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Voices from Prison Series: Of Lives Stolen for Dissent │ Various accounts of political activists

Voices from Prison Series: Of Lives Stolen for Dissent │ Various accounts of political activists

Drawing by Arun Ferreira
Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Voices From Prison: 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.
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Lives Lost: How Prolonged Incarceration Failed Pandu Narote, Kanchan Nanaware, Stan Swamy

22/01/2026

Outlook / by Priyanka Tupe

Pandu Pora Narote, Kanchan Nanaware and Stan Swamy never lived to learn their innocence or guilt after years of incarceration under the UAPA. Narote was acquitted by the Bombay High Court only after his death. It was too little, too late. Nanaware and Swamy also died as undertrials. For their families and lawyers, justice exists only on paper, not in life.
Pandu Pora Narote, 33, a tribal youth from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, was arrested in August 2013 on allegations of links with the banned CPI (Maoist) and its frontal organisation, the Revolutionary Democratic Front. The case later widened to include former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba and several others.
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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.
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Voices From Prison: ‘In Jail, I Measured Time From One Court Date to Another’

21/01/2026

Outlook / by Shoma Sen

Women’s rights activist and professor Shoma Sen, who was arrested in 2018 for her alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon riots, writes how in prisons, time comes to a standstill, literally
Though it is true that I did time, it appears more as if time did me. One cloudy evening, on June 21, 2018, when I was being taken to the Yerawada jail in Pune, I knew that watches were not allowed in jail, yet I had clung on to my basic Titan watch. I had to submit it at the gate. It was returned to me, looking like a museum relic, almost six years later. Time, trapped in a brown sarkari envelope, sealed in a metal box. Time that had stopped ticking.
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Me Coming Out Alive Is A Miracle: Hany Babu, Bhima-Koregaon Accused, On Life Behind Bars

21/01/2026

Outlook / by Hany Babu M.T.

More than five years after his arrest under the UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case, former Delhi University professor Hany Babu was granted bail in December 2025. He shares his experience of prison life.
Mornings start very early in jail, but they never come with an air of freedom. It has only been three to four weeks since I came out; the bail arrived quite late for me. Five years is a long time compared to my co-accused. Throughout these five years, hope never left my sight, even when I contracted Covid. But there were indeed times when a little despair did creep in.
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Correctional Facility Or The World Of Endless Repetition, Solitude and Boredom?

21/01/2026

Outlook / by Rona Wilson

The prison system in India, persistently mediated and nourished by its colonial and retributive sensibilities, cannot be wished away by just changing the names of the prisons as correctional facilities, writes Rona Wilson, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
I had trouble in my barrack with some of the inmates smoking heavily beside me and some among them playing ludo till the wee hours. As the game intensifies with gambling, so does smoking and use of tobacco. I requested the officer-in-charge of my circle to intervene.
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Voices From Prison: Life After Jail Is Tough, But Surveillance, Harassment Continue, Says Sudha Bharadwaj

20/01/2026

Outlook / by Sudha Bharadwaj

I am enormously relieved that the separation from my only daughter, Maaysha, has ended. We can speak to each other every day.
A couple of weeks ago, cops in civil dress—or so they claimed to be—arrived in the society where I live in a friend’s accommodation on rent. The police have my mobile number, which, no doubt, they monitor regularly. Besides, I report to the local police station every 14 days, and I regularly attend court dates, at least once every 15 days, if not more frequently. Despite this, the police did not bother to call me.
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Voices From Prison: In The Isolation of the Anda Ward, We Dared To Sing, Writes Gautam Navlakha

20/01/2026

Outlook / by Gautam Navlakha


I realised that the more intense the sense of despair, the harder hope kicks in.

‘Those who speak of humanity in this system
Are thrown into prison to acquaint them
With the vocabulary of ‘criminology’’’
— Varavara Rao, Schools and Prisons

Hope and despair are basic human emotions and I believe that all human beings, now and then, swing between these two ends of the spectrum in life. I experienced these emotions acutely during my time in prison and captivity.
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Voices From Prison: Alienating A Poet From A Language He Deeply Loves Is Painful, Writes Varavara Rao’s Daughter

20/01/2026

Outlook / by P Vanava

The poet and activist was jailed in connection with caste violence that erupted in 2018 in Bhima Koregaon. He was 78 then. Though he was released on medical grounds in 2022, he is still confined to Mumbai. In this first-person account, his daughter Pavana writes about how multiple incarcerations could not break her father’s strength and soul
…
This wasn’t his first arrest; he has been arrested many times in the past, since the Emergency in 1975, for his political activism. I was a newborn baby (a month old), when appa was arrested.
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Voices From Prison: Bail Is Little Solace As I Lost My Life Anyway, Says Anand Teltumbde

