Maaysha, Sudha’s daughter:“If fighting for the rights of adivasis, fighting for workers and peasants, fighting against repression and exploitation and giving up one s whole life for them is being a naxalite then I guess naxalites are pretty good.”
“The 6th Annual Harvard Law International Women’s Day Portrait Exhibit showcases the astounding contributions of women around the world to the areas of law and policy. The honorees — each of whom were nominated by HLS students, faculty or staff — are powerful voices in their respective fields, whether they are sitting on a high court bench, standing in front of a classroom, or marching in the streets.”
Or whether they are sitting in jail.
Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj is a 2019 honoree of the Harvard Law International Women’s day exhibition and is sitting in a jail cell in Pune. How did these conflicting positions come about?
Sudha grew up to illustrious parents, and spent the first part of her life as an American citizen. In the next 30 years of her life, she worked tirelessly in Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM) as a trade unionist and eventually as a lawyer after the CMM, hamstrung in their legal battles by unscrupulous lawyers, found in her the courage and integrity needed to challenge powerful opponents in the courtrooms.
She founded Janhit, giving rigorous legal aid to several industrial workers, villages fighting acquisition and mining, Adivasi communities fighting for forest rights, environmental cases and PIL litigation. Janhit led cases against powerful industrial houses such as Jindal, Vedanta, BALCO, Lafarge Holcim, D.B. Power, Vandana Vidyut, SECL, Bhilai Steel Plant, Monnet Steel, Adani, Hindalco, Grasim, Ultratech and others.
Sudha was instrumental in rebuilding the PUCL group after the arrest and incarceration of its then-President, Dr. Binayak Sen. During this time, she was appointed as the General Secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and worked on issues of human trafficking and attacks on minorities. She also assisted families of victims of human rights violations looked upon as casualties in the conflict zone of Bastar and supported journalists and activists who dared raise their voices and pen against the State excesses in Bastar. She was elected recently as Vice President of the Indian Association of Peoples’ Lawyers (IAPL) and was active in campaigns against attacks on Dalit and human rights lawyers in Chhattisgarh and facilitated an IAPL fact-finding into it.
Sudha was arrested from her Faridabad home which she was sharing with her daughter, Maaysha. During this time, she was a Visiting Professor at the National Law University Delhi, taking Seminar Courses on tribal rights, land acquisition, and the Fifth and Sixth Schedules. This year she was to have taught “Law and Justice in a Globalising World”. Sadly, and ironically, she can’t teach the class as she is in jail. The loss, the students inform us, is all theirs.
Her daughter Maaysha, has in several letters candidly brought to fore Sudha’s tireless spirit and her commitment to her work, “If fighting for the rights of Adivasis, fighting for workers and peasants, fighting against repression and exploitation and giving up one’s whole life for them is being a Naxalite then I guess Naxalites are pretty good.”
Guneet Ahuja, Advocate, Delhi, in an open letter writes about Sudha, “On my first meeting with Sudha ji, I asked her about the competing narratives regarding the condition of indigenous communities in Bastar. Her reply left a deep impact on me: “For a pedestrian on a narrow lane, the car driver is causing the trouble. For the car driver, the pedestrian is the nuisance. Your perspectives change based on where you are placed.”
Sudha is the pedestrian along with all the people she fights for. She believes the road belongs to us. The State is the car who doesn’t want nuisance pedestrians in the way, believes the road belongs to it, and wants it lined with the businesses of its cronies. To the State, Sudha belongs in jail. To us, she is a defender of human rights.
“If you try to be safe and in the middle, you will never succeed.”
Sudha, The Wire
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
Pictures credit: PUCL
Cover Design / Layout: Vinay Jain
Paperback: 316 pages
“When the victory drum started beating In the heart of the masses You mistook it for a person and trained your guns Revolution echoed from all horizons.”
Being thrown into jail is nothing new to the famous Telugu poet Varavara Rao. He has faced at least 25 cases in the last 45 years. His story can be understood through the history of these arrests and the power of his writings, his poetry, his teaching career and his political understandings and analysis of power and oppression, and the path to liberation.
Varavara Rao, or VV was born into a middle class family in Chinna Pendyala, Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh in 1940. He started publishing his poetry at age 17, in 1957, but got interested in revolutionary theory while working as a lecturer at Mahabubnagar. It was during this time that he founded a literature and poetry group called Sahithee Mithrulu and a non-political journal named Srujana to eventually join the Tirugubadu Kavulu (Rebel Poets), who were sympathetic to the armed struggle going on in Srikakulam.
