Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
Scroll.in / by Sahil Hussain Choudhury
The law speaks the language of liberty, but power uses to the grammar of postponement.
In The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir, Anand Teltumbde notes that incarceration does not only test the body – it also tests whether the mind will refuse to surrender. …
The National Crime Records Bureau’s Prison Statistics India 2023 shows that nearly 73.5% of India’s prisoners are undertrials – people not yet convicted of any crime. Behind that abstraction lies a quieter truth: for most who enter the system, justice never arrives; only waiting does. Read more
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 Read more/order
▪ The Feared – Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners Author: Neeta Kolhatkar Publishing Date: Dec 2024 Publisher: S&S India Pages: 272 Read more/order
▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia Publishing Date: Aug 2023 Publisher: Pluto Press Pages: 247 Read more / order
The Supreme Court directed Maharashtra to ensure proper functioning of virtual conferencing during hearings in the 2016 Gadchiroli arson case after repeated technical failures. Hearing Surendra Gadling’s bail plea, the court urged expedited trial proceedings and re-listed the matter for January, addressing delays and pending applications in the case.
The Supreme Court, on Monday, told Maharashtra authorities to ensure that virtual conferencing facilities function properly during hearings in the 2016 Gadchiroli arson case, after Surendra Gadling’s counsel complained that the video conferencing (VC) system routinely fails when the lawyer-activist is produced before the trial court, reports legal portal livelaw.in. Read more
Ensure Proper VC Facilities In Trial Of 2016 Gadchiroli Arson Case : Supreme Court To Maharashtra
01/12/2025
Live Law / by Debby Jain
The Supreme Court on Monday told Maharashtra authorities to ensure that virtual conferencing facilities function properly during hearings in the 2016 Gadchiroli arson case, after Surendra Gadling’s counsel complained that the VC system routinely fails when the lawyer-activist is produced before the trial court.
The bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi was hearing Gadling’s bail plea. Gadling, who has spent 6 years and 10 months in custody, told the Court that he has been unfairly “branded” only because he appeared as counsel in certain Naxalite cases. Read more
Supreme Court Questions 6-Year Delay in Surendra Gadling Case, Seeks Quick Decision on Key Bhima Koregaon Records
01/12/2025
LawChakra / by Hardik Khandelwal
The Supreme Court raised concerns over Surendra Gadling’s six-and-a-half-year custody without trial, directing a quick decision on pending applications. Gadling argued prolonged delays, missing electronic evidence, and unequal treatment as other accused are already on bail.
The Supreme Court of India today heard the bail plea of Surendra Gadling, who is an accused in the Elgar Parishad–Maoist links case.
The matter, titled Surendra Pundalik Gadling v. State of Maharashtra (Crl.A. No. 3742/2023), came before a Bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi. Read more
Teltumbde barred from attending Hortus, makes his voice heard online
28/11/2025
Onmanorama / by Team Onmanorama
At the Manorama Hortus, the stage was set for two speakers, but only one chair was occupied. Writer S Anand sat alone, while the face of renowned scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde looked down from a large screen behind him.
“He is everywhere, but not here,” S Anand told the audience, explaining the “unfortunate turn of circumstances.” Read more
Out on bail in Bhima Koregaon case, academician Teltumbde’s request to attend lit fest rejected by court
27/11/2025
The Print / by Mayank Kumar
Mumbai court said invite to speak at Kochi festival was a ‘luxury’. The Dalit rights activist was set a pre-condition by Bombay HC in 2022 to take trial court’s nod for travel.
A Mumbai court has rejected the plea of academician Anand Teltumbde to attend a literature festival in Kochi organised by the media house, Malayala Manorama.
The court ruled that an invitation to speak at the festival was not an extreme circumstance that could fulfil the bail conditions imposed by the Bombay High Court in November 2022. Read more
NIA court refuses Teltumbde’s request to travel for Kochi literary festival
27/11/2025
Hindustan Times / by Vikrant Jha
Teltumbde was arrested by the NIA in April 2020 for alleged involvement in the Elgaar Parishad event in Pune on December 31, 2017, which investigators claim fuelled caste violence near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial the following day
A special court constituted under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday rejected a plea by scholar and human rights activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case, seeking permission to travel to Kochi later this week for an academic engagement. Read more
Elgaar case accused’s plea rejected: Going to speak at literature event ‘sort of luxury’: Court to Teltumbde
27/11/2025
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
The court said that the Bombay High Court while granting bail to Teltumbde in November 2022 had imposed a condition with a specific intention, directing him not to go beyond local limits of the court.
Observing that travelling outside Mumbai to speak at a literature event for academic purposes is “sort of a luxury”, a special court Wednesday rejected permission to scholar Anand Teltumbde, booked in the Elgaar Parishad case, to travel to Kochi for two days. Read more
Netherlands-based digital forensics expert Robert Jan Mora found “malware, not identified as such in the (RFSL) report, on an external pen drive that was seized from Mr. [Rona] Wilson”.
In 2022, when Netherlands-based digital forensics expert Robert Jan Mora was reviewing screenshots of Pune Police reports on some of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, he found something strange.
The Bhima Koregaon case has garnered international infamy for the prolonged persecution of 16 human rights defenders under terrorism-related charges, with individuals and organisations from across the world calling for the release of all accused. Read more
by Paras Nath Singh (Nov 24, 2025):
After more than five years of unjust incarceration as an undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon case, activist Jyoti Jagtap walked free from jail on interim bail.
Activist Jyoti Jagtap being greeted by friends and relatives outside Byculla Jail after the Supreme Court granted her interim bail in the Bhima-Koregaon case, in Mumbai.