19/01/2026

Outlook / by Anand Teltumbde

We became victims of two things—unjust investigation and a media trial that was used as a weapon. The Media Trial was Deeply Painful.
The tragic dimension of jail has been exhaustively mined. What remains scandalously underexplored is its comic genius. Prison is a factory of absurdity, running at full capacity every day, and I made it a habit to collect its specimens—especially during the so-called free hours, when the cells were opened each morning. This ritual began with the ceremonial clanking of batons, as guards slid them menacingly across steel bars, producing a sound—less like an alarm than a declaration of sovereignty.
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Voices From Prison: What Happened In Bhima Koregaon Could Happen To You

20/01/2026

Outlook / by Alpa Shah

The Bhima Koregaon case is not only about those who were imprisoned. It is also about the fate of democracy itself
There are things in life that somehow wrap themselves around us. Things we never would have dreamed of doing—ideas that once seemed dangerous, crazy, or simply foolish. They arrive quietly, almost by accident, and before we know it, they surround us, occupy our thoughts, and slowly take over. Until one day, there is no turning back, and we can’t imagine thinking about anything else.
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Also read:
More from the Voices From Prison series
▪ Voices From Prison: For GN Saibaba, Who Is No More, And Others Who Are Here (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | Half-Freedom For Adivasis Jailed On Maoist Allegations (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | From Forest To Prison, When Security Laws Criminalise Adivasi Resistance (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | I Still Question The Govt, But Now In A More Satirical Tone: Rakesh Roshan Kiro (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison: Hope Remains A Stubborn Thing Even In Captivity, Says Umar Khalid (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | The Problematic Judgement in the Denial of Bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison: Who Stole My Youth? Asks North-East Delhi Riots Accused Mohammad Iqbal (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison: My Detention And Incarceration Were Preordained By Prejudice, Says Sidhique Kappan (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | Scars Of 17 Years Will Remain: Aparna Purohit On Lt Col Purohit’s Imprisonment In 2008 Malegaon Case (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | He Has Been Arrested For Political Reasons: Gitanjali Angmo On Husband Sonam Wangchuk’s Imprisonment (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | A Legacy Of Detention: Weaponisation Of PDA, TADA, NSA And UAPA Laws Since Independence (Outlook / Jan 2026)

▪ THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.

INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners

How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? includes visual testimonies and prison writings from those falsely accused of inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence, by student leaders opposing the new discriminatory citizenship law passed in 2020, and by activists from the Pinjra Tod’s movement. In bringing together these voices, the book celebrates the courage, humanity and moral integrity of those jailed for standing in solidarity with marginalised and oppressed communities.

Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247
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Video: Sudha Bharadwaj on activism, her time in jail & why Chhattisgarh will always be home

Video: Sudha Bharadwaj on activism, her time in jail & why Chhattisgarh will always be home


en | 13:32min | 2022

Newslaundry / by Manisha Pande; NL Interview

The trade unionist and lawyer sits down with Manisha Pande in Mumbai.
Sudha Bharadwaj loves mathematics, wonders whether she gave her daughter the “right” kind of childhood, and became a lawyer when she was 40 years old.
“Had I not become a lawyer,” she says, “I don’t think I would have been very easily accepted as a leader.”
Sudha was released from Mumbai’s Byculla Jail in December last year after spending three years in prison. She was arrested in connection with the #BhimaKoregaon violence and was repeatedly denied bail until December 1. She was also dubber an ‘urban naxal’ by TV channels that made little attempt to understand her work. Sudha says she now wants to go to her real home, to Chhattisgarh, where she’s lived since the 1980s.
In this interview, she talks about her childhood in Bilaspur and her educational journey, culminating in IIT Kanpur. Her mother, a #JNU professor, helped shape the ideology of this self-proclaimed #Marxist – though she confesses her mother had many “apprehensions” – who began working with trade unions at the age of 25.
Working with people on the ground, Sudha is only too aware of how “alien” the judicial process is to the majority of India’s population. “The notification comes out in the gazette. You are somewhere, miles away in a village which is not even accessible, and nobody even tells you about it,” she says. She also thinks it’s important for young lawyers to cut their teeth by representing the most marginalised.
In Byculla jail, where she remembers she once saw #RheaChakraborty, Sudha continued her work, trying to secure legal aid for those imprisoned with her. She believes in the importance of a “united front” – the farm law protests are an example, with people holding differing ideologies coming together – and worries that the lack of this unity gives rise to dogma.
Watch 13 min video clip here

