Persecution – Page 61 – free them all

Bombay High Court Grants NIA Time To Respond In Anand Teltumbde’s Bail Appeal

20/10/2021 Asha

Bombay High Court Grants NIA Time To Respond In Anand Teltumbde’s Bail Appeal

20/10/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) two weeks to respond to Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde’s bail appeal.
Teltumbde has filed two petitions; the first is an appeal against the special court’s order rejecting his bail application and the second is a petition challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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Bombay HC asks NIA to respond to Anand Teltumbde’s bail plea in two weeks

20/10/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The activist has filed another petition challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
… The central agency has accused Teltumbde of being the convenor of the Elgaar Parishad conference held on December 31, 2017, that led to Bhima Koregaon violence the next day. It has alleged that the activist was an active member of the CPI (Maoist) and was “deeply involved in furtherance of its furtherance of its agenda.”
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Also read: Anand Teltumbde Moves Bombay High Court Challenging Stringent Bail Conditions & ‘Vague Terminology’ In UAPA (Live Law, Sep 2021)

The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling

17/10/2021 Asha

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

While out on temporary bail in August, the rights activist sang a song written by Kabir Kala Manch’s Ramesh Gaichor for his friends and colleagues about the sordid conditions in prison.
Mumbai: Surendra Gadling, a human rights lawyer from Nagpur, has always considered courtrooms his stage. Between serious arguments, he would casually break into songs of cultural and political resistance. He would be commonly found invoking political theories and remembering shahirs from the Dalit community amid serious legal arguments. His court appearances usually attracted an eager audience from among his peers and junior lawyers.
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Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling

hindi | 11min | 2021

51- year-old Gadling, a well-known criminal lawyer in Nagpur, was once a cultural activist, who sang songs of political resistance. The 11- minutes- long rendition tells you what it means to be incarcerated in Indian prisons. From food, water, to medical care, everything is a struggle, Gadling narrates. The song was recorded by one of Gadling’s colleagues and was made available to The Wire after obtaining his consent.
Watch video

Also read: India’s Jail Stats: 7 In 10 Undertrials, 1 In 3 Dalit/Adivasi (IndiaSpend / Oct 2021)

Bombay HC extends temporary bail of Varavara Rao till Oct 28

14/10/2021 Asha

Varavara Rao need not surrender before jail officials until October 28, says HC

14/10/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The Bombay High Court will hear Rao’s plea seeking extension of his medical bail for another six months on October 26.
Poet Varavara Rao need not surrender before the Taloja Jail authorities in Navi Mumbai until October 28, the Bombay High Court said on Tuesday, PTI reported.
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Bombay HC extends time to surrender for Varavara Rao

14/10/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The octogenarian, arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case in 2018, was granted medical bail by the HC on February 22 for six months.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday extended till October 28 the time to surrender for Elgar Parishad accused Varavara Rao, who has sought extension of his medical bail and permission to shift to his residence at Hyderabad in Telangana, citing ill health and high expenses in Mumbai.
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Live Law (Oct 14):
+++ Bombay High Court will shortly hear Telugu poet PV #VaravaraRao(81)’s plea to extend the medical bail granted to him, in February, 2021.
He has also sought relaxation of his bail condition so that he can leave Mumbai and live at home in #Hyderabad +++
+++ Hearing before Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sarang Kotwal
Sr Adv Anand Grover for Rao ASG Anil Singh for NIA +++
+++ Hearing begins +++
+++ Justice Jamdar – We can take it up sometime in the next week.
Desai requests for a Friday hearing.
J Jamdar – Adjourned to 26th. Time to surrender till 28th +++

Also read: Varavara Rao’s Plea For Extension Of Medical Bail; Bombay HC Adjourns The Matter, Grants Interim Protection (Live Law; Sep 24, 2021)

Will Provide Clone Copies Once Received From FSL, But Trial Shouldn’t Be Stayed: NIA

13/10/2021 Asha

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

Four years after arrests in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case, the National Investigation Agency has said that it will provide remaining copies of electronic evidence seized, but the trial in the case should go on.
Responding to pleas by lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj and journalist Gautam Navlakha to stay the proceedings or defer framing of charges until the clones copies are not provided, NIA claims they have yet to receive copies from the Forensic Science Laboratory.
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Also read: After Pegasus and Arsenal Reports, Can Bhima Koregaon Case Still Stand? (The Quint; July 21, 2021)

Silence from Maharashtra authorities on letter on Father Stan Swamy’s jail torment

12/10/2021 Asha

Silence on letter on Father Stan Swamy’s jail torment

12/10/2021

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

A three-month-old letter by three Elgaar Parishad co-accused alleging “institutional murder” of Father Stan Swamy and accusing then Taloja prison superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar of mistreating him has yet to evoke any response from the Maharashtra authorities it was sent to.
The letter alleged the 84-year-old Jesuit and tribal rights defender from Jharkhand was strip-searched “in front of the entire staff” when he was brought to the jail, and was kept in isolation so the Parkinson’s patient could not receive any help from fellow prisoners.
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Stan Swamy’s Death was an Institutional Murder: Co-inmates write to Uddhav Thackeray

06/10/2021

NewsClick / by Parth M.N.

