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‘From Phansi Yard’ by Sudha Bharadwaj wins Best Author in Non-Fiction @AutHER Awards

‘From Phansi Yard’ by Sudha Bharadwaj wins Best Author in Non-Fiction @AutHER Awards

by Jayati Ghosh @Jayati1609 (March 18):

Absolutely delighted to learn that Sudha Bharadwaj has deservedly won the best author award for non fiction with her sensitive, insightful and illuminating book on the lives of women in an Indian prison.

Here’s a typically thoughtful and compassionate response from #SudhaBharadwaj after news of the award:



by AutHER Awards – Creating Lasting Impressions / @AutherAwards (March 17):
A round of applause for Sudha Bharadwaj, winner of the Non-Fiction category at #AutherAwards. Her remarkable book ‘From Phansi Yard: My Year With The Women Of Yerawada’ has made a profound impact on the jury’s hearts
by Juggernautbooks / @juggernautbooks (March 17):
‘From Phansi Yard’ by Sudha Bharadwaj wind Best Author in the Non Fiction Category for @AutherAwards
A heart congratulations to Sudha Bharadwaj!

by Chiki Sarkar / @Chikisarkar (March 17):
Thrilled that Sudha Bharadwaj wins best non fiction in the ⁦@AutherAwards awards.
We are so proud to be publishing this wonderful book ⁦@juggernautbooks


From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada

Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
Order


Also read/watch:

▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year With The Women Of Yerawada, by Sudha Bharadwaj (Excerpt)

Artice 14 / by Samar Halarnkar / Sudha Bharadwaj | Nov 2023
Arrested on 28 August 2018, human rights lawyer, teacher and IIT graduate Sudha Bharadwaj is among 16 accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, charged under  sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967…

EXCERPT
On 1 November, I mark my second birthday in custody. Diwali was in late October this year, and Shoma Di has saved a bit of her Diwali faral (snacks, in Marathi) as a treat for me. She gives me a beautiful card with a hand-drawn Sudoku on the front and a ballerina ‘dancing away to her freedom’ on the inside. It’s an ode to my Sudoku mania.
Read more

▪ Video: Barkha Dutt speaks to Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’

Mojo Story | Nov 2023


en | 21:03min | 2023
Barkha Dutt speaks to Trade Unionist, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’. The book records stories of her time in jail. She is out on bail after 3 years in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Sudha speaks about her days in jail and how her time in a women’s prison made her aware of the gender gap in legal aid. “Many women are jailed- because their husband committed some crime and are now absconding- they don’t even know about the crime,” she says.
Sudha further says that she lives in the house of a friend, as she “can’t afford rent”. Trade unions support her, she does legal cases for them, she says.
Watch video

▪ A Cage with a View: Under-trial life in an Indian jail

National Herald | by Sudha Bharadwaj | Oct 2023
The jottings that make up this book were my way of coping with incarceration. Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put their heads down and work themselves weary. Some fight defiantly every inch of the way, some are inveterate grumblers, some spew gossip. Some read the newspaper from cover to cover, some shower love on children, some laugh at themselves and at others.
I watched through the bars, and I wrote.

Read more

After Opposing Bail for Years, NIA Now Says it Doesn’t Need Custody of Shoma Sen

After Opposing Bail for Years, NIA Now Says it Doesn’t Need Custody of Shoma Sen

Poster campaign, June 2023

After Opposing Bail for Years, NIA Now Says it Doesn’t Need Custody of Shoma Sen

18/03/2024

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Sixty-five-year-old Sen, who suffers with hypertension and arthritis among other ailments, has moved bail applications before the trial court and the apex court on several occasions. Her bail application, however, came to be rejected each time.
After keeping Shoma Sen, a former professor at Nagpur University, in prison for close to six years, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has now stated that they no longer need her custody. The agency, having completed investigation in the Elgar Parishad case, has already filed the chargesheet. But all along, and as recently as in December 2023, the agency had vehemently opposed her bail application both in the lower court and the Supreme Court.
Read more


‘Don’t Need Shoma Sen In Custody Anymore’: NIA Tells SC; Oral Arguments In Bail Plea Concluded

16/03/2024

Live Law / by Awstika Das

In a significant development, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) made a surprising admission in the Supreme Court this week regarding former Nagpur University professor and Bhima Koregaon-accused Shoma Sen.
Read more