by newslaundry (Oct 21, 2022):
‘He was never an opportunist in his politics.’ @Sudhabharadwaj talks about labour law leader and founder of the #Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha Shankar Guha Niyogi and the actual movement that led to his assassination.
Watch video clip (3:46min)

by newslaundry (Oct 20, 2022):
In conversation with @MnshaP @Sudhabharadwaj details the #Sarkeguda encounter case in #Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district in which unarmed villagers including minors were killed, and the legal battle that ensued.
Watch video clip (4:30min)

by newslaundry (Oct 19, 2022):
‘So much money goes to defend the state.’ Speaking with @MnshaP, @Sudhabharadwaj
talks about legal aid in India and how there is no level playing field for citizens.
Watch video clip (2:34min)

Watch the full interview (for subscribers only) here

Have We Seen the Last of Conspiracies? / The Kashmir Model to Discipline Indian Media

Have We Seen the Last of Conspiracies? / The Kashmir Model to Discipline Indian Media

Have We Seen the Last of Conspiracies?

13/02/2021

Newsclick / by Ajay Gudavarthy

There is a need to now explain and create a sensible narrative about how conspiracies become narratives that favour the ruling dispensation.
The idea that “conspiracy theories” can explain politics is often rubbished, but now, after the recent revelations by Washington Post that a plot was allegedly hatched to compromise the laptop of jailed activist Rona Wilson, it has become imperative to see how conspiracies have been systematically used by the current regime.
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The Kashmir Model to Discipline Indian Media

13/02/2021

The Wire / by Pamela Philipose

What is striking about recent developments in India is the manner in which the media, both legacy and social, have become entangled with the politics of the day. In fact, they have become the site upon which politics plays out.
Whether it is the raid conducted by the Enforcement Directorate on the offices of NewsClick, the ongoing counter-narrative to the farmer protests conducted by the BJP’s troll armies, the spiriting away of journalists by the police, the battles against tweets put out by Greta and Rihanna, the Twitter spats, or the ever-tightening surveillance net cast by the government on media operations, what is at stake, as Shoshana Zuboff reminded us in a different context, is “sovereignty over one’s own life and authorship of one’s own experience.”
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What About Personal Liberty Of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, VV Rao & Stan Swamy?

What About Personal Liberty Of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, VV Rao & Stan Swamy?

SC Protects Arnab’s Personal Liberty, Why Not Sudha Bharadwaj’s?

15/11/2020

Kashimir Pen / by Web Desk

Leading human rights and constitutional lawyer Karuna Nundy applauded the Supreme Court for acting out its self-professed role as ‘sentinel on the qui vive’ and protecting personal liberty when ordering Arnab Goswami’s release on interim bail – but had some tough questions about the consistency of the court’s approach.
She noted that even though the Republic editor-in-chief had not only damaged people’s reputations by calling them terrorists and anti-nationals, and actually influenced the taking of state action against them – from Umar Khalid to the Bhima Koregaon accused – it was still a good thing that his case was heard on a priority basis by the apex court.
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Video: SC Protects Arnab’s Personal Liberty, But What About Sudha Bharadwaj’s?

13/11/2020


en | 7:32min | 2020

The Quint / by The Quint

Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy explains why there are concerns over the consistency with which the apex court will apply its order granting Arnab Goswami interim bail, with Sudha Bharadwaj’s case a prime example.
Watch video

Video: What About Liberty Of Anand Teltumbde, Varavara Rao, Stan Swamy, Asks Kapil Sibal

12/11/2020


en | 11:23min | 2020

NDTV / by NDTV

The Supreme Court’s order on Wednesday in the Arnab Goswami case has major implications beyond just this one instance. Justice Chandrachud observed, “Forget Arnab Goswami for a moment, we are a Constitutional court…. If we as a Constitutional Court do not lay down law and protect liberty, then who will?” He went on to add, “If we don’t interfere in this case today, we will walk on path of destruction. You may differ in ideology but Constitutional courts will have to protect such freedoms…” The remarks come at a time when thousands languish in jails in want of bail. These include the old and the infirm, like 81-year-old Varavara Rao accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case and Father Stan Swamy who suffers from Parkinson’s.
After the Supreme Court’s observations that ‘constitutional courts have to protect freedoms’, will this set a precedent in other pending cases as well? We speak to senior advocate and Congress MP Kapil Sibal who was in Supreme Court in connection with this case.
Watch video

Concern over Arnab’s Health in Jail. What about Activists Like Varavara Rao and Stan Swamy?

