate Academics’: Hany Babu
My Imprisonment Part of Scheme to Suppress Dissent, Intimidate Academics: DU Prof Hany Babu
20/12/2025
The Hindustan Gazette / by Waquar Hasan
Delhi University professor and civil rights activist Hany Babu, who was recently granted bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, has said that his imprisonment was part of a larger scheme to suppress dissent and intimidate academics, intellectuals, and activists who raise critical concerns.
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“Five years inside the prison can actually destroy a person. The only way to withstand this is by doing positive things and refusing to bow down,” he said. “I’m a born Muslim, but I was not religious before my arrest. It was when I was arrested that I realized how vulnerable we all are, and that it is only a supreme power which maybe can kind of save you.”
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Prison, Pandemic and Survival: How Hany Babu’s Freedom Was Curtailed Long Before His Arrest
17/12/2025
The Wire / by Skanya Shantha
After more than five years in jail, academic Hany Babu recounts how arrest, illness and neglect reshaped his life, scholarship and understanding of the prison system.
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During his imprisonment, Babu and his co-accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case waged numerous battles—not only for their own survival, but for the dignity of all prisoners. They fought for better food, adequate medical care and other basic rights, securing small but hard-won victories along the way.
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Also read/watch:
▪ I realised that through Allah I can have the strength to face what was before me: Hany Babu (Frontline / Dec 2025)
▪ Taloja Jail: Lives Fading in Silence Behind Iron Walls (Outlook | by Sudhir Dhawale | Sep 2025)
▪ I saw firsthand how callous prison officials and their negligence led to Stan Swamy’s death (Scroll.in | by Arun Ferreira | Jul 2025)
▪ Inside Taloja Prison: A Study | By Mahesh Raut (Outlook / May 2025)
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: The ‘ordinary’ in extraordinary times: A captive’s life in Covid-19 (The Polis Project | by Gautam Navlakha | May 2025)
▪ In Taloja Central Jail, interviews with over 300 undertrial prisoners show denial of rights (The Leaflet | by Hany Babu & Surendra Gadling | Mar 2025)
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: Sagar Gorkhe on his battle to survive Taloja jail’s brutality (The Polis Project | by Sagar Gorkhe | Feb 2025)
▪ Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system (The Polis Project | by Ramesh Gaichor | Sep 2024)
▪ Some personal reflections on prison medical care (The Leaflet | by Vernon Gonsalves | Apr 2024)
▪ Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling (The Wire / lyrics by Ramesh Gaychor)
hindi | 11min | 2021