NIA tells SC it does not need custody of accused Shoma Sen anymore

16/03/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The court said it would examine the seriousness of the allegations against the former Nagpur University professor and then take a decision.
The National Investigation Agency informed the Supreme Court this week that it no longer requires the custody of former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, who is among those accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Live Law reported.
Read more


Also read:
‘No Evidence Establishes UAPA Case, Links With Banned Groups’: Bhima-Koregaon Accused Shoma Sen Argues For Bail In Supreme Court (Live Law / Feb 2024)

“Hopefully waiting” writes Shoma Sen from prison (InSAF India / Jul 2023)

Hacker-for-hire gang with links to Pune police planted emails on the computers of BK accused

Hacker-for-hire gang with links to Pune police planted emails on the computers of BK accused

Hackers-for-Hire, Govt’s Media Control: Seven Takeaways From Studying the Arrests of the BK-16

15/03/2024

The Wire / by Alpa Shah

“…the evidence used to incarcerate the BK-16 was likely to have been implanted remotely through a hacker-for-hire mercenary gang infrastructure that has clients all over the world, but whose epicentre is in India.”
Excerpted with permission from Alpa Shah’s The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon and the Search for Democracy in India, HarperCollins 2024.
Read more


Hacker-for-hire gang with links to Pune police planted emails on the computers of Bhima Koregaon accused: new book

14/03/2024

The Hindu / by Vijaita Singh

The mercenary hacker gang, headquartered in India, remotely implanted evidence, according to LSE professor’s book; cites cybersecurity researchers to claim gang’s connection to a Pune police officer
The alleged evidence used to incarcerate 16 people in the Bhima Koregaon case was “likely to have been implanted remotely through a hacker-for-hire mercenary gang infrastructure that has clients all over the world, but whose epicentre is in India,” according to claims made in a new book.
Read more


The arrests putting Narendra Modi’s ‘fascist’ India on trial

14/03/2024

The Telegraph / by Andrew Whitehead

Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest, died in custody in India in July 2021. He was 84. He had spent nine months in detention and had been repeatedly denied bail; yet he had not been convicted of any offence.
… Alpa Shah, an anthropology professor at the London School of Economics, argues in The Incarcerations that the arrest of Swamy and 15 others – lawyers, academics, poets, activists – in what has become known as the “BK case” reveals India’s authoritarian creep.
Read more


Also read:
Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)

Gautam Navlakha Disputes NIA’s Claim For House Arrest Surveillance Expenses

Gautam Navlakha Disputes NIA’s Claim For House Arrest Surveillance Expenses

Gautam Navlakha

Gautam Navlakha Disputes NIA’s Claim For House Arrest Surveillance Expenses

07/03/2024

Live Law / by Awstika Das

In a courtroom exchange that unfolded at the Supreme Court on Thursday (March 7), Bhima Koregaon-accused Gautam Navlakha’s counsel, Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, accused the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of engaging in what she described as ‘extortion’ by demanding an excessive amount from the human rights activist towards meeting his house arrest expenses.
… Ultimately, the judges intervened, reasoning that the dispute over the amount claimed by the National Investigation Agency would have to be adjudicated in a proper hearing. Accordingly, they directed the matter to be adjourned to a non-miscellaneous day in April. The stay on the Bombay High Court’s bail order will continue until then.
Read more


NIA asks Gautam Navlakha to pay Rs 1.64 crore towards the cost of his house arrest

07/03/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The human rights activist’s counsel called the National Investigation Agency’s claim ‘extortion’.
The National Investigation Agency told the Supreme Court on Thursday that human rights activist Gautam Navlakha is liable to pay Rs 1.64 crore as the cost of his security during his house arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case, Live Law reported.
In response, Navlakha’s counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan accused the central counter-terrorism agency of “extortion”.
Read more


Also read:
The first week in the new year repeats the same old story of procedural grind (The Leaflet / Jan 2024)
‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)

Supreme Court Extends Until March High Court’s Stay On Bail Granted To Gautam Navlakha

Supreme Court Extends Until March High Court’s Stay On Bail Granted To Gautam Navlakha

Gautam Navlakha

Live Law / by Awstika Das

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 12) extended until March the stay on the bail granted to journalist and activist Gautam Navlakha in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, following a petition filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Read more