Elgar Parishad Case: In Jail For Over Five Years, Jyoti Jagtap Given Interim Bail by SC
19/11/2025
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
Cultural activist Jagtap, who is the only woman to still be behind bars in the case, was given interim bail until February 2026.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 19) granted cultural activist Jyoti Jagtap interim bail in the Elgar Parishad case in which she has spent five years and six months in jail.
Her interim bail will continue until the next hearing, scheduled for February 2026. Her long-drawn struggle to secure regular bail has involved multiple petitions before various benches from the trial court up to the apex court. Read more
Supreme Court Grants Interim Bail To Jyoti Jagtap In Bhima Koregaon Case
19/11/2025
Live Law / by Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
The Supreme Court today (November 19) granted interim bail to activist and member of cultural organisation Kala Kabir Manch, Jyoti Jagtap, in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad matter till the next date of hearing, which is in February 2026. Read more
A Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma passed the order after it was brought to their notice that Jagtap has been in custody for nearly 5.5 years.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap, one of the accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. Read more
SC grants interim bail to Elgaar Parishad case accused Jyoti Jagtap
19/11/2025
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
Jyoti Jagtap was the 15th person to be arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case. She was arrested in September 2020 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, and handed over to NIA.
The Supreme Court Wednesday granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, for alleged links with banned Maoist outfits. Read more
The court was informed that the activist had been in custody for over five years.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to activist Jyoti Jagtap, one of the 16 persons accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, Bar and Bench reported. Read more
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to activist Jyoti Jagtap, who has spent over five years in jail in the Elgar Parishad case under UAPA.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to activist Jyoti Jagtap, who was arrested in 2020 by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the Elgar Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case for alleged Maoist links. Read more
The memoir transforms personal suffering into a forensic examination of institutional decay.
Anand Teltumbde’s The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir stands as one of the most searing indictments of contemporary Indian democracy, transforming personal suffering into a forensic examination of institutional decay. Read more
Noted social activist Anand Teltumbde entered the Taloja Central Prison as accused number 10 in the Bhima Koregaon case and spent 31 months as an undertrial until he was released on bail. As an intellectual who was stripped of his freedom, he lays bares the chilling realities of India’s prisons in his gut-wrenching prison memoir. Part memoir, part diary, Cell and the Soul is a descent into the heart of India’s carceral state, ripping open the belly of the beast-the prison industrial complex-and exposing the brutal, pulsating injustice within.
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 Read more/order
▪ The Feared – Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners Author: Neeta Kolhatkar Publishing Date: Dec 2024 Publisher: S&S India Pages: 272 Read more/order
▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia Publishing Date: Aug 2023 Publisher: Pluto Press Pages: 247 Read more / order
Book review | Inside the walls: Stories of suffering, survival and systemic injustice
Born in 1961, Sudha Bharadwaj chose a life of service and struggle over one of comfort and professional prestige. After returning to India with her mother, who later joined Delhi University’s Economics Department, she completed her postgraduate studies at IIT-Kanpur and briefly taught at Delhi Public School. Instead of pursuing an academic or corporate career, she committed herself to working among industrial workers and tribal communities in Chhattisgarh as a trade unionist for nearly three decades and a human-rights activist for two. Read more
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 Read more / order
Also read: ▪ The Cell and the Soul – A Prison Memoir Author: Anand Teltumbde Publishing Date: Sep 2025 Publisher: Bloomsbury India Pages: 256 Read more / order
▪ Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism Publishing Date: January 2021 Interview: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Pages: 316 Access a free PDF copy of the book here
▪ The Feared – Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners Author: Neeta Kolhatkar Publishing Date: Dec 2024 Publisher: S&S India Pages: 272 Read more / order
▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia Publishing Date: Aug 2023 Publisher: Pluto Press Pages: 247 Read more / order
Special court grants bail to Sagar Gorkhe to appear for law exam
Elgaar Parishad case: special court grants bail to accused Sagar Gorkhe to appear for law exam
20/11/2025
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
While NIA opposed Elgaar Parishad case accused Sagar Gorkhe’s plea, the special court noted that he had been released on interim bail in the past and that the agency had not reported any violations of his bail conditions.
A special court Wednesday granted interim bail to Sagar Gorkhe, a singer-performer booked in the Elgaar Parishad case, to be released from jail to prepare and attend his law examination. Read more
Sagar Gorkhe gets temporary bail to write law exams
20/11/2025
India Today / by Vidya
A special NIA court in Mumbai has granted temporary bail to Elgar Parishad accused Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe to allow him to appear for his law examinations from November 20 to December 16, 2025.
A special NIA court in Mumbai has granted temporary bail to Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe, an accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case, to allow him to appear for his law examinations. Read more
Two years after NCRB’s Prison Statistics India 2023 report was published, the numbers still read less like history and more like prophecy
The NCRB Prison Statistics Report, 2023, detailed an already stressed carceral system, housing 5.82 lakh inmates in a system sanctioned for 4.25 lakh, with undertrial prisoners making up almost 78% of all prisoners. Other than numbers and statistics being added to the data, nothing changed substantively between the original numbers and now. Read more
Varavara Rao, born in 1940, is an Indian poet, teacher, and activist associated with radical politics. He turns 85 on November 3. Known as VV, Rao gained prominence during the rural land rights movements of the 1960s and served as a mediator between the Andhra Pradesh government and Naxalite groups in the early 2000s. The Indian state has classified him as a dissident and a national security threat. Read more
Poet, Marxist critic and activist, Varavara Rao (VV) has been continually persecuted by the state and intermittently imprisoned since 1973, but he never stopped writing during all these decades, even from within prison. When he was subjected to ‘one thousand days of solitary confinement’ during 1985-89 in Secunderabad Jail, a leading national daily invited him to write about his prison experiences.
