“Indian jails have turned into a prison for people who are merely accused. It is unfortunate that political prisoners, get bail from the High court, but it is stayed by the Supreme Court and their bail arguments continue for months, even years.”
Human rights activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha offers a stark account of life inside India’s prisons, describing a system defined by deliberate neglect, overcrowding, and institutional apathy. Arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, Navlakha spent years in judicial custody as an undertrial, reflecting the plight of thousands of undertrials who remain in detention for years without bail. Watch video
The special court designated under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act in June this year had rejected Navlakha’s plea, after which he approached the HC in July this year challenging the same.
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A bench of Justices Gadkari and Ranjitsinha R Bhonsale on Friday issued notice to NIA seeking its reply by next hearing on November 7. Read more
Bail ! Gautam with his partner Sabha Husain. May 2024.
India Today / by Vidya
Bombay High Court has directed the NIA to respond to Gautam Navlakha’s plea seeking permission to reside in Delhi and attend court via video conferencing.
The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to respond to a petition filed by activist and Elgar Parishad case accused Gautam Navlakha seeking permission to reside in Delhi and attend court proceedings through video conferencing. Read more
Video | Sudhir Dhawale Spoke With Outlook About Mental Health Crisis in Indian Prisons
01/10/2025
Outlook / by Priyanka Tupe
hindi /en | 46:58 | 2025
Indian Human Rights activist Sudhir Dhawale, imprisoned under UAPA in Bhima Koregaon case, exposes India’s prison mental health crisis: overcrowding, absent psychiatric care, caste-based labor, and systematic erosion of dignity. Watch video
Taloja Jail: Lives Fading in Silence Behind Iron Walls
28/09/2025
Outlook / by Sudhir Dhawale
The author, who spent 10 years in jail, details the painful experiences of the inmates and the cold attitude of the authorities
Narya was a prisoner in Taloja Central Jail, Navi Mumbai. He was young and had already spent a few years in jail. With overgrown hair, a thick moustache and a full-grown beard, he was an eccentric who would roam the prison yard with complete disregard. Since he routinely got into quarrels with the jailer and physical fights with other inmates, people were wary of him. Read more
An Imprisoned Mind | Mental Health Challenges Among India’s Political Prisoners
28/09/2025
Outlook / by Apeksha Priyadarshini
In Indian prisons, where the incarcerated are robbed of basic human dignity, conversations about mental health are a formidable challenge.
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The impact of the prison architecture on the mental health of prisoners is also brought up by Gautam Navlakha, a septuagenarian human rights defender and journalist, who was arrested in the now infamous ‘Bhima Koregaon’ (BK 16) case—where 16 activists, lawyers and teachers were charged with incitement to riots at Koregaon Bhima in January 2018, following the “Elgar Parishad’ conclave that they participated in on December 31, 2017 at Pune.
…. Jenny Rowena, partner of another BK 16 undertrial prisoner Prof Hany Babu, shares Navlakha’s views on what incarceration robs from an individual. Babu, who is also lodged in Taloja Central jail, completed five years of incarceration as an undertrial this July. Read more
Noted social activist Anand Teltumbde entered the Taloja Central Prison as accused number 10 in the Bhima Koregaon case and spent 31 months as an undertrial until he was released on bail. As an intellectual who was stripped of his freedom, he lays bares the chilling realities of India’s prisons in his gut-wrenching prison memoir. Part memoir, part diary, Cell and the Soul is a descent into the heart of India’s carceral state, ripping open the belly of the beast-the prison industrial complex-and exposing the brutal, pulsating injustice within. Read more / order
Anti-terror agency seeks to seize Anand Teltumbde’s passport
30/09/2025
India Today / by Vidya
A total of 16 people were arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, which pertained to an event organised at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima on December 31, 2017.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed an application before a special court in Mumbai, seeking directions to impound the passports of Anand Teltumbde, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, Gautam Navlakha, and Hany Babu — the five accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. Read more
NIA files plea to impound passports of 5 accused in Elgaar case
30/09/2025
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
Special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty on Monday moved the plea citing provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a plea before the special court seeking directions to impound passports of five accused arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case. The court has directed the accused to file their replies.
… The court will likely hear the plea on October 9. The trial in the case is yet to begin. Read more
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
Frontline / by Majid Maqbool
From his early days with EPW to years in prison, the journalist shows how books sustain dissent, nourish freedom, and open a world beyond captivity.
Writer, journalist, and human rights activist Gautam Navlakha has had a decades-long career spanning journalism to activism. All along, through his writings and rights activism, he has always been committed to democratic rights and social justice for all. He has always stood by, spoken out and written in defence of the marginalised communities whose voices he has sought to amplify throughout his career. Read more
Bail ! Gautam with his partner Sabha Husain. May 2024.
Mumbai court denies Elgar Parishad case accused’s plea to visit Delhi
07/08/2025
India Today / by Vidya
Advocate Wahab Khan, argued that Gautam Navlakha had complied with all previous court conditions when earlier permitted to travel and that his request was genuine, time-bound.