During this time, VV founded the Virasam or Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Revolutionary Writers’ Association), an association banned by the Andhra Pradesh government in August 2005. The ban was later struck down by the AP High Court in November 2005.
VV, now 74, has published 15 poetry collections of his own, besides having edited a number of anthologies. His poetry has been translated into almost all Indian languages and have appeared in Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Bengali. His thesis on ‘Telangana Liberation Struggle and Telugu Novel – A Study into Interconnection between Society and Literature’ published in 1983 is considered to be one of the finest works of Marxist critical studies done in Telugu. While in prison he translated Kenyan writer, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s prison diary ‘Detained’ and his novel ‘Devil on the Cross’ into Telugu. He also wrote his own prison diary Sahacharulu (1990), which was translated into English as Captive Imagination.
VV was first arrested under the infamous Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in Andhra Pradesh, in 1973. He was then arrested during Emergency and was re-arrested at the entrance of the jail and kept imprisoned for an additional week when the Emergency was lifted. He survived many attempts on his life post-Emergency.
He was among the 46 accused of conspiring to overthrow the Andhra Pradesh government in the Secunderabad conspiracy case, and was sent to jail once again in 1985. He was also an accused in the Ramnagar conspiracy case where he was accused to have attended a meeting where the plan to kill two Andhra Pradesh Police constables was hatched. He was finally acquitted of the charges after 17 years, in 2003.
He remains a staunch opposer of neo-liberal globalisation and specifically the globalisation policies adopted by Chandrababu Naidu’s government in the ’90s. He went as an emissary for the People’s War Group in the peace negotiations between the Andhra Pradesh government and Naxalites. After multiple rounds of the talks failed, Virasam was banned only to be reinstated later. Following the banning, Rao was arrested once again in 2005 and was released in 2006. He has been arrested four-times since the formation of the new Telangana state in 2014.
VV has faced at least nine cases under the Arms Act of 1959 and the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 over the last four decades. In perhaps the most ridiculous case, he was charged with distributing bombs to ensure the success of a strike against the custodial death of a Radical Students Union activist in 1985. In response, Varavara Rao wrote a memorable poem, titled :
Reflection I did not supply the explosives Nor ideas for that matter It was you who trod with iron heels Upon the anthill And from the trampled earth Sprouted the ideas of vengeance It was you who struck the beehive With your lathi The sound of the scattering bees Exploded in your shaken facade Blotched red with fear When the victory drum started beating In the heart of the masses You mistook it for a person and trained your guns Revolution echoed from all horizons …
Varavara Rao (VV) was born in Warangal in 1940. He finished his MA in Telugu literature from Osmania University. He worked as a lecturer in several colleges and transformation towards revolutionary ideas started in Varavara Rao’s mind during his tenure in Mahabubnagar district. …
In one of her letters to her daughter, Shoma writes, “They can keep me locked inside, but my mind is completely free”
A reputed academician, a Dalit and Women’s Rights activist, a teacher and dissenter, Shoma Sen is all of the above and more. Born and raised in Mumbai, she moved to Nagpur with her partner and daughter with a strong resolve to protect and promote democratic rights of the most marginalised people in the society.
Shoma has been a respected academic for almost three decades. She has been actively involved with the Women’s Department of Wardha Vishwavidyalaya and taught in various colleges across Nagpur. During the time of her arrest she was the Head of the Department of English at Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University. She has written extensively on post-colonialism and women’s studies for several decades. …
Arun Ferreira is a human rights lawyer from Mumbai, India. He is a member of the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) and the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL). He studied at Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College where he developed a strong social conscience, and organised the institution’s canteen workers to demand better work conditions. After college, he worked with slum dwellers in Mumbai before becoming a community organiser in Vidarbha (rural Maharashtra state). …
Characterised by a loose cotton half sleeve shirt, loose trousers, spectacles, a jhola and a hearty laughter, Vernon Gonsalves comes across as an effervescent wise man. Gonsalves gets along well with everyone from the age of six to sixty. His demeanour reflects an inner happiness. He started a band in college, but gave it up to be a part of people’s movements. His songs still hold the flavour of 70s rock.
Vernon’s pen is as sharp as his vision for an equitable, just society without distinctions of class, caste, race, with principles of gender equality and justice at its core. He is an acute political observer and makes nuanced arguments about complex sociopolitical-economic issues. Vernon has shown a keenness to understand the latest undercurrents in progressive politics.
