The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak, Vineet Bhalla, Apurva Vishwanath
Eight years after the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, with charges not framed and the trial yet to start, 14 of the accused are out on bail, though under stringent conditions that restrict their movement and interaction with the outside world. The Indian Express speaks to each of the 14 on life after bail.
“I have been in jail longer than most of my clients,” 57-year-old lawyer Surendra Gadling often jokes to his family.
Of the 16 arrested in the 2018 Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, Gadling remains the only accused in custody, with his bail plea pending in the Bombay High Court. While 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy passed away in custody in 2021, the remaining 14 are out on bail. Read more
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
The Indian Express / by Shah Alam Khan
Anand Teltumbde’s The Cell and the Soul shows how incarceration, historically meant to improve a person’s character, today has become the State’s tool for revenge
The arrest of intellectuals as a fall out of the Bhima-Koregaon (BK) violence of 2018 has given us an array of essays, books and poetry that speaks volumes of the beauty of creativity within the precincts of prison. One such book is The Cell and the Soul by Anand Teltumbde.
In her path breaking treatise, Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), American activist Angela Davis argues that despite its classist, racist and patriarchal foundations, prisons have invisibly crept into our ‘routine’ consciousness as a prerequisite of modern society. Angela wrote this for the largely privatised and brutally capitalist American prison system. The Cell and the Soul shows the Indian prison system is not very different. Read more
▪ The Cell and the Soul – A Prison Memoir
Author: Anand Teltumbde
Publishing Date: Sep 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Pages: 256 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
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 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
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
India’s bail crisis: The need to review denials
30/01/2026
Bar & Bench / by Dr Ajay Kummar Pandey
Denying bail carries no institutional risk, while granting it carries significant personal risk.
Our bail system has been turned upside down. Magistrates who grant bail face scrutiny, transfer and whispered allegations of corruption. Those who deny bail – even when the law clearly mandates it – face nothing. Not even a cursory review.
… Meanwhile, three-quarters of India’s prison population consists of people who haven’t been convicted of anything.
Father Stan Swamy was 84 years old and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, when he died in judicial custody in July 2021. He had been waiting for bail for 9 months. Read more
India’s Bail Crisis: Justice Delayed, Liberty Denied
30/01/2026
Whalesbook / by Ananya Iyer
India’s bail system is critically inverted, with judges fearing repercussions for granting bail, resulting in overcrowded prisons. Approximately 70,000 bail applications annually reach the Supreme Court, while three-quarters of the prison population remains unconvicted. Tragic cases highlight the human cost of prolonged pre-trial detention. This systemic failure, rooted in a broken incentive structure, means incarceration often serves as punishment before conviction, demanding urgent institutional reform. Read more
The demand for the release of political prisoners is necessary because any democracy claims pride in guaranteeing fundamental rights
The demand for the release of political prisoners today is haunted by a dangerous vagueness. As the category expands, its meaning becomes thinner.
… there is remarkably little organised effort to secure the release of political prisoners. Whatever exists has steadily retreated from sustained collective organising to the fragile and easily targeted space of social media. This shift appears logical only because the state has relentlessly criminalised even the mildest attempts to raise the issue of political imprisonment. The most chilling example remains the case of Delhi University professor G. N. Saibaba. After his arrest, a defence committee was formed to campaign for his release. At least five of its members were later arrested in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case. Read more
Voices From Prison: Of Lives Stolen For Dissent
20/01/2026
Outlook / by Outlook News Desk
Outlook’s February 1 issue, Thou Shalt Not Dissent, shines a light on the lives of political prisoners who were slapped with anti-terrorism charges and continue to face long trials and curbing of rights.
…
In Outlook’s February 1 issue, Thou Shalt Not Dissent, first-person accounts of political activists who were slapped with anti-terrorism charges under different political regimes, explore life behind bars, the trauma, sights and sounds of a world bereft of freedom, normalcy and reason. Weaved with the accounts are stories of individuals who carry the burden of incarceration like a tumour on the face, afraid to cover it, so it doesn’t chafe, and hesitant to let it free, so it does not translate into their only identity. Read more
Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor after being released from Taloja Jail. Jan 27, 2026. shared by Maktoob/@MaktoobMedia (Jan 28, 2026):
Bhima Koregaon case: Kabir Kala Manch activists Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor walk out of jail after 1,970 days
Kabir Kala Manch activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor walked out of jail after being granted bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, ending nearly five and a half years of incarceration. The two had been lodged in prison since 7 September 2020 under the draconian UAPA.
‘Lost Five and a Half Years, But Dignity Still Intact’: Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor Walk Out on Bail
27/01/2026
The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha
Released from jail on Tuesday, both activists lamented the continuing incarceration of their fellow Elgar Parishad accused Surendra Gadling.
The most challenging phase of incarceration, according to Sagar Gorkhe, one of the activists accused in the Elgar Parishad case, is the “agonising wait” for release after bail has been granted.
