Hany Babu – free them all

Voices from Prison Series: Of Lives Stolen for Dissent │ Various accounts of political activists

20/01/2026 Asha

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.
…
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
…
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

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.

INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

▪ 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

‘No one dies in prison, They die on the way to hospital’

01/01/2026 Asha

Times of India / by Akshay Bhagwat

Hany Babu entered Navi Mumbai’s Taloja prison in July 2020. Anand Teltumbde followed the same year. Babu spent five years inside before being released on bail; Teltumbde was released on bail; Teltumbde was released in 2022 after spending about two-and-a-half years in prison. Neither has faced trial.
According to the India Justice Report 2025, undertrials now account for around 75% of India’s prison population.
Read more

Also read:
▪ My Imprisonment Part of Scheme to Suppress Dissent, Intimidate Academics: DU Prof Hany Babu (Hindustan Gazette / Dec 2025)
▪ I realised that through Allah I can have the strength to face what was before me: Hany Babu (Frontline / Dec 2025)
▪ Taloja Jail: Lives Fading in Silence Behind Iron Walls (Outlook | by Sudhir Dhawale | Sep 2025)
▪ I saw firsthand how callous prison officials and their negligence led to Stan Swamy’s death (Scroll.in | by Arun Ferreira | Jul 2025)
▪ Inside Taloja Prison: A Study | By Mahesh Raut (Outlook / May 2025)
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: The ‘ordinary’ in extraordinary times: A captive’s life in Covid-19 (The Polis Project | by Gautam Navlakha | May 2025)
▪ In Taloja Central Jail, interviews with over 300 undertrial prisoners show denial of rights (The Leaflet | by Hany Babu & Surendra Gadling | Mar 2025)
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: Sagar Gorkhe on his battle to survive Taloja jail’s brutality (The Polis Project | by Sagar Gorkhe | Feb 2025)
▪ Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system (The Polis Project | by Ramesh Gaichor | Sep 2024)
▪ Some personal reflections on prison medical care (The Leaflet | by Vernon Gonsalves | Apr 2024)

‘My Imprisonment Part of Scheme to Suppress Dissent, Intimidate Academics’: Hany Babu

17/12/2025 Asha

Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

My Imprisonment Part of Scheme to Suppress Dissent, Intimidate Academics: DU Prof Hany Babu

20/12/2025

The Hindustan Gazette / by Waquar Hasan

Delhi University professor and civil rights activist Hany Babu, who was recently granted bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, has said that his imprisonment was part of a larger scheme to suppress dissent and intimidate academics, intellectuals, and activists who raise critical concerns.
…
“Five years inside the prison can actually destroy a person. The only way to withstand this is by doing positive things and refusing to bow down,” he said. “I’m a born Muslim, but I was not religious before my arrest. It was when I was arrested that I realized how vulnerable we all are, and that it is only a supreme power which maybe can kind of save you.”
Read more

Prison, Pandemic and Survival: How Hany Babu’s Freedom Was Curtailed Long Before His Arrest

17/12/2025

The Wire / by Skanya Shantha

After more than five years in jail, academic Hany Babu recounts how arrest, illness and neglect reshaped his life, scholarship and understanding of the prison system.
…
During his imprisonment, Babu and his co-accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case waged numerous battles—not only for their own survival, but for the dignity of all prisoners. They fought for better food, adequate medical care and other basic rights, securing small but hard-won victories along the way.
Read more