He was born to a Mangalorean Catholic couple and grew up in a chawl in a modest locality in Byculla in Mumbai. Vernon was always good with academics and won a gold medal in Commerce from Mumbai University. Subsequently, he left his corporate job in Siemens to work with trade unions, workers, slum dwellers and the working class in Mumbai. During this period, he taught in prominent colleges in Mumbai including Ruparel College, HR College of Commerce and Economics, and Akbar Peerbhoy College of Commerce and Economics. Very few know that, in college he wanted to be a musician. Rumours say that he had also started a band but could not find meaning in it.
Around 1983, he moved to Chandrapur near Nagpur to work with unorganised sector workers including the coal-mine workers in the area. In 1984, he married fellow activist Susan Abraham. It was a union of two unique and fiercely independent minds. They worked in Chandrapur for a decade. After their son Sagar was born in 1994, they returned to Mumbai.
On 19 August 2007, the Maharashtra ATS arrested Vernon from his residence in Andheri, Mumbai. His arrest was falsely shown as from the residence of his co-accused S. Shridhar in Govandi. They were charged with being “top-level” Naxalites having explosives in their possession. For some months prior to this, Vernon had been working for the rights of tribal communities in the Maharashtra district of Chandrapur. 20 cases were filed against him. He spent nearly six years in jail while his trial dragged on as an undertrial. He was acquitted in 18 cases, convicted in one against which his appeal is pending in the Nagpur HC while the application for discharge in the last case in Gujarat is pending before the High Court.
During his years as an undertrial in jail, Vernon spent most of his time writing. He is now working on a collection of prison writings. He edited a set of short stories written while imprisoned, one of which, “Jailbird Jabbar” was written in a typical staccato Bambaiya patois style. He also translated stories by Annabhau Sathe from Marathi to English for Aleph Publication’s “A Clutch of Short Stories.” After his release he wrote articles on prevailing law, rights of Dalit and tribal communities, the condition of prisons in India, land grabbing by the nexus of Corporates and the Government, misuse of the criminal justice system by the governments against marginalised communities, and scrapping of UAPA. One of his last published articles titled “Harsher Punishments and Retributive Criminal Justice” is a landmark commentary on the trends of crime control vis-a-vis justice system in the country.
Vernon’s son Sagar sums what everyone close to him feels about him: “Among the many things that I admire greatly about my father is his commitment to his beliefs and ideals.To stand up for what is right and help those whose rights are denied – he has always done that and will continue to do so. This did not deter him the last time and will not do it now as well. He has an unbreakable spirit and will always stay true to what he believes in.”
Vernon Gonsalves is trade unionist, activist, an academic (former professor of business management in a college in Mumbai) and a writer, who writes extensively on Dalit and adivasi rights, the conditions of prisons in India and the routine violation of rights of prisoners. Along with Arun Ferriera, he has authored a number of popular articles on the condition of Indian jails, the abuse of authority by Indian police, and draconian laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a piece of ‘anti-terror’ legislation with a wide ambit and vague concepts, which allows its misuse against academics, lawyers and human rights defenders. Equally importantly, their writings expose the hypocrisy of democracy in India. …
Sudhir believes that every revolution has to be “unique”
Sudhir Dhawale’s rm commitment to activism is grounded in his belief in justice. Growing up in Indora , a centre of Ambedkarite politics in Nagpur, Sudhir has since his younger days, been actively involved in the struggles for human rights and dignity. He was part of people’s movement in Nagpur until 1994 then moved to Bombay in search of work opportunities.
From 1995, Sudhir Dhawale dedicated his life towards ghting against the atrocities on Dalits and other marginalized communities.. He was active in the streets and in the courts and has worked on incidents of Dalit atrocities such as the Ghatkopar Ramabai Nagar Dalit Hatyakand, in which 10 Dalits were gunned down by the Mumbai police for agitating against the desecration of a Dr. Ambedkar Statue in 1997. He was also involved in the Khairlanji agitation (against the massacre of a Dalit family in 2006), the Baban Misal murder in Ahmadnagar district in 2008, the ruthless murder of Sahebrao Jondhale in Marathwada in 2008, the Sadashiv Salve Guruji murder in Beed district in 2009, the Manorama Kamble gang rape and murder case in Nagpur in 2009, the Rohidas Tupe murder in Palgaon near Aurangabad in 2009, and many more cases of atrocities against Dalits in Maharashtra.
In 2002, following the Gujarat pogrom massacres, he started a Marathi magazine named Vidrohi. It started as a four-page magazine and soon doubled into eight pages. In a few years, it took the shape of a full- edged magazine which was published twice every month and spoke of pertinent issues concerning the country. It continues to play a pivotal role in bringing in the Dalit voice on human rights abuse of Dalits and other minorities across India, and also publishes fact- nding reports and valuable literature.