Gorkhe and fellow accused Ramesh Gaichor were granted bail by the Bombay high court on January 23. A division bench comprising Justices A.S. Gadkari and S.C. Chandak allowed their appeals against the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court’s earlier rejection of bail, primarily on grounds of parity with other co-accused who had already been released, as well as their prolonged detention. Read more
Bail for Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, five years and five months after arrest
23/01/2026
SabrangIndia / by SabrangIndia
Bhima Koregaon Case: Bombay High Court granted bail to Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor With Friday (January 23) order, only lawyer Surendra Gadling would continue to remain in jail in this matter that has incarcerated several with the FIR being filed in early 2018
The Bombay High Court on Friday, January 23, granted bail to Bhima Koregaon accused and Kabir Kala Manch artistes Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case. It was a bench of Justices AS Gadkari and SC Chandak that allowed the appeals filed by Gorkhe and Gaichor against the February 2022 order of the special NIA court in Mumbai, which had rejected their bail pleas in the matter. Read more
Also watch: ▪ Video statement by Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor
by Sukanya Shantha/@sukanyashantha (Sep 7, 2020):
Kabir Kala Manch activists Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor have alleged that they’re being forced by the NIA to give confessional statements claiming they are a part of Maoist organization. The two refused, and were arrested today.
(This video was recorded on Sep 5.) Watch video
Voices From Prison series | Book Excerpt: Colours Of The Cage: A Prison Memoir, By Arun Ferreira
Voices From Prison | Book Excerpt: Colours Of The Cage: A Prison Memoir, By Arun Ferreira
25/01/2026
Outlook / by Arun Ferreira
In May 2007, human rights activist Arun Ferreira was arrested by the Nagpur Police on charges of being a Naxalite. This book is a stark and unsparing account of the nearly five years that he spent in jail.
Excerpt
I was afraid they’d kill me. Thus far, there was nothing official about my detention. They hadn’t shown me a warrant, nor had I been taken to a police station. I feared that the police could murder me and pretend that I’d been killed in an encounter. I’d read about many situations in which the police claimed to have had no option but to open fire when suspects they were attempting to arrest had resisted. I knew that the National Human Rights Commission had noted thirty-one cases of fake encounter killings in Maharashtra alone in the previous five years. The physical torture, though painful, was relatively tame compared to this prospect. Read more
▪ Colours Of The Cage Author: Arun Ferreira Publishing Date: Sep 2014 Publisher: Aleph Book Company Pages: 176
In May 2007, human rights activist Arun Ferreira was picked up from the railway station and arrested by the Nagpur Police on charges of being a Naxalite. Over the next few months, he was charged with more crimes—of criminal conspiracy, murder, possession of arms and rioting, among others—and incarcerated in one of the most notorious prisons in Maharashtra, the Nagpur Central Jail.
This is an account of the nearly five years that Ferreira was imprisoned.
Voices From Prison | Photo Feature: Art Drawn Inside The Carceral State, By Arun Ferreira
25/01/2026
Outlook / Outlook News Desk, curated by Arun Ferreira
Drawn from inside prison walls, Arun Ferreira’s artworks document incarceration not as an abstract idea but as a lived, grinding reality.
Cell Alone: I, me and myself. If only sleep would silently ship me to some sociable shore. Photo: Art work by Arun Ferreira
Drawn from inside prison walls, Arun Ferreira’s artworks document incarceration not as an abstract idea but as a lived, grinding reality. A Mumbai-based lawyer, activist and trained cartoonist, Ferreira has long been involved in social and political movements, beginning with his student years at St. Xavier’s College. Read more
▪ Video: Arun Ferreira speaks about Life in an Indian Prison en | 12:51 min | 2014 Watch video
▪ The Cell and the Soul – A Prison Memoir
Author: Anand Teltumbde
Publishing Date: Sep 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Pages: 256 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
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 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
Bail for Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, five years and five months after arrest in Bhima Koregaon case
Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor. Poster by #bakeryprasad
Bail for Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, five years and five months after arrest
23/01/2026
SabrangIndia / by SabrangIndia
Bhima Koregaon Case: Bombay High Court granted bail to Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor With Friday (January 23) order, only lawyer Surendra Gadling would continue to remain in jail in this matter that has incarcerated several with the FIR being filed in early 2018
The Bombay High Court on Friday, January 23, granted bail to Bhima Koregaon accused and Kabir Kala Manch artistes Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case. It was a bench of Justices AS Gadkari and SC Chandak that allowed the appeals filed by Gorkhe and Gaichor against the February 2022 order of the special NIA court in Mumbai, which had rejected their bail pleas in the matter. Read more
Bombay High Court Grants Bail To Ramesh Gaichor & Sagar Gorkhe After 5 Yrs In Jail
23/01/2026
Live Law / by Narsi Benwal
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe, both arrested since 2020 for their roles in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case.
A division bench of Justice Ajay Gadkari and Justice Shyam Chandak granted bail on the ground of long incarceration.
