Gadchiroli – free them all

Supreme Court defers Surendra Gadling’s bail once again; 17 adjournments in two years

03/09/2025 Asha

Supreme Court defers Surendra Gadling’s bail once again; 17 adjournments in two years

04/09/2025

Bar & Bench / by Ritwik Choudhury

The human rights lawyer has been in custody for over six years without charges being framed in connection with the 2016 Surajgarh arson case.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the bail plea of human rights lawyer and Surajgarh arson accused Surendra Gadling for the 17th time since it was first filed in August 2023 [Surendra Pundalik Gadling vs State of Maharashtra].
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SC to hear bail plea of Bhima Koregaon accused Surendra Gadling on Sep 17

03/09/2025

Hindustan Times / by Abraham Thomas

The decision comes a week after another bench of the top court recused from hearing the matter amid concerns raised by Gadling’s lawyers over the long pendency of the matter since August 2023
The Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed September 17 as the date for hearing the bail plea of Bhima Koregaon violence accused and lawyer Surendra Gadling, a week after another bench of the top court recused from hearing the matter amid concerns raised by his lawyers over the long pendency of the matter since August 2023.
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Supreme Court to hear next week Surendra Gadling’s bail plea

29/08/2025

Law Beat / by Aishwarya Iyer

Gadling had reportedly asked Maoists to oppose the operation of Surjagarh mines and instigated several locals to join the movement.
The Supreme Court today has agreed to list next week the bail plea filed by Surendra Gadling, accused in the Bhima Koregoan Elghar Parishad Violence case of 2018.
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Supreme Court to hear Surendra Galding’s bail plea on September 3

29/08/2025

The New Indian Express / by pti

On August 8, senior advocate Anand Grover mentioned the matter before CJI Gavai for an early hearing, citing his client Gadling’s over six-year-long incarceration.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to list on September 3 the hearing on the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Supreme Court Judge Justice MM Sundresh Recuses Himself From Hearing Bail Plea Of Advocate Surendra Gadling (Free Press Journal / Aug 2025)
▪ In Surendra Gadling’s case, adjournment becomes the verdict (Frontline / Aug 2025)
▪ Villagers in Gadchiroli campaign to shut down Surjagarh iron ore mine (Land Conflict Watch / Feb 2017)

SC Justice MM Sundresh recuses from Surendra Gadling’s Bail Plea In 2016 Gadchiroli Arson Case

26/08/2025 Asha

Supreme Court Judge Justice MM Sundresh Recuses Himself From Hearing Bail Plea Of Advocate Surendra Gadling In Elgar Parishad Case

27/08/2025

Free Press Journal / by FPJ News Service

The plea was scheduled to be heard by a bench comprising Justice Sundresh and Justice N Kotiswar Singh. Earlier, on August 8, senior advocate Anand Grover had mentioned the case before Chief Justice BR Gavai, seeking an early hearing on grounds that Gadling has been in jail for over six-and-a-half years.
Supreme Court judge Justice MM Sundresh on Tuesday recused himself from hearing the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling, an accused in the Elgar Parishad–Maoist links case.
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Justice MM Sundresh Recuses From Hearing Surendra Gadling’s Bail Plea In 2016 Gadchiroli Arson Case

26/08/2025

Live Law / by Amisha Shrivastava

The matter will be heard by another bench.
Justice MM Sundresh of the Supreme Court recused himself from hearing the bail plea of Dalit rights activist and advocate Surendra Gadling in the 2016 Gadchiroli arson case. The matter was listed today before a bench of Justice Sundresh and Justice N Kotiswar Singh.
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Supreme Court Justice MM Sundresh recuses from Surendra Gadling bail case