After the Khairlanji massacre took place in 2006, many Ambedkarite, left and other progressive organizations felt the need to form and drive a movement based on anti- caste politics with a concrete long-term program of caste annihilation. With this understanding, on December 6, 2007 at the Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai, the Republican Panthers Jaatiya Antachi Chalwal (Republican Panthers Caste Annihilation Movement) was formed. Sudhir, one of the founding members of this organisation, with years of experience and political intellect, evolved a new theoretical framework for the Republican Panthers situating the caste annihilation program at its centre. As a cultural group, Republican Panthers brought their revolutionary music and street theatre to the slums, trade unions, school and protests, to describe the atrocity that is the Hindu caste system.
In 2011, the Maharashtra police arrested Dhawale on charges of sedition and of being a member of and providing support to a terrorist organisation. In May 2014, after Dhawale had spent 40 months in incarceration, RG Asmar—a judge presiding over a special UAPA court in Gondia, a district in Maharashtra— pronounced a judgment acquitting Dhawale and eight others of all charges. The judgment was strongly worded, and the court came down heavily against the state police for its investigation.
It is believed that it was the magazine Vidrohi that brought the ire of the establishment and became the reason for his arrest. Upon his release Sudhir did not only increase the reach of Vidrohi but also led many protests and marches on di erent social issues. He was actively leading several joint fronts formed against caste atrocities, like the Jatiya Atyachar Virodhi Kruti Samiti, the Joint Action Committee for Social justice, the Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prearna Abhiyan and many more.
Incidentally, the lawyer who represented him in the 2011 case was Surendra Gadling, his co-accused in the current Bhima Koregaon case.
Sudhir also incorporated his political experiences and understanding on the paper. It was not only through the Vidrohi magazine, but also many books that he wrote and edited, on diverse socio-political issues. During his time in prison, he has written three books. His writings are sharpened through the assimilation of the pain and struggle of the masses.
Sudhir along with others, had called for the Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017, bringing together Dalit, Maratha and Muslim leaders on one platform to commemorate the two- hundredth anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle and to discuss the State’s crackdown on the marginalised sections of the society.
As an organizer, writer, poet, playwright, freelance journalist and editor of Marathi magazine Vidrohi, Sudhir Dhawale has tried to bring the issues of injustice and atrocities against Dalits in the public domain to make democracy a substantive force and movement in the country.
Sudhir’s words are active, gritty, and capable of moving stones.
Sudhir explains that every revolution has to be “unique”.
To our own unique Revolution…
“What sort of a city is this?
What sort of people are you?
When injustice is done there should be a revolt in the city.
And if there is no revolt,
It were better that the city should perish in fire before the night falls…”
Lines from The good Person of Szechwan
a play written by Brecht. The lines
in Marathi were quated in the fir for
`provoking´ the crowd present in Elgar Parishad.
After spending close to four years (2011-2014) in jail in India (where he was denied every kind of human right) on charges of being a ‘Naxalite’, Sudhir Dhawale was acquitted of all charges. Reflecting on his traumatic experience, Sudhir soberly identifies his private struggle as being part of a much larger public and collective struggle for democratic values. Sudhir: …
Surendra Gadling is a human rights lawyer and General Secretary of the Indian Association of Peoples’ Lawyers (IAPL). Among those he has represented are numerous human rights defenders arrested on fabricated charges of being anti-national. …
“Mahesh is highly loved and respected in all these villages and one with the people I visited. They treated him as if he were a member of their own house!”
Hailing from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, Mahesh Raut is a young prominent activist working for the rights of Adivasi communities in his district. Born in Lakhapur, a small village in Maharashtra, Mahesh completed his schooling from Gadchiroli and moved to Nagpur for graduation. He later went on to pursue higher education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. On completing his education he worked as Prime Minister Rural Development Fellow (PMRDF) in Gadchiroli. He has tirelessly advocated for laws like The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act and Forest Rights Act which protect the democratic rights of indigenous communities against unlawful land grabbing by large corporations. Mahesh has consistently worked to protect and promote the rights of the marginalised within a Constitutional framework. On completion of his fellowship, Mahesh decided to continue working with the Adivasi communities in the State.
