The Indian Express / by Express News Service
The Bombay High Court on Friday extended till February 28 the time allotted to Elgaar Parishad case accused P Varavara Rao to return to jail.
The octogenarian had been granted medical bail for six months on February 22, last year, and was later allowed to extend it till February 5, 2022.
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04/02/2022
Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar
‘It’s little things like these – sharing medicines, consoling each other after a mulaqat (meeting) or a tearful phone conversation with your loved ones or when we would return, dejected, when our bails were rejected – that made our time in jail bearable.’
Creativity, says Sudha Bharadwaj, is a vital lifeline for those who find their freedom taken away for crimes they may, or may not, have committed.
Survival as a prisoner during the last three years has been difficult, both emotionally and physically, but her brilliant smile makes light of it.
There were times however, she tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar, when she too felt devastated.
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04/02/2022
Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar
‘I can’t help it if people don’t love the minorities, the Dalits and Adivasis; they are as much of this country as any other Indian.’
‘If I love them, it does not mean I do not love my country.’
‘It is ironic and funny that they have laid such severe anti-national charges against me.’
Good memories. And bad.
Difficult moments. And memorable ones.
Trade union leader, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj has gathered them all in her challenging walk through Life.
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03/02/2022
Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar
‘You are with each other 24×7, so how can you ignore someone crying next to you?’
‘How can you not share a piece of chicken with someone who is sitting next to you and watching you eat it?’
‘Of course, you will share.’
‘And you become friends with the kind of people you never thought you’d even know.’
In a conversation with Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar, Sudha Bharadwaj explains how she kept her spirits up.
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Also read:
● Part I: ‘I was imprisoned in the phansi yard’ (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)
Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar
‘I was told to go to the next room and strip — that’s when it really hits you for the first time… that you are a criminal and you are being treated like one.’
‘It comes as a shock when, instead of your name, you hear, “Yeh naya Maowadi aaya hai (A new Maoist has arrived)”.’
Sudha Bharadwaj speaks to Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar about her experiences in jail. Considering prisoners are denied basic human rights – mulaqatein (meetings) with her daughter were tough – the coping mechanisms adopted by women, she says, are fascinating and have kept her going.
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Publisher : Juggernaut (10 October 2023)
Language : English
Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put down their heads and work themselves weary. Sudha Bharadwaj watched through the bars of her cell, and she wrote. This is her remarkably granular account of the world of women prisoners in Yerawada Jail in Pune. Bharadwaj was incarcerated here, in a high-security wing called Phansi Yard, from November 2018 to February 2020. She takes us through jail life, her own and the other women’s, from one season to the next, weaving in lively portraits of her fellow prisoners, their children and even their pets, and reflecting on everything from absurd rules, caste hierarchies, food, fistfights and friendships, to the dismal absence of legal aid for the most defenceless of women.
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by Swati Deshpande (Jan 28, 2022)
Default bail arguments completed by defence lawyers for Elgar Parishad accused on Friday before Special UAPA court. The special Public prosecutor will now argue on February 14.
23/12/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
The Court cited the bar under Section 362 CrPC in reviewing the order.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday refused a request by eight accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case for substantial factual corrections to the HC’s order denying them bail.
Through a precipice (application) for “speaking to minutes”, the accused claimed that just like Sudha Bharadwaj, who was granted bail, they had also filed their default bail pleas in the stipulated time.
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en | 14min | 2022
The Quint / by Nishtha Gautam
Exclusive interview with lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Sudha Bharadwaj, lawyer and activist, was granted bail in December 2021 after spending three years in Mumbai’s Byculla prison. One of the 16 accused people in what is being talked about as the Bhima Koregaon case, Bharadwaj is still awaiting a trial.
In this exclusive interview, she talks about freedom, justice, patriotism, constitution and a lot more.
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Newsclick / by Ajaz Ashraf
India is far from realising the promises of justice and equality made in the Constitution, says the well-known activist, citing her experiences in prison as an under-trial and as a lawyer representing workers.
After spending nearly three years in jail, Bharadwaj was released on bail last month. Her bail conditions proscribe her from speaking on the Bhima Koregaon case and leaving Mumbai, although she has now been allowed to live in Thane. NewsClick did not ask her any question on the case, and she politely refused to answer any question she thought was even remotely connected to it. In the first part of this interview, Bharadwaj speaks on the meaning that Republic Day, the Constitution, and the law have for jail inmates, based on her conversations with them.
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Also read
● Part 2: My Spirit has not Been Broken: Activist Sudha Bharadwaj (NewsClick / Jan 2022)
21/02/2022
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
Among the conditions set for Bharadwaj’s bail was that the 60-year-old would not make any statement on the proceedings of the case. Recently, she got permission to leave Mumbai limits for Thane. Excerpts from an interview:
Can you tell us about finding yourself in jail, first in the Yerwada Central Prison in Pune and then the Byculla Women’s Prison?
The first experience is quite frightening. It is an immediate loss of dignity, privacy and identity.
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21/02/2022
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
Bharadwaj said one reason was that the remuneration given to lawyers on the legal aid panel was not sufficient.
Calling the experience of being in jail an eyeopener, trade unionist and human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj has said she hopes to work to improve legal aid for prisoners.
In an interview to The Indian Express, Bharadwaj, who was released on December 9 on bail, said she was considering filing a PIL on the matter.
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● ‘I Am Ready To Put On My Black Coat’: Lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Out On Bail After 3 Years In Jail (article 14 │ Jan 2022)
● Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism. (PUCL │ Jan 2021 │ 316 pages)
The Wire / by Allan Shuaib
Human rights abuses against imprisoned activists have been easy to cover up in the names of ‘quarantine’ and ‘isolation’.
To be jailed for political activity is an abomination. According to Luis Jiménez de Asúa, a Spanish jurist, “Political prisoners are people who have been incarcerated for working for revolutionary change and for the betterment of society.” Countless people have been imprisoned for criticising and working against governments.
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Also read:
● CONDEMN THE SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AND CONTINUING HARASSMENT OF THE BHIMA KOREGAON ACCUSED (PUDR / Oct 2021)
Article 14 / by Chitrangada Coudhury
After three years and three months in prison, Bhima-Koregaon accused and undertrial Sudha Bharadwaj was granted bail in December 2021 by the Bombay High Court on a technical ground. The human rights lawyer and law professor talked to us about her time in prison, the state of legal aid for forgotten undertrials, the need for courts to address congested prisons, particularly in the pandemic, and her plans to rebuild her life as a lawyer and a mother, as she grappled with bail conditions which prevent her from leaving Mumbai and Thane.
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The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
On Wednesday, undertrials in the Elgaar Parishad case – lodged in Taloja Central Prison – were produced before the special court via video conference.
With a surge in Covid-19 cases, while the prison department has stopped physical meetings again of inmates with relatives and lawyers, the phone and video call facility is yet to be resumed in many jails.
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