Also read/watch:
▪ I realised that through Allah I can have the strength to face what was before me: Hany Babu (Frontline / Dec 2025)
▪ Taloja Jail: Lives Fading in Silence Behind Iron Walls (Outlook | by Sudhir Dhawale | Sep 2025)
▪ I saw firsthand how callous prison officials and their negligence led to Stan Swamy’s death (Scroll.in | by Arun Ferreira | Jul 2025)
▪ Inside Taloja Prison: A Study | By Mahesh Raut (Outlook / May 2025)
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: The ‘ordinary’ in extraordinary times: A captive’s life in Covid-19 (The Polis Project | by Gautam Navlakha | May 2025)
▪ In Taloja Central Jail, interviews with over 300 undertrial prisoners show denial of rights (The Leaflet | by Hany Babu & Surendra Gadling | Mar 2025)
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: Sagar Gorkhe on his battle to survive Taloja jail’s brutality (The Polis Project | by Sagar Gorkhe | Feb 2025)
▪ Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system (The Polis Project | by Ramesh Gaichor | Sep 2024)
▪ Some personal reflections on prison medical care (The Leaflet | by Vernon Gonsalves | Apr 2024)

▪ Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling (The Wire / lyrics by Ramesh Gaychor)

hindi | 11min | 2021

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 / Listen to the song

‘When you are jailed, they want to break you. The best way to resist is to not succumb’: Hany Babu

15/12/2025 Asha

I realised that through Allah I can have the strength to face what was before me: Hany Babu

15/12/2025

Frontline / by Ajaz Ashraf

The activist says prison strips life of meaning, and faith in Allah became a source of strength during his five years in jail.
… In this interview, Hany Babu talks about freedom, the daily brutalities of jail life, and the turn towards Islam and Allah that sustained him during his imprisonment.

Edited excerpts:
You were arrested on July 28, 2020, and released on bail on December 4 this year (2025). How does freedom feel from inside and outside jail? Does it involve aspects of life that we take for granted only because they seem insignificant?

I was in jail for five years and four months. What you say about insignificant aspects of life constituting freedom is indeed true.
Read more

‘When you are jailed, they want to break you. The best way to resist is to not succumb’: Hany Babu

15/12/2025

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Out on bail, Elgaar Parishad case accused speaks about his five years in prison, staying in touch with family, and letter exchanges that felt like “living in multiple time zones.”
For the five years that he spent in jail as an undertrial in the Elgaar Parishad case, says Hany Babu M T, he often dreamt that he was back teaching at Delhi University, attending academic conferences, or meeting authorities over implementation of OBC reservation (a pet concern of his).
Read more

Also read:
▪ After more than five years in prison, Prof. Hany Babu granted regular bail in Bhima Koregaon case (The Leaflet / Dec 2025)
▪ Bombay HC bail for Hany Babu signals a critical reassessment of the Bhima Koregaon Case (CJP / Dec 2025)
▪ And then there were 3: One more granted bail, charges not framed yet, Elgaar Parishad case creaks (The Indian Express / Dc 2025)

Inside the NIA’s ‘Perfect’ Conviction Record: How Coercive Detentions Are Driving Guilty Pleas

10/12/2025 Asha

Inside the NIA’s ‘Perfect’ Conviction Record: How Coercive Detentions Are Driving Guilty Pleas

10/12/2025

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

A year after the National Investigation Agency boasted of a 100% conviction rate, an investigation by The Wire finds that prolonged detention, near-automatic bail denials and pressure from investigators are pushing dozens of accused, mostly Muslims, to plead guilty before their trials have even begun.
…
After the NIA began registering cases in 2009, trials did not commence for the first six to seven years, except in a few cases. The restrictive bail clause, Section 43 D(5), introduced in the UAPA in 2008, making it virtually impossible for an accused person to be released on bail, ensured that those accused remained in jail during this time.
Read more

10,400 arrested under UAPA from 2019-2023, only 335 convicted

05/12/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Jammu and Kashmir had the highest number of arrests under the law, followed by Uttar Pradesh, data tabled in Parliament showed.
A total of 10,440 persons were arrested between 2019 and 2023 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Union government has told Parliament. Of these, only 335 persons were convicted under the anti-terror law.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Years Without Trial, Then Pushing Guilty Pleas: Understanding the NIA’s Playbook (The Wire / Dec 2025)
▪ Judicial Backlog: 90 Thousand Cases Pending in SC, Almost 5 Crore In District Courts (Outlook / Dec 2025)
▪ The Grammar of the Power to Arrest and Search under UAPA (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Jul 2025)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report
▪ Bhima-Koregaon case transferred to NIA to compromise independent probe: Front Line Defenders (SabrangIndia / Jan 2020)