Also read:
‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)

‘From Phansi Yard’: Sudha Bharadwaj’s writings from Yerawada Jail reflect on paradoxes of freedom

‘From Phansi Yard’: Sudha Bharadwaj’s writings from Yerawada Jail reflect on paradoxes of freedom

Sudha Bharadwaj[/caption]

Scroll.in / Sharmila Purkayashsta

Bharadwaj and her co-accsued, Shoma Sen, were lodged in solitary cells for almost fifteen months.
It is a truism that if you’re impoverished and incarcerated then you’re as good as forgotten, because life behind bars replicates existing inequalities, and those without resources are also the most unequal in jail.
Read more


From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada

Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
Order


Also read:

■ Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism


Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Sudha Bharadwaj’s interview by: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here:
Sudha_Bharadwaj_speaks (2,1 MB)

No Evidence Establishes UAPA Case, Links With Banned Groups’: Shoma Sen Argues For Bail In SC

No Evidence Establishes UAPA Case, Links With Banned Groups’: Shoma Sen Argues For Bail In SC

Live Law / by Awstika Das

Former Nagpur University professor and Bhima Koregaon-accused Shoma Sen defended her bail plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday by alleging a lack of evidence connecting her to the case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, or establishing her purported links with the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist).
… The Supreme Court is slated to continue hearing Sen’s bail plea on Thursday, February 15.
Read more


Also read:
Shoma Sen’s Bail Hearing in SC Adjourned Yet Again, Until January 10 (NewsClick / Dec 2023)
Supreme Court quotes Watali judgment in Shoma Sen’s bail application (The Leaflet / Dec 2023)

NIA raids residence of Varavara Rao’s nephew N Venugopal / A personal account of an NIA raid

NIA raids residence of Varavara Rao’s nephew N Venugopal / A personal account of an NIA raid

FIRST PERSON: A personal account of an NIA raid

16/02/2024

South First / by N Venugopal

Venugopal is a kin of Varavara Rao, a prominent Indian activist hailing from Telangana, also an accused in the Elgar Parishad case.
It was a morning when eight unknown persons, two of them holding ultra-modern lethal weapons like AK 47 and SLRs, invaded and kept my home hostage for four hours. It was a morning when I had to be a prisoner in my own house for four hours.
Read more


NIA Raids Residences of Veekshanam Editor Venugopal and Civil Liberties Leader Ravi Sarma

08/02/2024

Deccan Chronicle/ by DC Correspondent

The NIA conducts raids linked to Maoist connections, targeting editor Venugopal and civil liberties leader Ravi Sarma, seizing materials and issuing notices for questioning
The National Investigation Agency on Thursday raided the residences of N. Venugopal, Editor of ‘Veekshanam’ magazine and son-in-law of revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, and civil liberties association leader Ravi Sarma here.
Read more


NIA raids residence of Varavara Rao’s nephew and ‘Veekshanam’ editor N Venugopal

08/022024

The New Indian Express / by Express News Service

The raids were reportedly conducted based on information that he is connected with top CPI-Maoist leader Sanjoy Deepak Rao’s case.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids at the house of Varavara Rao’s nephew and ‘Veekshanam’ editor N Venugopal early Thursday morning in Himayatnagar.
Read more

SC to hear bail plea of Surendra Gadling in 2016 Surjagarh mine arson case on February 8

SC to hear bail plea of Surendra Gadling in 2016 Surjagarh mine arson case on February 8

Surendra Gadling

Deccan Herald / by pti

He is also an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case about alleged provocative speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune district.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on February 8 the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
Read more


Also read:
Supreme Court allows state time to file counter-affidavit in Surendra Gadling bail plea (The Leaflet / Nov 2023)
Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire / July 2021)
Now Gadchiroli Police takes custody of Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, prompting senior lawyers to say this is ‘ever-greening of charges’ (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)

NIA says it has already supplied copies of all electronic evidence to the accused

NIA says it has already supplied copies of all electronic evidence to the accused

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

Today, the National Investigation Agency informed the court that it has already supplied cloned copies of all electronic evidence it relies on in the Bhima Koregaon case with the accused.
It also sidestepped compliance with the previous Order of the court on providing a chart showing evidence shared and pending with the accused by stating that such a chart had already been furnished by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
Read More


Also read:
Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)