Mahesh organised and participated in mass movements to abet the cause of social welfare. He was the co-convenor of Visthapan Vidrohi Jan Vikas Andolan (VVJVA) which ghts against the forced displacement of Adivasis and other marginalised people. As a member of VVJVA, Mahesh organised the Tendu leaves workers from Adivasi communities of the region to sell them directly in the market without the involvement of middlemen.
Along with campaigning for the Adivasis of the region, he also joined the Bharat Jan Andolan (BJA), an organisation started by late BD Sharma. Through his work with BJA, Mahesh has been instrumental in organising people for participative decision making in regions a ected by mining projects, including the Surajgarh mining project.
His work against the atrocities of Police and several State authorities led to several cases being led against him. According to a letter drafted by his PMRDF fellows, the State’s crackdown on Mahesh started from 2013 citing his consistent political engagement as one of the reasons for his harassment. His friend and fellow activist Sohini Shoaib, working in Bihar writes about her visit to Gadchiroli, “Mahesh was highly loved and respected in all these villages and one with the people I visited. They treated him as if he were a member of their own house! Some of them even tried to get me to convince him to get married: they thought he worked too hard and did not take care of his health enough. They hoped that nding a partner would help him feel less lonely, help him balance other aspects of life!”
In 2018, Mahesh was picked up by the Pune Police for his alleged involvement in organising the Elgar Parishad and his alleged Maoist links. He was booked under sections of the UAPA and arrested from his residence in Nagpur. Neither was he involved in organising the Elgar Parishad nor did he attend the 31st December events. His arrest is a clear crackdown of the State on Human Rights defenders who are struggling against the State and Corporation nexus. His contributions to promote and uphold Constitutional rights of the marginalised identities have led him to persecution and consequent imprisonment. His incarceration is a standing testament of the State’s repression of Rights’ activists who protect the values of the Constitution which the same State is trampling upon.
Lalsu Nogoti, an elected district council member from Bhamragad in Maharashtra is speaking about the work of Mahesh Raut: “He first came to us as a part of the PMRD [Prime Minister’s Rural Development] fellowship in 2013. He would visit every village with other government officials and meticulously note down grievances and parallelly also research on several village and state-level policies that could come to our rescue. His work in the formative years helped us build our struggles in the coming days.” …
Rona Wilson is the 47-year old Public Relations Secretary of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP). He was arrested under the UAPA on June 6, 2018, in Delhi, at the same time as Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, and Mahesh Raut in Nagpur and Sudhir Dhawale in Mumbai, and accused of channeling Maoist funds for the Elgar Parishad and fomenting violence in Bhima Koregaon.
Gautam Navlakha is a Delhi-based veteran journalist, author, civil liberties, human rights and peace activist best known for his fierce and sustained critique of the Indian state’s militarism against its own citizenry in three broad zones – the northeastern states, Kashmir valley, and the central Indian forested zone in Chhattisgarh. He has been actively involved with the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) – one of India’s leading civil liberties and democratic rights defence organizations- working to protect, extend and help implement fundamental rights as guaranteed in the Indian constitution. Read more
Voices From Prison series | Book Excerpt: Colours Of The Cage: A Prison Memoir, By Arun Ferreira
Voices From Prison | Book Excerpt: Colours Of The Cage: A Prison Memoir, By Arun Ferreira
25/01/2026
Outlook / by Arun Ferreira
In May 2007, human rights activist Arun Ferreira was arrested by the Nagpur Police on charges of being a Naxalite. This book is a stark and unsparing account of the nearly five years that he spent in jail.
Excerpt
I was afraid they’d kill me. Thus far, there was nothing official about my detention. They hadn’t shown me a warrant, nor had I been taken to a police station. I feared that the police could murder me and pretend that I’d been killed in an encounter. I’d read about many situations in which the police claimed to have had no option but to open fire when suspects they were attempting to arrest had resisted. I knew that the National Human Rights Commission had noted thirty-one cases of fake encounter killings in Maharashtra alone in the previous five years. The physical torture, though painful, was relatively tame compared to this prospect. Read more
▪ Colours Of The Cage Author: Arun Ferreira Publishing Date: Sep 2014 Publisher: Aleph Book Company Pages: 176
In May 2007, human rights activist Arun Ferreira was picked up from the railway station and arrested by the Nagpur Police on charges of being a Naxalite. Over the next few months, he was charged with more crimes—of criminal conspiracy, murder, possession of arms and rioting, among others—and incarcerated in one of the most notorious prisons in Maharashtra, the Nagpur Central Jail.
This is an account of the nearly five years that Ferreira was imprisoned.