26/08/2025

Bar & Bench / by Ummar Jamal

According to the details available on the Supreme Court website, the matter is not to be listed before Justice Sundresh.
Supreme Court Justice MM Sundresh on Tuesday recused from hearing the bail plea filed by lawyer and activist Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surajgarh arson case [Surendra Pundalik Gadling vs State of Maharashtra].
According to the details available on the Supreme Court website, the matter is not to be listed before Justice Sundresh.
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Justice M.M. Sundresh recuses from hearing activist Surendra Gadling’s bail plea after repeated adjournments

26/08/2025

The Hindu / by Aaratrika Bhaumik

Activist Surendra Gadling’s counsel had earlier apprised Chief Justice B.R. Gavai that his bail plea had been adjourned 11 times in the Supreme Court
Supreme Court judge Justice M.M. Sundresh on Tuesday (August 26, 2025) recused himself from hearing a bail petition filed by advocate and activist Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
Read more

Also read:
▪ In Surendra Gadling’s case, adjournment becomes the verdict (Frontline / Aug 2025)
▪ SC to consider listing bail plea of Surendra Gadling (Hindustan Times / Aug 2025)
▪ Will anti-Naxal drive pave way for mining giants? (New Indian Express / May 2025)
▪ How Long is Too Long? – On the Maximum Period that an Undertrial Prisoner can be Detained (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)
▪ When Push Comes to Shove: Tracking Judicial Recusals and Transfers (The Wire / Apr 2023)
▪ DISINHERITING ADIVASIS – THE GADCHIROLI GAME PLAN (KAFILA / June 2018)

Will anti-Naxal drive pave way for mining giants?

27/05/2025 Asha

The New Indian Express / by Gurbir Singh

Is the government campaign aimed at ‘finishing off’ the extremists, or are the larger goals to open up central India’s mineral and natural resources for exploitation? Or both?
… Over the years, Maoists, NGOs and even priests like Stan Swamy have mobilized these tribal communities to resist corporate expansion. The state forces, on the other hand, have intervened to crush the protests.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Three years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ Jharkhand police to probe into Maoist links with Stan Swamy’s ‘Bagaicha’, 63 other frontal organisations (The New Indian Express / Sep 2023)
▪ Statement against the drone bomb attacks in Chhattisgarh, India (India Matters / April 2023)
▪ DISINHERITING ADIVASIS – THE GADCHIROLI GAME PLAN (KAFILA / June 2018)
▪ The legal face of corporate land grab in Chhattisgarh (India Environmental Portal | by Sudha Bharadwaj | Feb 2018)
▪ Mining In Gadchiroli – Building A Castle Of Injustices (Countercurrents | by Neema Pathak Broome and Mahesh Raut | June 2017)

Conjuring the BK16 Myth: How the Elgar Parishad case rests on fiction and deception

21/03/2025 Asha

Dispatches: A Conversation on unravelling the Elgar Parishad / Bhima Koregaon case with Prashant Rahi, Mouli Sharma and Arshu John

By The Polis Project / @project_polis

With Prashant Rahi, Mouli Sharma and Arshu John
By The Polis Project / @project_polis
en | 49min | 2025
Listen to the recording on X Spaces Live

Conjuring the BK16 Myth: How the Elgar Parishad case rests on fiction and deception

21/03/2025

The Polis Project / by Prashant Rahi and Mouli Sharma

This is the second report in a three-part investigative series on the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case. Read part one here.
Three months after a Hindutva mob attacked a peaceful gathering of Dalit-Bahujan men, women, and children, a cabal from the Pune Urban Police mounted a bizarre prosecution, holding 16 eminent human rights defenders (HRDs) responsible for the Elgar Parishad, an anti-caste event held in the city, a day before. The infamous case has, however, come to draw its name less from the event, and more from the calamitous gathering that assembled on both sides of the river Bhima, on 1st January 2018, to pay homage to an obelisk-shaped martyrs’ column, at Perne Phata, opposite the village of Koregaon. In the months that followed, the HRDs were imprisoned in waves of arrests across the country, with no evidence so far linking them to the mob violence.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Why caste Hindutva, not an Elgar conspiracy, is at the root of the Bhima Koregaon violence (The Polis Project / Feb 2025)
▪ THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024-March 2025)
▪ My 7 years in Anda cell were the most inhuman form of solitary confinement: Prashant Rahi (rediff.com / Mar 2024)
▪ The Bhima Koregaon Arrests and the Resistance in India (Monthly Review / Apr 2022)