Hany Babu walks out of jail after spending nearly 2,000 days under UAPA

06/12/2025 Asha

by Maktoob / @MaktoobMedia (Dec 6, 2025):
Dr. Hany Babu walks out of jail after spending nearly 2,000 days under UAPA
Dr. Hany Babu, scholar and noted social justice activist, walked out of jail today after he was granted bail by the Bombay High Court, spending over five and a half years in jail under UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon

by Dalit Camera / @DalitCamera (Dec 6,2025):
Hany Babu is out of prison. 5 and half years on fabrication.

After more than five years in prison, Prof. Hany Babu granted regular bail in Bhima Koregaon case

05/12/2025

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

Bombay High Court grants bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Hany Babu after 5 years in jail [Read order]

04/12/2025

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

Babu was arrested on July 28, 2020, and has been in custody for over five years.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Delhi University professor Hany Babu arrested in 2018 for his alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence case [Hany Babu v. National Investigation Agency & Ors.].
The prosecuting agency sought a stay on the order to enable them to file an appeal against it before the Supreme Court.
Read more
Read order

Bombay HC bail for Hany Babu signals a critical reassessment of the Bhima Koregaon Case

06/12/2025 Asha

Bombay HC bail for Hany Babu signals a critical reassessment of the Bhima Koregaon Case

09/12/2025

CJP / by CJP Team

After five years under UAPA, the High Court’s ruling marks a turning point in a case marred by shaky forensics, delays, and constitutional concerns
Coming after years of custodial denial, contested digital evidence and prolonged trial delays, the order signals a renewed judicial pushback against punitive pre-trial detention. In a significant development in the long-running Bhima Koregaon prosecutions, the Bombay High Court has granted bail to former Delhi University professor Hany Babu, nearly five years after his arrest under the UAPA. While the detailed judgment is awaited, the court’s decision marks an important moment in a case where bail has historically been the exception rather than the norm. Babu’s incarceration—tied to the Pune Police and NIA’s theory of a wider “urban Maoist” conspiracy—has drawn sustained rights-based scrutiny due to extensive delays, grave medical concerns, and international forensic analyses indicating that incriminating files on co-accused devices may have been planted. The order situates itself within evolving judicial recognition that excessively long UAPA detention raises constitutional concerns of liberty, due process and investigative overreach.
Read more

After more than five years in prison, Prof. Hany Babu granted regular bail in Bhima Koregaon case

05/12/2025

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

With Prof. Babu being granted bail, twelve persons arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case are now out on bail.
On Thursday, the Bombay High Court granted regular bail to former Delhi University professor Hany Babu in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.
…
As many as twelve accused are out on bail:
– On February 22, 2021, the Bombay High Court granted P. Varavara Rao medical bail. Later, the Supreme Court granted permanent medical bail to him.
– On December 1, 2021, the Bombay High Court granted Sudha Bharadwaj default bail. Later, the Supreme Court confirmed her release on bail.
– On November 18, 2022, the Bombay High Court granted Anand Teltumbde bail on merits. Later, the Supreme Court dismissed NIA’s plea against his bail.
– On July 28, 2023, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were granted regular bail by the Supreme Court on July 28, 2023 after finding no prima facie case against them.
– On April 5, 2024, Shoma Sen was granted regular bail by the Supreme Court finding no prima facie case against her.
– On May 14, 2024, the Supreme Court lifted the stay on the bail earlier granted to Gautam Navlakha.
– In January 2025, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale.
– Recently, co-accused Jyoti Jagtap was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court, while Mahesh Raut was granted interim bail on medical grounds. Raut already has an order in his favour on merits, but the Supreme Court continued the stay on his regular bail for two years.
– Now, the Bombay High Court granted Hany Babu bail.
Read more