Voices From Prison | Photo Feature: Art Drawn Inside The Carceral State, By Arun Ferreira
25/01/2026
Outlook / Outlook News Desk, curated by Arun Ferreira
Drawn from inside prison walls, Arun Ferreira’s artworks document incarceration not as an abstract idea but as a lived, grinding reality.
Cell Alone: I, me and myself. If only sleep would silently ship me to some sociable shore. Photo: Art work by Arun Ferreira
Drawn from inside prison walls, Arun Ferreira’s artworks document incarceration not as an abstract idea but as a lived, grinding reality. A Mumbai-based lawyer, activist and trained cartoonist, Ferreira has long been involved in social and political movements, beginning with his student years at St. Xavier’s College. Read more
▪ Video: Arun Ferreira speaks about Life in an Indian Prison en | 12:51 min | 2014 Watch video
▪ The Cell and the Soul – A Prison Memoir
Author: Anand Teltumbde
Publishing Date: Sep 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Pages: 256 Read more/order
▪ The Feared – Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners Author: Neeta Kolhatkar Publishing Date: Dec 2024 Publisher: S&S India Pages: 272 Read more/order
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 Read more/order
▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia Publishing Date: Aug 2023 Publisher: Pluto Press Pages: 247 Read more / order
Bail for Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, five years and five months after arrest in Bhima Koregaon case
Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor. Poster by #bakeryprasad
Bail for Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, five years and five months after arrest
23/01/2026
SabrangIndia / by SabrangIndia
Bhima Koregaon Case: Bombay High Court granted bail to Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor With Friday (January 23) order, only lawyer Surendra Gadling would continue to remain in jail in this matter that has incarcerated several with the FIR being filed in early 2018
The Bombay High Court on Friday, January 23, granted bail to Bhima Koregaon accused and Kabir Kala Manch artistes Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case. It was a bench of Justices AS Gadkari and SC Chandak that allowed the appeals filed by Gorkhe and Gaichor against the February 2022 order of the special NIA court in Mumbai, which had rejected their bail pleas in the matter. Read more
Bombay High Court Grants Bail To Ramesh Gaichor & Sagar Gorkhe After 5 Yrs In Jail
23/01/2026
Live Law / by Narsi Benwal
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe, both arrested since 2020 for their roles in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case.
A division bench of Justice Ajay Gadkari and Justice Shyam Chandak granted bail on the ground of long incarceration.
A detailed order granting them bail is yet to be made available. Read more
Seven Years On, Bail Finally For Gorkhe & Gaichor In Bhima Koregaon Case
23/01/2026
Outlook / by Priyanka Tupe
The Bombay high court on Friday granted bail to Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor in the Bhima Koregaon case. Total 16 accused were arrested in the case, of which only lawyer Surendra Gadling remains in jail now, denied bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim bail to Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in the Bhima Koregaon case, noting the prolonged incarceration of the two accused even as trial in the matter has not commenced after seven years. The activists have been accused of having links with banned Maoist organisations. Read more
Bombay HC Grants Bail To Activists Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor
23/01/2026
Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajani
The Bombay High Court granted bail to activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case, citing parity with other accused already released. Arrested in 2020, they must furnish bail bonds and report monthly to the NIA. The case involves alleged provocative speeches at a 2017 event that sparked violence in Maharashtra. Trial delays cited.
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to two accused in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case — activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor — on grounds of parity. Read more
Why Kabir Kala Manch artists Gorkhe and Gaichor, granted bail by HC, were arrested by NIA for ‘Maoist links’
23/01/2026
The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde
An offence was lodged against some Elgaar Parishad organisers at Vishrambag police station in Pune in January 2018.
More than five years after being arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case for alleged Maoist links, Ramesh Gaichor (41) and Sagar Gorkhe (37), both members of the Pune based cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), were given bail by the Bombay High Court (HC) on Friday.
The KKM is among the outfits that organised the Elgaar Parishad conclave at the Shaniwar Wada in Pune city on December 31, 2017, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Koregaon Bhima. The following day, widespread violence was reported in Koregaon Bhima area in Pune district, in which one person died while several others were left injured. Read more
Incarceration As Politics: A Timeline Of Political Prisoners In Independent India
23/01/2026
Outlook / by Saher Hiba Khan
From the Anti-Hindi Agitations to UAPA arrests, India’s history shows how dissent is criminalised across decades and governments
Across countries and political systems, incarceration has always been used as a tool to control the masses. It has been justified through shifting legal terms such as national security, public order, and counter-terrorism.