A detailed order granting them bail is yet to be made available. Read more
Seven Years On, Bail Finally For Gorkhe & Gaichor In Bhima Koregaon Case
23/01/2026
Outlook / by Priyanka Tupe
The Bombay high court on Friday granted bail to Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor in the Bhima Koregaon case. Total 16 accused were arrested in the case, of which only lawyer Surendra Gadling remains in jail now, denied bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim bail to Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in the Bhima Koregaon case, noting the prolonged incarceration of the two accused even as trial in the matter has not commenced after seven years. The activists have been accused of having links with banned Maoist organisations. Read more
Bombay HC Grants Bail To Activists Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor
23/01/2026
Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajani
The Bombay High Court granted bail to activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case, citing parity with other accused already released. Arrested in 2020, they must furnish bail bonds and report monthly to the NIA. The case involves alleged provocative speeches at a 2017 event that sparked violence in Maharashtra. Trial delays cited.
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to two accused in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case — activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor — on grounds of parity. Read more
Why Kabir Kala Manch artists Gorkhe and Gaichor, granted bail by HC, were arrested by NIA for ‘Maoist links’
23/01/2026
The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde
An offence was lodged against some Elgaar Parishad organisers at Vishrambag police station in Pune in January 2018.
More than five years after being arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case for alleged Maoist links, Ramesh Gaichor (41) and Sagar Gorkhe (37), both members of the Pune based cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), were given bail by the Bombay High Court (HC) on Friday.
The KKM is among the outfits that organised the Elgaar Parishad conclave at the Shaniwar Wada in Pune city on December 31, 2017, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Koregaon Bhima. The following day, widespread violence was reported in Koregaon Bhima area in Pune district, in which one person died while several others were left injured. Read more
Incarceration As Politics: A Timeline Of Political Prisoners In Independent India
23/01/2026
Outlook / by Saher Hiba Khan
From the Anti-Hindi Agitations to UAPA arrests, India’s history shows how dissent is criminalised across decades and governments
Across countries and political systems, incarceration has always been used as a tool to control the masses. It has been justified through shifting legal terms such as national security, public order, and counter-terrorism.
While the laws change, the logic remains the same. It has time and again proved that dissent against any government will be treated as a threat. Read more
Voices From Prison: Of Lives Stolen For Dissent
20/01/2026
Outlook / by Outlook News Desk
Outlook’s February 1 issue, Thou Shalt Not Dissent, shines a light on the lives of political prisoners who were slapped with anti-terrorism charges and continue to face long trials and curbing of rights.
…
In Outlook’s February 1 issue, Thou Shalt Not Dissent, first-person accounts of political activists who were slapped with anti-terrorism charges under different political regimes, explore life behind bars, the trauma, sights and sounds of a world bereft of freedom, normalcy and reason. Weaved with the accounts are stories of individuals who carry the burden of incarceration like a tumour on the face, afraid to cover it, so it doesn’t chafe, and hesitant to let it free, so it does not translate into their only identity. Read more
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
NIA court denies Mahesh Raut permission to travel to Kerala for medical treatment
23/01/2026
Hindustan Times / by Vikrant Jha
The court said adequate treatment options are available in Mumbai and permitting him to travel to another state would dilute territorial restrictions imposed by the Bombay High Court
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has rejected an application filed by Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut seeking permission to travel to Kerala for medical treatment. The court said adequate treatment options are available in Mumbai and permitting him to travel to another state would dilute territorial restrictions imposed by the Bombay High Court. Read more
Mahesh Raut | A Broken Prison System Is In Dire Need Of Critical Care
22/01/2026
Outlook / by Mahesh Raut
Mahesh Raut, the youngest accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, was granted interim bail on medical grounds. Many prisoners have no hope.
What constitutes freedom? What does it constitute for the person who is confined or for the one who comes out of jail, only to get entangled in another web of chains; some similar, but for others, different from what they experienced behind bars. In a prison, your identity is reduced to just a number. You are dehumanised at the whims of authorities and burdened by numerous hurdles and difficulties to secure bail. Many are not able to come out of prison even after securing bail due to financial constraints. All these factors take a toll on the physical and mental health of prisoners. Read more
The controversial yatra, that mobilises the youth, organised by the Shri Shivpratishthan is called the organisation’s Hindusthan’s Dharatirth Yatra (between January 23-26); organised as a religio-politcal-cultural tour, this year’s expedition to various historical forts will proceed from Fort Lohagad to Bhimgad (Bhivgad), via the Rajmachigad route
… Interestingly, Bhide and another right-wing hardliner by the name of Milind Ekbote were named in an FIR in January 2018 for their alleged role in the violence in Bhima Koregaon, near Pune. The violence erupted during an annual event that Dalits organise to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. Thanks to the active involvement of then then dominant political leadership under Devednra Fadnavis, in 2022, the criminal case against hm was dropped for “lack of evidence.” Read more