And then there were 3: One more granted bail, charges not framed yet, Elgaar Parishad case creaks

04/12/2025

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak and Omkar Gokhale

In several cases, such as in Hany Babu’s Thursday, courts have cited long incarceration to grant bail. They have also commented on poor evidence to substantiate terror charges
With former Delhi University professor Hany Babu granted bail by the Bombay High Court Thursday, only three of the 16 arrested by the Pune police and NIA in the Elgaar Parishad case remain behind bars.
Read more

Hany Babu granted bail after 1,955 days in jail in Bhima Koregaon case [Read order]

04/12/2025 Asha

by Maktoob / @MaktoobMedia (Dec 4, 2025):

“I am happy but also angry and sad that an innocent professor (Dr. Hany Babu) was made to spend five years and four months in jail without even a trial, just for being socially conscious and working for the good of the university where he was employed,” said @jennyrowena , Delhi University professor and wife of Dr. Hany Babu, to Maktoob, reacting to the news that Babu was granted bail by the Bombay High Court after languishing in jail for nearly 2,000 days in the Bhima Koregaon case under UAPA charges.

After close to 2000 days in jail on a fabricated case concocted by the present BJP government, Professor Hany Babu will finally be released on bail that was granted by the Bombay HC.
SHAME on this govt and the judiciary for keeping him in jail for this long with NO TRIAL
Greeshma Kuthar
Independent journalist
Source: @jeegujja

Delhi University professor Hany Babu granted bail after 1,955 days in jail in Bhima Koregaon case

04/12/2025

Maktoob Media / by Maktoob Staff

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Delhi University professor and noted academic Dr. Hany Babu, who was arrested in 2020 in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case and charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), his partner and fellow academic Jenny Rowena told Maktoob.
A division bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale granted him bail.
Read more

Bombay High Court grants bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Hany Babu after 5 years in jail [Read order]

04/12/2025

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

After 5 Yrs In Jail, Bombay High Court Grants Bail To Former DU Professor Hany Babu

04/12/2025

Live Law / by LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to former Delhi University Professor Hany Babu, who has been booked for his alleged role in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case.
A division bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale granted him bail. A detailed order in the matter is awaited.
Read more

Hany Babu Gets Bail After Five Years and Four Months in Jail Without Trial

04/12/2025

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Soon after the court granted him bail, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is handling the case sought a stay on the order to be able to appeal against it before the Supreme Court. The Bombay high court rejected it.
The Bombay high court today called the five-year-and-four-month-long incarceration without trial of Hany Babu an “inordinate delay” and granted bail to the Delhi university associate professor who had been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case.
The bail application moved early this year was kept for orders after the arguments were concluded on October 3. A division bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Ranjitsinha R Bhonsale pronounced the verdict today, December 4.
Read more

Hany Babu, accused in Elgaar Parishad case, gets relief after 5 years in prison without trial

04/12/2025

The Indian Express / by Omkar Gokhale

Hany Babu, accused in Elgaar Parishad case, has secured a bail from the Bombay High Court.
The Bombay High Court has granted bail to former Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, accused in Elgaar Parishad case. Babu had sought bail on the ground of prolonged incarceration of over five years without trial.
Read more

Academic Hany Babu’s bail hearing to take place after five years in jail without trial

04/12/2025

Pen International / by Ross Holder

Update (4 December 2025): The Bombay High Court has granted bail to Hany Babu, following his application on the basis of his prolonged detention without trial. Following the completion of formalities by the court, Hany Babu is expected to be released in the coming days. PEN International welcomes the court’s decision and celebrates Hany Babu’s release. He should never have been detained, and his subjection to over five years’ detention without trial remains an appalling injustice and is a dark chapter for India’s legal system.
Read more