While the laws change, the logic remains the same. It has time and again proved that dissent against any government will be treated as a threat. Read more
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. Read more
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
NIA court denies Mahesh Raut permission to travel to Kerala for medical treatment
23/01/2026
Hindustan Times / by Vikrant Jha
The court said adequate treatment options are available in Mumbai and permitting him to travel to another state would dilute territorial restrictions imposed by the Bombay High Court
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has rejected an application filed by Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut seeking permission to travel to Kerala for medical treatment. The court said adequate treatment options are available in Mumbai and permitting him to travel to another state would dilute territorial restrictions imposed by the Bombay High Court. Read more
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. Read more
The controversial yatra, that mobilises the youth, organised by the Shri Shivpratishthan is called the organisation’s Hindusthan’s Dharatirth Yatra (between January 23-26); organised as a religio-politcal-cultural tour, this year’s expedition to various historical forts will proceed from Fort Lohagad to Bhimgad (Bhivgad), via the Rajmachigad route
… Interestingly, Bhide and another right-wing hardliner by the name of Milind Ekbote were named in an FIR in January 2018 for their alleged role in the violence in Bhima Koregaon, near Pune. The violence erupted during an annual event that Dalits organise to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. Thanks to the active involvement of then then dominant political leadership under Devednra Fadnavis, in 2022, the criminal case against hm was dropped for “lack of evidence.” Read more
Explained: The 2016 Surjagarh arson case, the Elgaar link, and why the Supreme Court is intervening now
22/01/2026
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
Surendra Gadling has been judicially detained for seven years without a trial. He is accused in the 2016 Surjagarh arson case and the 2018 Elgaar Parishad case.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 21) said that it would order to expedite proceedings against lawyer-activist Surendra Gadling in the 2016 Surjagarh arson case. Gadling sought bail in the case, and said that he has been behind bars for seven years without a trial since his arrest in 2019.
Gadling, lodged in a Mumbai jail, is also in judicial custody in the Elgaar Parishad case since 2018; the trial in the case is yet to begin. Read more
‘No Judge Or Prosecutor In NIA Court, 7 Yrs Custody Without Trial’: Surendra Gadling To Supreme Court In Bail Plea
21/01/2026
Live Law / by Debby Jain
The Court adjourned the matter saying it will ascertain from the HC Chief Justice whether a judge is there in the NIA court.
The Supreme Court today adjourned lawyer-activist Surendra Gadling’s bail plea in the 2016 Gadchiroli arson case by a month, while granting time for document inspection. A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi heard the matter and said that it would ascertain from the Bombay High Court Chief Justice whether any judge is posted in the concerned NIA court. Read more
7 years without trial: Supreme Court defers Surendra Gadling’s bail plea in Surajgarh arson case again
21/01/2026
Bar & Bench / by Ritwik Choudhury
“There is no case against me on merits. I am in jail for 7 years! What is this country coming to?” Gadling’s counsel told the Court today.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred by one more month the bail application filed by lawyer-activist Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surajgarh arson case. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
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.
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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. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
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
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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. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
▪ THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
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.
▪ 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 Read more / order
Koregaon Bhima panel tells chief secretary to submit info on letter sought by Ambedkar
Bhima Koregaon 2018. Graphic by Arun Ferreira & Vernon Gonsalves.
The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde
Commission Summons Maharashtra Chief Secretary Over Sharad Pawar’s Alleged Secret Note to Uddhav Thackeray.
The Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry has directed the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra to submit information regarding a letter sought by VBA president and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar.
In his application filed before the Commission in February last year, Ambedkar had claimed that Nationalist Congress Party NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar had on January 24, 2020 given a letter to then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, claiming the violence (in Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018) was a conspiracy hatched by the previous government under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis. Read more
The Supreme Court’s refusal to grant bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, while accepting the bail pleas of five other accused in the same case, is not merely a judicial order affecting two individuals. It marks a deeply troubling moment for constitutional democracy in India.
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Silence transforms injustice, more so when it has a communal colour, into routine governance. When there is hesitation to challenge unjust court orders, to oppose political persecution carried out through lawless laws like UAPA, whether in the Delhi violence cases, the Bhima Koregaon prosecutions or the NewsClick case, the ruling regime faces no real political cost for its repression, all under the pretext of “national security.” In such a political climate, even the custodial death of a Stan Swamy — caused by the sheer cruelty of denying bail and even basic facilities despite his serious health conditions — becomes normalised. Read more
How Not To Defend Umar Khalid
16/01/2026
The Wire / by Ajay Gudvarthy
The problem with Umar for the current regime is his refusal to be constrained within a Muslim body and identity. Very much similar to a Dalit like Anand Teltumbde who is not Dalit enough because he speaks of right to education and corporate Hindutva.