Concern over Arnab’s Health in Jail. What about Activists Like Varavara Rao and Stan Swamy?

Concern over Arnab’s Health in Jail. What about Activists Like Varavara Rao and Stan Swamy?

09/11/2020

ARRÉ / by ARRÉ BENCH

Jailed poet Varavara Rao is suspected to have dementia; he also suffers from multiple ailments including neurological disorders. Activist Stan Swamy, also in jail, has Parkinsons. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is concerned about the health of Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami.
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Was it freedom of expression when Arnab Goswami called activists anti-national?

06/11/2020

Counterview / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

India’s prime time ‘hyper entertainer’, Arnab Goswami, was arrested by the Maharashtra police for charges of ‘abetment of suicide’ of an architect and his mother, who has worked for the so-called ‘number one’ channel, but did not get paid …
In fact, Fadnavis should face an independent commission for upturning the entire Bhima Koregaon violence case into a conspiracy theory and then putting so many intellectuals in jail.
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Arnab Goswami arrest does not set India down a slippery slope – it’s been sliding down one for years

05/11/2020

Scroll.in / by Shoaib Daniyal

Dramatic scenes flashed on India’s TV screens on Wednesday morning as Arnab Goswami, the editor-in-chief of the Republic TV network, was arrested from his home in Mumbai.
Goswami has played a big part in changing India’s media landscape, pioneering a loud, jingoistic brand of journalism that does not shy away from flaunting its leanings towards the Bharatiya Janata Party…
Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, has explicitly blamed Goswami for making “false, malicious and defamatory allegations” against her by sharing a “fabricated letter”.
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The Maharashtra Police Is Getting Dangerously Politicised and Partisan

05/11/2020

The Wire / by Ashish Khetan

The police has shown no compunctions in going after the critics of the political outfit in power – be it the left-leaning academics under the BJP’s rule or a rightwing media head under the present Shiv Sena-led coalition…
Param Bir Singh, the current police commissioner, has a troubling track record of leading investigations that suit the political party in power. In August 2018, while he was serving as the additional director general of police (law and order) under the BJP-Shiv Sena government, Singh held the infamous press conference in which he released the ‘conclusive evidence’ against the human rights activists and academics accused in the Bhima Koregaon case of waging war against the nation, even as the matter was being heard by the Supreme Court.
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From Kashmir to Gujarat, Journalists Continue to Get Arrested. But It Hasn’t Angered Our Netas Like Arnab’s Arrest

04/11/2020

ARRÉ / by ARRÉ BENCH

The arrest of Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami has been condemned by ministers, many calling it an attack of press freedom. But will they continue their outrage when the next journalist is assaulted in Delhi or arrested in Gujarat?
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World body calls Urban Naxals rights’ defenders

World body calls Urban Naxals rights’ defenders

The Pioneer / By Rajesh Kumar

Taking note of arrest of six prominent human rights defenders and lawyers — branded “Urban Naxals” — the Special Rapporteurs of Human Rights Council (HRC) has written to Permanent Mission of India (PMI) in Geneva seeking information about Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bhardwaj, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale.
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False allegations against Degree Prasad Chouhan

False allegations against Degree Prasad Chouhan

Statement by Frontline Defenders

Following the arrest of human rights defender Sudha Bharadwaj and four others on 26 October 2018, there is an imminent threat of false charges being brought against Dalit activist and human rights defender, Degree Prasad Chouhan. The police have already implicated the defender by name in a fake letter produced by them on 31 August 2018, which they claim was written by advocate Sudha Bharadwaj. There is a clear attempt by the police to smear the human rights defender as a Maoist militant and draw a false link between Degree Prasad Chouhan and the Bhima Koregaon violence which took place in January 2018.
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Chhattisgarh: Why does Congress support ‘urban Maoists’ and then speak against Naxalism, asks Modi

Chhattisgarh: Why does Congress support ‘urban Maoists’ and then speak against Naxalism, asks Modi

Scroll.in /By Scroll Staff

… “The ‘urban Maoists’ who live in air-conditioned homes in the cities, look clean and whose children study abroad, remote-control the adivasi children in the Naxal-dominated areas,” Modi said. “I want to ask the Congress why it supports the ‘urban Maoists’ when the government takes action against them and come to Bastar and speak against Naxalism,” he said.
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