Also watch/read:
▪ Video: Hany Babu’s story
By MaktoobMedia

en | 10:57 | 2025
Watch video

▪ Bombay High Court Reserves Order On Bail Plea Of Former DU Professor Hany Babu (Free Press Journal / Oct 2025)
▪ Why Hany Babu Writes From Prison (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ SC Allows Hany Babu to Approach Trial or High Court For Bail (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ How Long is Too Long? On the Maximum Period that an Undertrial Prisoner can be Detained (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu & Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)
▪ Why the SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is So Significant (The Wire / Jul 2023)

Delhi University Vice Chancellor’s speech criticising ‘urban naxals’ draws ire

08/10/2025 Asha

PUCL condemns regressive and defamatory views of DU Vice Chancellor Prof. Yogesh Singh: At odds with Constitutional values

09/10/2025

Countercurrents.org / by People’s Union For Civil Liberties

People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India, is shocked at the troubling views expressed by Dr Yogesh Singh, professor and Vice Chancellor Delhi University on 28th September, 2025 in a speech titled “Naxal Mukt Bharat: Ending Red Terror Under Modi’s Leadership, Why Campuses are Targets?’
…
In the over 20 minute speech, replete with unsubstantiated and defamatory statements about alleged “urban naxals” on campus, Prof Singh named Delhi university’s professors and student activists charged and imprisoned under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, including members of the feminist student group Pinjar Tod (Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal), charged in the Delhi riots case and Prof Hany Babu and professors Dr Shoma Sen and Dr Anand Teltumbde (mispronounced by Prof Singh as Teltumbedke), charged in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

Delhi University V-C’s speech criticising ‘urban naxals’, Pinjra Tod movement draws ire

08/10/2025

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh’s speech alleging the presence of “Urban Naxals” in universities and criticising movements like ‘Pinjra Tod’ has triggered protests from students and faculty.
… Referring to the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, Singh named DU professor Hany Babu and academics Rona Wilson and Anand Teltumbde, saying, “And these are not isolated cases.”
Read more

Also read:
▪ As Maharashtra Govt Brings Bill Against ‘Urban Naxalism’, Activists Fear Criminalisation of Dissent (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ Insecurity By Law: A Critique of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill in the Context of India’s Banning Regime (PUDR / Jul 2025)
▪ McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey! (The Crossbill / Jul 2024)
▪ From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

Bombay High Court Reserves Order On Bail Plea Of Former DU Professor Hany Babu

03/10/2025 Asha

Bombay HC Reserves Order On Bail Plea Of Former DU Professor Hany Babu

04/10/2025

Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajan

The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved its order on the bail plea filed by former Delhi University professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Elgar Parishad–Maoist links case. A bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale clarified that the order would not be on the merits of the case but on the question of the accused’s prolonged incarceration without trial.
The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved its order on the bail plea filed by former Delhi University professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Elgar Parishad–Maoist links case.
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Court to decide on professor Hany Babu’s bail, order reserved

03/10/2025

India Today / by Vidya

Senior advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhary, representing Hany Babu, mainly argued the plea on the ground of prolonged incarceration without trial. He pointed to other accused, such as Vernon Gonsalves, who had been granted bail by the Supreme Court on the same ground.
The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved its order on the bail plea of Delhi University English professor Hany Babu, who has been in prison for five years and two months in Pune’s Elgar Parishad case of 2018.
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Bombay High Court Reserves Order In Hany Babu’s Plea For Bail

03/10/2025

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court on Friday closed for orders, the bail application filed by former Delhi University Professor Hany Babu, who has been booked for his alleged role in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case. A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale closed the application filed by Babu, for orders.
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Also read:
▪ Why Hany Babu Writes From Prison (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ SC Allows Hany Babu to Approach Trial or High Court For Bail (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ How Long is Too Long? On the Maximum Period that an Undertrial Prisoner can be Detained (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu & Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)
▪ Why the SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is So Significant (The Wire / Jul 2023)