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Category: Prison conditions

Sudha Bharadwaj: I hope I can begin practising in Mumbai / Prisoners are cut off from legal remedies

Sudha Bharadwaj: I hope I can begin practising in Mumbai / Prisoners are cut off from legal remedies

Sudha Bharadwaj interview: ‘I hope I can begin practising in Mumbai’

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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Sudha Bharadwaj: ‘When inside, you see how cut off a prisoner is from legal remedies’

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)

For the Government, COVID Is the Perfect Excuse to Worsen Conditions for Political Prisoners

For the Government, COVID Is the Perfect Excuse to Worsen Conditions for Political Prisoners

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)

‘I Am Ready To Put On My Black Coat’: Lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Out On Bail After 3 Years In Jail

‘I Am Ready To Put On My Black Coat’: Lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Out On Bail After 3 Years In Jail

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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Physical meetings with family and lawyer stopped, but phone call facility yet to resume: Inmates to court

Physical meetings with family and lawyer stopped, but phone call facility yet to resume: Inmates to court

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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Sudha Bharadwaj: The prison life of India’s best-known woman activist

Sudha Bharadwaj: The prison life of India’s best-known woman activist

BBC / by Soutik Biswas

After three years in prison, one of India’s best-known activists is trying to set up home in a new city and find work.
Bail conditions prohibit Sudha Bharadwaj from leaving Mumbai until the end of a trial in which she is accused of a role in a 2018 incident of caste-based violence and alleged links with Maoists. She is also not allowed to talk about the case.
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Also read:
● ‘The Point Is Not to Surrender’: The Sudha Bharadwaj I Know (The Quint / Dec 2021)

Gadling says Taloja jail not referring him for check-up, seeks CCTV footage

Gadling says Taloja jail not referring him for check-up, seeks CCTV footage

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Following this, Special Judge Dinesh E Kothalikar directed the jail superintendent to preserve the CCTV footage and provide clone copies of the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) to Gadling.
Lawyer Surendra Gadling, arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, on Wednesday told the court that he was not being referred to for a medical examination by the jail authorities despite a court order. Gadling also sought that CCTV footage of the Taloja Central Prison, where he is lodged, be preserved.
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Also read:
● Surendra Gadling Says Jail Authorities Denying Him Medicines (The Wire / Dec 2021)
Also watch:
● Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling

hindi | 11min | 2021
In August, when human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling was released on interim bail for a week, he made a quick visit to the Nagpur sessions court to meet his colleagues and friends. 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.
Watch video

Ill-Treatment of Stan Swamy in Jail Should ‘Shake Foundation of Democracy’

Ill-Treatment of Stan Swamy in Jail Should ‘Shake Foundation of Democracy’

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Iklakh Rahim Shaikh, who spent time with the Jesuit priest in Taloja jail, says while “VIP prisoners” get access to all kinds of facilities, prisoners like Swamy are denied even the most basic rights.
A pretrial detainee at the Taloja central prison in the outskirts of Mumbai, who spent close to a year with 84-year-old Jharkhand-based tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy, says the Jesuit priest struggled for a long time before he finally died in July last year.
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All I ask is an hour to breathe in fresh air, soak in sun, rights activist Gautam Navlakha in plea

All I ask is an hour to breathe in fresh air, soak in sun, rights activist Gautam Navlakha in plea

All I ask is an hour to breathe in fresh air, soak in sun, rights activist Gautam Navlakha in plea

31/12/2021

The Free Press Journal / by Bhavna Uchil

Rights activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case lodged in the anda cell of Taloja Central Prison, made a handwritten application before a special court on Thursday, seeking that he be allowed an hour of fresh air and sun in the prison premises.
He, along with his co-accused, were produced before the special court on Thursday when he submitted the plea.
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Court allows Gautam Navlakha’s partner to meet him in jail

31/12/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Gautam Navlakha has been lodged in Taloja Central Jail since last April.
A special court on Thursday allowed an application filed by activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, to allow his partner Sahba Husain to meet him in prison.
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Also read:
● Gautam Navlakha Case: Cracking up (India Legal / Nov 2021)

Surendra Gadling Says Jail Authorities Denying Him Medicines

Surendra Gadling Says Jail Authorities Denying Him Medicines

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

“The non-availability of medicines and hot water is posing a danger to my life,” the lawyer wrote in a letter to the additional director general of prisons.
In the latest instance of inhumane treatment meted out to the accused in the Elgar-Parishad case, lawyer Surendra Gadling has accused the Taloja central jail superintendent of blocking his supply of ayurvedic medicines, which he had been permitted to access by the trial court.
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Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling

hindi | 11min | 2021

In August, when human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling was released on interim bail for a week, he made a quick visit to the Nagpur sessions court to meet his colleagues and friends. 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

‘The Point Is Not to Surrender’: The Sudha Bharadwaj I Know

‘The Point Is Not to Surrender’: The Sudha Bharadwaj I Know

The Quint / by Smita Gupta

‘They call Sudha a terrorist, an anti-national. I have known her for over 30 years. You can’t find a better friend.’
“Sudha’s got bail!” These were the three words we have been desperate to hear for over three years and for which our brilliant and committed lawyers – Adv Yug Mohit Chaudhry and his team – have left no stone unturned; news her daughter Maaysha (Anu to all of us) has agonised over and lived for the past three years. And yet, I couldn’t believe it until I spoke to the lawyers myself. For all of us, Sudha’s friends and family, it is devastating that on some technicality the other co-accused were denied default bail.
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