2016 Surjagarh Mine Arson Case: SC To Hear Bail Plea Of Surendra Gadling Next Week

30/01/2025 Asha

Outlook / by pti

On December 25, 2016, Maoist rebels allegedly set ablaze 76 vehicles being used for transporting iron ore from Surajgarh mines in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli.
The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned to next week the hearing on the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal deferred the matter as additional solicitor general Raja Thakare, representing Maharashtra government, was unavailable.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Gadchiroli arson case: Supreme Court issues notice in bail plea of Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet / Oct 2023)
▪ Now, ED Wants to Probe Elgar Parishad Case, Accuses Surendra Gadling of ‘Money Laundering’ (The Wire / July 2022)
▪ Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire / July 2021)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)
▪ Gadling in jail. Reason? As lawyer-activist he has been ‘unpleasant’ to India’s topcops (Counterview / Dec 2020)
▪ Now Gadchiroli Police takes custody of Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, prompting senior lawyers to say this is ‘ever-greening of charges’ (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)

By Adv Surendra Gadling Defence Committee:
With due credit to anonymous artist and to the jailed, to be jailed lawyers

“Not a usual matter”: SC after State seeks adjournment in Surendra Gadling bail plea

04/12/2024 Asha

“Not a usual matter”: Supreme Court after State seeks adjournment in Surendra Gadling bail plea

04/12/2024

Bar & Bench / by Anadi Tewari

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court had in January rejected the bail plea of lawyer and activist Surendra Gadling in the 2016 Surajgarh arson case
The Supreme Court on Wednesday took exception to the Maharashtra government seeking adjournment in the bail plea filed by lawyer and activist Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surajgarh arson case [Surendra Pundalik Gadling vs State of Maharashtra].
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SC gives Maha govt two weeks time to respond to lawyer Surendra Gadling’s bail plea

04/12/2024

Dajiworld.com / by IANS

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the Maharashtra government two weeks’ time to file a counter affidavit to the bail plea filed by lawyer Surendra Gadling, who is behind bars in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
A bench, headed by Justice M.M. Sundresh, was hearing a special leave petition filed by Gadling against the dismissal of his appeal filed under Section 21(4) of the NIA (National Investigation Agency) Act seeking bail.
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SC defers bail plea of advocate Gadling in 2016 Surjagarh mine arson case

04/12/2024

Business Standard / by ANI

The state sought adjournment on the ground that some documents are yet to be filed
The Supreme Court granted two weeks time to the Maharashtra government on Wednesday to file additional documents on the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
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Also read:
▪ Judicial Deliberations: Surendra Gadling’s Awaited Bail in Surjagarh Arson Case (Devdisourse / Nov 2024)
▪ How Long Is Too Long for an Undertrial Prisoner To Be Detained? (The Wire | by Hany Babu & Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)
▪ Gadchiroli arson case: Supreme Court issues notice in bail plea of Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet / Oct 2023)
▪ Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire / July 2021)
▪ Now Gadchiroli Police takes custody of Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, prompting senior lawyers to say this is ‘ever-greening of charges’ (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)

Judicial Deliberations: Surendra Gadling’s Awaited Bail in Surjagarh Arson Case

25/11/2024 Asha

SC defers bail plea of Surendra Gadling in 2016 Surjagarh mine arson case

25/11/2024

The Print / by pti

The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned to December 4 the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Aravind Kumar deferred the matter after the counsel appearing for the Maharashtra government sought time to file a reply in the matter.
The top court on October 10, 2023, issued notice to the state government and sought its response on the petition within four weeks.
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Judicial Deliberations: Surendra Gadling’s Awaited Bail in Surjagarh Arson Case

