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Arun Ferreira’s account of custodial torture, years of imprisonment is shared by thousands of fellow countrymen, women

Arun Ferreira’s account of custodial torture, years of imprisonment is shared by thousands of fellow countrymen, women

First published: Nov 20, 2015

Counterview.org / By Fr Cedric Prakash sj*


On September 27, 2011 Arun Ferreira was released from the Nagpur jail after being illegally incarcerated since May 2007 on charges of being a Naxalite. Just as he stepped out from the gates of the jail even as his aged parents and other family members waited outside the jail to welcome him back into their loving embrace, Arun was forcibly arrested once again and that too without a warrant.
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Inside the Anda Cell: Extracts from Arun Ferreira’s Prison Memoir

Inside the Anda Cell: Extracts from Arun Ferreira’s Prison Memoir

First published: Sep 30, 2014

Book: Colours of The Cage – A Prison Memoir. By Arun Ferreira (Publisher: Aleph, 2014)


From 28 May to 14 June 2007, I was slapped with five more cases relating to Naxalite violence in Gondia, a district about 150 kilometres from Nagpur. Gondia and especially Gadchiroli, the other district lying at the extreme end of Maharashtra, are areas of intense Maoist activity. In almost all of Gadchiroli and parts of Gondia, armed Naxal squads have fought the police and paramilitary forces with support from the local tribals and peasants.
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Pune Police is diverting the Bhima Koregaon investigation, protecting Bhide, Ekbote: Deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende

Pune Police is diverting the Bhima Koregaon investigation, protecting Bhide, Ekbote: Deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende

The Caravan / By Tusha Mittal

The Caravan publishes report of police-appointed committee, headed by Dhende, that finds Hindutva outfits “pre-planned” the Bhima Koregaon violence.
On 1 January this year, Dalits from across India gathered in Bhima Koregaon, a village 30 kilometers from Pune, to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of a historic battle that took place in the village in 1818. The battle had culminated in the victory of a small British battalion, largely comprising soldiers from the oppressed Mahar caste, over an army of dominant-caste Peshwas. On the 200th anniversary, as lakhs marched towards the Koregaon Ranstambh, or Vijay Stambh—a memorial pillar erected by the British to commemorate the battle—mobs of people carrying saffron flags attacked the predominantly Dalit gathering.
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Chhattisgarh: No more fake charges!

Chhattisgarh: No more fake charges!

As part of an India-wide police operation on 28th August activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao were arrested and the homes of many more raided. Sudha Bharadwaj is a trade unionist and lawyer. The following pictures document protests from her working area in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh immediately after her arrest.

Foto credits: CMM archive
Interview: Arun Ferreira: ‘The high walls keep out realities’

Interview: Arun Ferreira: ‘The high walls keep out realities’

First published: Jan 6, 2016

Frontline / By Frontline Staff

Arun Ferreira spent six years in Nagpur jail as a political prisoner. He was arrested in 2007 for alleged naxalite and anti-national activities under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Eleven cases were registered against him. He fought a relentless legal battle to prove that the charges were false and completely fabricated. In January 2014, he was acquitted in all the cases for lack of substantial evidence. At the time of his release, he told Frontline: “My case is really nothing special. The real issue is the way political prisoners are handled and the blatant violations of the human rights of all prisoners.”
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Why the UAPA must go

Why the UAPA must go

India Today / By Jawahar Raja

The point of these extraordinary laws is not to punish the terrorist, the seditionist, the goonda; it is to keep the whistleblower, the dissenter, the inconvenient in jail for as long as the trial lasts.
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