Umar Khalid is arrested not because he is a Muslim. He is under detention because he does not wear his Muslim identity on his sleeves. He remains incarcerated not because he protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but because he was agitated about what is happening to the tribals in central India and was resisting the damage being done to the economy that was emaciating the working poor. Read more
Shadows of Judicial Indiscipline: On the Supreme Court’s bail denial to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam
07/01/2026
The Leaflet / by Indira Jaising
In both the Bhima Koregaon and Delhi riots cases, a wrongful invoking of UAPA and obdurate refusal to follow precedent on delay in trial, raise legitimate questions on the independence of the judiciary.
At the heart of the controversy relating to the denial of bail to Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid is a simple question: what is the crime that they have committed? What if they have committed no crime at all under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967? Would bail still have been denied to them? Read more
From Protest to Persecution: The Supreme Court’s defining Moment in Delhi Riot Case
07/01/2026
PUDR / by PUDR
On 5 January 2026, the Supreme Court delivered its first substantive order in the so-called ‘Delhi riots conspiracy case’ of FIR 59/2020 under UAPA, to grant bail to five (Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa ur Rehman, Meeran Haider, Md Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad) and reject the bail of two (Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam).
… the Supreme Court walks back on its own precedent in Vernon Gonsalves, which held that in determining the existence of a prima facie case to deny bail under UAPA, courts are empowered to look into the probative value or patent inadmissibility of prosecutorial materials. In the order of 5 January 2026, the Supreme Court states: “the inquiry is one of statutory plausibility, not evidentiary sufficiency”. Read full statement
When a Government Targets Its Citizens
07/01/2026
Countercurrents.org / by Hiren Gohain
Does anyone remember the Bhima Koregaon incident now? Certain well-known people active and well-regarded for their work in academic areas as well as in social action to bring justice to victims of state repression and social discrimination as well as human rights violations,had been detained following midnight arrests on hair-raising charges of conspiring to assassinate the Prime Minister and destroy the state. It had shaken the fragile world of the media, though not the workaday world. Read more
Justice Delayed, Selectively Denied
05/01/2026
Youth Ki Awaaz / by Geetika Kaur
The denial of bail to Umar Khalid this week is not an isolated legal decision. It sits within a larger and deeply disturbing pattern in India’s criminal justice system, one where activists, students, lawyers, and environmentalists languish in jail for years without conviction, while those convicted of rape, murder, or mass violence repeatedly find the doors of prison opening for them.
… Stan Swamy died in custody after repeated denial of bail despite his age and illness. Sudha Bharadwaj spent years in jail before being granted bail, not because she was acquitted, but because prolonged incarceration without trial became legally indefensible. Gautam Navlakha remained under incarceration and house arrest for years on allegations that rested largely on contested digital evidence. Read more
The spectacle of justice in the Delhi riots case is cover for polarisation and violence
06/01/2026
Scroll.in / by Akash Bhattacharya
In the six years since, a series of incidents in the national capital have intensified this schism while Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam remain incarcerated.
The capital of India, Delhi is no stranger to political violence. But the Delhi riots of 2020 set a new benchmark. The violence not only ended lives and livelihoods, it also transformed the city’s social and political landscape for the worse. Read more
‘Whither Human Rights in India’ is a comprehensive exploration of how the devastation of human rights over the parts decade symbolise a crucial departure or rupture, manifesting a new fascist paradigm
‘Whither Human Rights in India,’ edited by Anand Teltumbde, is a critical and outstanding collection of essays navigating India’s human rights landscape, exploring diverse arenas Ike majoritarianism, state violence, systemic inequality (Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims), judicial issues, hate speech, and threats to vulnerable groups.
Resurrecting the outlook of Father Stan Swamy and Prof. G. N. Saibaba, Whither Human Rights in India is both a chronicle of resistance and a call to reshape the future of democracy and human dignity. Read more
▪ Whither Human Rights in India
Critical Essays on Democracy, State Power, Civil Liberties & the Lived Realities of Dalits, Adivasis, Minorities & More
Whither Human Rights in India, edited by Anand Teltumbde, one of India’s prominent human rights activists, is a searing and indispensable anthology that brings together some of the most important thinkers, activists and human rights defenders of our time. The essays trace the historical and ideological roots of India’s human rights discourse—from colonial legacies and constitutional guarantees to the challenges posed by majoritarian politics, state violence and systemic inequality.