25/11/2024

Devdiscourse / by Devdiscourse News Desk

The Supreme Court has postponed the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling in the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case to December 4. Gadling is accused of aiding Maoists in the arson and is also linked to the Elgar Parishad case. His bail had been previously denied.
… The adjournment came after a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Aravind Kumar agreed to a request from the Maharashtra government’s counsel, who sought more time to prepare a response.
Read more

Also read:
▪ How Long Is Too Long for an Undertrial Prisoner To Be Detained? (The Wire | by Hany Babu & Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)
▪ Was the trial judge who convicted G.N. Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice (The Leaflet / March 2024)
▪ Gadchiroli arson case: Supreme Court issues notice in bail plea of Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet / Oct 2023)
▪ Now Gadchiroli Police takes custody of Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, prompting senior lawyers to say this is ‘ever-greening of charges’ (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)

Mahayuti govt compelled to appropriate INDIA alliance Constitution driven call?

14/10/2024 Asha

Booklet: “Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein” (Access PDF)

Sabrangindia / by Tanya Arora

As the Maharashtra Assembly elections approach, with the announcement due any day now, the Shinde government has rolled s out last-minute welfare measures! And its “alliance partner,” the BJP has today issued appropriate-ory advertisements, with deputy chief minister Devendra Phadnavis prostrating before a statue of Dr BR Ambedkar; this while the state regime continues to undermine constitutional values while exploiting Dr. Ambedkar’s legacy to secure votes from marginalised communities
… One also cannot forget the infamous Bhima Koregaon case, which is another chilling example of how dissent, especially from Dalit and Adivasi rights activists, has been criminalised in Maharashtra. The case stems from the January 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence, where clashes broke out after Dalits gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, a symbolic event marking Dalit pride and resistance.
Read more

Also read:
▪ A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism (The Wire / Jul 2024)
▪ What is Maharashtra’s new Bill to curb ‘Naxalism in urban areas’? (The Indian Express / Jul 2024)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)

Supreme Court to hear Surendra Gadling’s bail plea in the 2016 Gadchiroli Arson Case

21/08/2024 Asha

by Live Law / @LiveLawIndia (Aug 21):
#SupremeCourt to soon hear Dalit rights’ activist and advocate Surendra Gadling’s bail plea in the 2016 Gadchiroli Arson Case. The Nagpur-based lawyer is also among the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Bench: Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar Gadling filed a special leave petition challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to reject his bail application in the Gadchiroli arson case, which involved around 80 vehicles transporting iron ore from Surjagarh mines in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district from allegedly being set on fire by Maoists in December 2016.

Also read:
▪ Was the trial judge who convicted G.N. Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice (The Leaflet / March 2024)
▪ Gadchiroli arson case: Supreme Court issues notice in bail plea of Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet / Oct 2023)
▪ Now Gadchiroli Police takes custody of Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, prompting senior lawyers to say this is ‘ever-greening of charges’ (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)

NIA court refuses temporary bail to Mahesh Raut

08/06/2024 Asha

Hindustan Times / by Revu Suresh

The special sessions judge AK Lahoti rejected the plea, observing that the allegations against Raut were serious in nature
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday rejected the plea for temporary bail of tribal rights activist and researcher Mahesh Raut — arrested in 2018 for his alleged role in the Elgar Parishad case. The activist had sought temporary bail for two weeks to go to Gadchiroli after the death of his grandmother.
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Video by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (May 23, 2024)

Why has Adivasi land rights scholar-activist Mahesh Raut not been released yet from prison even though he was given bail in 2023?
en | 1:35 | 2024
Watch video

Also read:
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)
▪ Gadchiroli’s 300 Gram Sabhas Pass Resolution in Support of Activist Mahesh Raut (The Wire / Oct 2018)