A Special NIA Court in Mumbai has dismissed activist Gautam Navlakha’s application seeking permission to travel to Delhi for 45 days, sharply criticising the repeated nature of such requests and calling it a “deliberate attempt to circumvent judicial restrictions”. Read more
NIA court rejects Gautam Navlakha’s plea to stay in Delhi, slams repeated applications
06/08/2025
Times of India / by Rebecca Samervel
In a scathing order rejecting the plea of 73-year-old activist, lawyer and 2018 Elgar Parishad accused Gautam Navlakha to travel and stay in Delhi for 45 days for personal and professional reasons, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge criticised him for what it termed as “ingeniously” moving “application after application” to reside in the national capital, despite a previous plea for permanent residency being denied. Read more
Can’t give nod ‘every now and then’: Court rejects Navlakha’s plea to travel to Delhi
05/08/2025
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
In the latest plea, he submitted that he wants to travel as his sister cannot come to Mumbai due to her health condition.
A special court rejected a plea filed by activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, to stay in Delhi for 45 days to visit his 86-year-old sister and for other purposes.
In his plea, Navlakha sought permission to stay in Delhi from July 15 to August 30, citing that he had been similarly permitted in November 2024 and had abided with all conditions. Read more
Special NIA Court Dismisses Gautam Navlakha’s Plea To Reside In Delhi
20/06/2025
Live Law / by Narsi Benwal
A special NIA court in Mumbai on Thursday (June 19) rejected an application filed by human rights’ activist Gautam Navlakha, who sought permission of the court to leave Mumbai and reside in Delhi permanently till the culmination of the trial in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case. Special Judge Chakor Baviskar said traveling beyond the jurisdiction of the Court is one thing and residing permanently beyond the jurisdiction of the Court, is all together different thing. Read more [Read order]
Bhima Koregaon case: Court rejects activist Gautam Navlakha’s plea to live in Delhi
20/06/2025
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The 70-year-old activist was granted bail in May 2024, but was directed to reside in Mumbai.
A Mumbai court on Thursday rejected human rights activist Gautam Navlakha’s petition seeking permission to live in Delhi during the pendency of his trial in the Bhima Koregaon case, reported Live Law. Read more
Mumbai court rejects plea by Gautam Navlakha to relocate to Delhi
20/06/2025
Bar & Bench / by Sahyaja MS
Navlakha had filed an application requesting relief from the condition that restricts him from leaving the jurisdiction of the Bombay High Court.
A special NIA court in Mumbai on Thursday rejected a plea by activist and accused in Bhima Koregaon violence, Gautam Navlakha, seeking permission to permanently relocate to Delhi. [Gautam Navlakha v National Investigation Agency] Read more [Read order]
Court rejects journalist Gautam Navlakha’s plea, says he can’t permanently stay in Delhi
20/06/2025
The Times of India / by Rebecca Samervel
Observing that “permanently residing outside the court’s jurisdiction is a completely separate matter from merely travelling beyond it”, a special NIA court on Thursday rejected a plea by journalist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, seeking permission to permanently reside in Delhi.
Citing financial strain, unemployment, and an ailing 86-year-old sister, Navlakha moved the plea in April. “Since HC has not granted such liberty either to the accused or to this court as well, this unnecessary application deserves to be rejected,” the judge said. Read more
Court rejects Navlakha’s plea for nod to reside in Delhi during pendency of case
19/06/2024
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
Elgaar Parishad accused had cited expenses in Mumbai
A special court on Thursday rejected a plea filed by journalist-activist Gautam Navlakha, booked in the Elgaar Parishad case, seeking permission to reside in New Delhi during the pendency of the case.
Navlakha was directed not to leave the jurisdiction of the Mumbai court without permission, as part of his bail conditions set by the Bombay High Court. Read more
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.
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
BK-16 Prison Diaries: The ‘ordinary’ in extraordinary times: A captive’s life in Covid-19
14/05/2025
The Polis Project / by Gautam Navlakha
My journey as a captive began in extraordinary circumstances. The Covid-19 pandemic had afflicted the world and, in India, a countrywide lockdown was imposed on March 24, 2020. Travel by rail, road or air was suspended. A climate of fear and uncertainty prevailed. However, the Supreme Court had asked Anand Teltumbde and me to surrender before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by April 14—incidentally, Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. Anand presented himself before the NIA in Mumbai, while I, a resident of Delhi, surrendered myself at the NIA headquarters in New Delhi. Read more
Bail ! Gautam with his partner Sabha Husain. May 2024.
Navlakha files plea to shift to Delhi, says living in Mumbai is ‘burdensome’
29/04/2025
Hindustan Times / by Revu Suresh
Gautam Navlakha seeks NIA court’s permission to live permanently in Delhi, citing financial struggles in Mumbai post-bail in Bhima Koregaon case.
Gautam Navlakha, a civil rights activist arrested in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case, has moved the special NIA court, seeking permission to permanently reside in Delhi. In his plea, Navlakha said it has become uneconomical and burdensome for him to live in Mumbai as he is a permanent resident of Delhi. Read more
Navlakha files application in court seeking permission to stay in Delhi
29/04/2025
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
In an application filed before the special court in Mumbai, 72-year-old Navlakha has sought relaxation in one of his bail conditions
Citing expenses and increasing finances in Mumbai, activist-journalist Gautam Navlakha, who was granted bail in the Elgar Parishad case in May 2024, has sought permission to reside in Delhi. In an application filed before the special court in Mumbai, 72-year-old Navlakha has sought relaxation in one of his bail conditions, which directed him to not leave the jurisdiction of the Mumbai court without the court’s permission. Read more