The letter holds the superintendent of Taloja Prison, Kaustubh Kurlekar, responsible for Swamy’s death, and accuses him of purposely emasculating Swamy’s physical health and mental resolve.
Three political prisoners arrested in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case have written a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray. The letter claims that father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist based in Jharkhand, did not die a natural death. “It was an institutional murder,” says the letter, signed by human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling, and cultural activists Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe, who were eyewitnesses to the treatment meted out to Swamy in prison.
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NIA tells Mumbai HC objectionable material in letters by accused to family published in The Caravan

10/10/2021 Asha

NIA tells Mumbai HC objectionable material in letters by accused to family published in The Caravan

10/10/2021

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

NIA opposed the plea filed before Bombay High Court by wives of Teltumbde and Gonsalves, against the Superintendent of Taloja Prison, accusing him of withholding letters sent to and received from their family members.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has opposed the plea filed before Bombay High Court by wives of Bhima Koreagon accused Anand Teltumbde and Vernon Gonsalves, against the Superintendent of Taloja Central Prison, accusing him of withholding letters sent to and received from their family members.
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HC seeks reply on plea by wives of accused seeking probe into ‘restrictions’ on letters

09/10/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the state prison authority and the NIA to file a reply to the plea by the wives of Elgaar Parishad case accused Anand Teltumbde and Vernon Gonsalves, who are lodged in Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai, seeking an inquiry for allegedly restricting the two activists from writing letters to their spouses and lawyers.
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Jail Authorities Are Blocking Letters From Elgar Parishad Arrested to Their Loved Ones

06/10/2021 Asha

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

After Father Stan Swamy’s death in July, Sudhir Dhawale penned an emotional letter. But Taloja jail authorities decided nobody should read it.
When 84-year-old Jharkhand-based tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy passed away on July 5, one of his co-accused in the Elgar Parishad case, Sudhir Dhawale, penned an emotional poem. Dhawale, a writer and anti-caste activist from Mumbai who is currently jailed at the Taloja central prison, wrote an eight-page poem describing his first meeting with Swamy, their interactions in jail and Swamy’s contribution to the tribal rights movement in Jharkhand. He titled the poem Pathalgadicha Father or the ‘Father of Pathalgadi’.
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Another COVID-19 Outbreak in Byculla Prison Highlights Lessons That Haven’t Been Learnt

28/09/2021 Asha

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Another COVID-19 Outbreak in Byculla Prison Highlights Lessons That Haven’t Been Learnt

28/09/2021

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Rights activists Shoma Sen and Sudha Bharadwaj are lodged in this prison.
On September 17, a local health post in Mumbai’s E ward was notified about a sudden increase in “fever” cases inside Byculla women’s prison. The cause of the fever was unknown, but the prison authorities had seen this pattern many times in the past year. The ward authorities set up a fever camp two days later, on September 19. The initial figures suggested three women were down with COVID-19. In subsequent camps, another 36 people – including six children under the age of six – tested positive. The jail, with close to 300 women prisoners, was soon sealed.
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43 inmates, including at least four children, test positive in Mumbai’s Byculla prison

26/09/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The jail has not been declared a containment zone yet.
The number of inmates who contracted the coronavirus disease in Mumbai’s Byculla prison rose to 43 on Sunday. This includes at least four children, who continue to stay with their mothers…
The prison holds inmates like Elgar Parishad accused Sudha Bharadwaj, Jyoti Jagtap and Shoma Sen.
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Also read: Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails (the Caravan, June 22, 2021)

Increasing spread of virus infection in Byculla prison is worrisome: Friends & Family of Sudha Bharadwaj

26/09/2021 Asha

By Friends & Family of Sudha Bharadwaj

Press Release
Friends and Family of Sudha Bharadwaj are extremely worried over the alarming and disturbing news of the rising Covid-19 infection in Byculla women’s jail forcing the authorities to seal the premise.
Last week, in a prison supervised phone conversation Koel Sen had with her mother Shoma Sen, former professor of English from Nagpur University, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case and incarcerated for the last three years in Byculla prison without trial, it was informed that 20 inmates from the prison were infected, which appears to have now risen to 39!
Three women political prisoners, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj and Jyoti Jagtap, all arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case for the past three years without trial and bail, are housed in the women’s prison of Byculla jail. Alarmingly, two out of the 20 infected are from the barrack that houses 40 senior women inmates, including 61-year-old Shoma Sen and 59-year-old Sudha Bharadwaj. The barrack of 40 senior citizen women inmates is fully vaccinated, however the virus infection of the two fully vaccinated women has sent fear and concern to all the women inside the prison and their family waiting for them in their homes. …

Varavara Rao’s Plea For Extension Of Medical Bail; HC Adjourns Matter, Grants Interim Protection

24/09/2021 Asha

Pic by Release The Poet

Bombay HC extends time to surrender for Varavara Rao till October 14

25/09/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Rao, arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case in 2018, was granted medical bail by the HC on February 22 for six months. The court had said he would have to either surrender or seek another extension based on his health condition after six months.
The Bombay High Court on Friday extended by two weeks the time to surrender for Elgaar Parishad accused Varavara Rao, the octogenarian who has sought extension of his medical bail and permission to shift to his residence at Hyderabad citing ill health and high expenses in Mumbai.
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Varavara Rao’s Plea For Extension Of Medical Bail; Bombay HC Adjourns The Matter, Grants Interim Protection

24/09/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court on Friday extended interim protection to Telugu Poet PV Varavara Rao from surrendering before prison officials in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case after his petition could not be heard due to paucity of time.
Rao has sought an extension of the medical bail granted to him on February 22, 2021, for six months, and modification of a bail condition to reside at his home in Telangana.
On Friday, after Rao’s counsel informed the court that the octogenarian is protected only until tomorrow, Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar said that interim protection granted earlier would continue till the matter is heard after two weeks.
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Varavara Rao’s bail plea hearing adjourned; he need not surrender till Oct 14

24/09/2021

The Hindu / by pti

Varavara Rao (82) was granted interim bail for six months on medical grounds by the HC on February 22 this year, and was scheduled to surrender and return to judicial custody on September 5.
The Bombay High Court on Friday adjourned till October 13 the hearing on a bail extension plea filed by poet-activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, and said he need not surrender before Taloja jail authorities till October 14.
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