Mahesh Raut – free them all

The SC Is Making Bail Easier In Terrorism, Money Laundering Cases – Except When It Ignores Itself

05/09/2024 Asha

Days in jail calculated to upto 31 August 2024. Credits: article 14

Article 14 / by Areeb Uddin Ahmed

11 Supreme Court rulings over 10 months appear to be reshaping bail jurisprudence in India, especially with regard to India’s terrorism and money laundering laws, often used to incarcerate many without bail for years. Despite these landmark judgements, the Supreme Court has also avoided deciding bail on high-profile cases important to the government, in so doing ignoring its own rulings.
At least 11 Supreme Court rulings over 10 months granting bail appear to be gradually reshaping bail jurisprudence in India, especially with regard to India’s terrorism and money laundering laws.
The restrictive bail provisions of these laws have been frequently used to keep accused, mostly protestors, poets, Opposition politicians, dissidents, academics and artists, in jail with no sign of trial.
Read more

Also read:
▪ SC adjourns hearing on bail plea of Bhima Koregaon case accused Jyoti Jagtap (Hindustan Times / Jul 2024)
▪ Bombay HC rejects default bail of five accused in Bhima Koregaon case (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)

Supreme Court To Consider Hearing Jyoti Jagtap & Mahesh Raut Matters Together

22/08/2024 Asha

Supreme Court to hear bail pleas of Jyoti Jagtap, Mahesh Raut together

22/08/2024

Bar & Bench / by Anadi Tewari

While Jagtap was arrested in 2020, Raut has been in jail since 2018.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it would hear the bail pleas of Jyoti Jagtap and Mahesh Raut, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, together. (Jyoti Jagtap v. National Investigation Agency and anr)
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Supreme Court To Consider Hearing Jyoti Jagtap & Mahesh Raut Matters Together

22/08/2024

Live Law / by Debby Jain

On being apprised that challenge to the bail granted to co-accused Mahesh Raut is pending before another bench, the Supreme Court bench dealing with the bail plea of activist and Bhima Koregaon case accused Jyoti Jagtap asked the Registry today to obtain orders for conjoint hearing of the two cases.
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SC adjourns hearing on bail plea of Bhima Koregaon case accused Jyoti Jagtap

22/08/2024

Hindustan Times / by Abraham Thomas

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned hearing on the bail plea of Bhima Koregaon accused Jyoti Jagtap upon request by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to have the matter heard with another pending bail plea pertaining to co-accused Mahesh Raut.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Supreme Court refuses to grant interim bail to jailed activist Jyoti Jagtap (The Hindu / Jul 2024)
▪ ‘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)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)

HC Rejects Default Bail To Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawade & Rona Wilson

26/07/2024 Asha

Bombay HC rejects default bail of five accused in Bhima Koregaon case

26/07/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The petitioners had moved the High court challenging special court orders in 2022 that denied them default bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday rejected the default bail petitions of five persons accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Bar and Bench reported.
A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam C Chandak issued the order on petitions filed by lawyer Surendra Gadling, activist and researcher Rona Wilson, poet and political commentator Sudhir Dhawale, forest rights activist Mahesh Raut, and former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen.
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Bombay High Court rejects default bail of five accused

26/07/2024

Bar & Bench / by Satyendra Wankhade

A Division Bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam C Chandak passed the order on pleas filed by the five accused challenging 2022 special court orders that denied them default bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday denied default bail to Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Shoma Sen in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
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Bombay HC dismisses default bail pleas of 5 accused in Elgaar Parishad case

26/07/2024

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The case dates back to the Elgaar Parishad event held in Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, following which violent clashes broke out the next day between Maratha and Dalit groups near Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra.
The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed default bail pleas by five Elgaar Parishad case accused Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut and Shoma Sen who were arrested by the Pune police in June 2018. The Supreme Court had granted regular bail to Sen in April.
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Bombay High Court Rejects Default Bail To Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawade & Rona Wilson

26/07/2024

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court today rejected the default bail to Dalit rights’ activist and advocate Surendra Gadling and co-accused Mahesh Raut, in the infamous Elgar Parishad case of 2018.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Shyam Chandak pronounced the order in their chamber. Bail was also denied to Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawade and researcher Rona Wilson.
Read more

Also Read:
▪ Explained: The Shoma Sen bail judgment (The Leaflet / Apr 2024)
▪ 4 accused seek bail from Bombay HC on parity with Sudha Bharadwaj (India Today / March 2023)
▪ Bombay HC grants default bail to Sudha Bharadwaj, but declines the same to eight other accused (The Leaflet / Dec 2021)

How the SC speaks in contradictory voices / Staying of bail Orders disastrous for human liberty, says SC

14/07/2024 Asha

How the SC speaks in contradictory voices on bail

14/07/2024

Scroll.in / by Vineet Bhalla

Bail has been reduced to a judicial lottery with different judges and benches of the court taking inconsistent stances on similar issues.
…
On July 11, the Supreme Court castigated the Delhi High Court for staying a regular bail order in separate case for over a year when it has itself stayed the order granting bail to Dalit activist Mahesh Raut in the Bhima Koregaon case for more than nine months now.
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Casual and mechanical staying of bail Orders disastrous for human liberty, says SC

13/07/2024

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

In a significant development, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih has said it will lay down parameters on the stay of bail-granting Orders.
…
The Supreme Court itself has been guilty of staying bail Orders without reason. For instance, Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha was granted regular bail by the Bombay High Court Bench on December 19, 2023, after observing that it could not be said, based on the material produced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), that there exist reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against Navlakha was prima facie true to attract Sections 16, 18, 20 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is Now the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)

BK16 Poet Sagar Gorkhe Alleges Intimidation After Protesting Prison Corruption

09/07/2024 Asha

Arrested BK16 Poet Alleges Intimidation After Protesting Prison Corruption

10/07/2024

Indiejournal.in / by Prajakta Joshi

Gorkhe has been in prison since September 2020.
Poet and activist Sagar Gorkhe, who has been in prison since September 2020 in Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence case, has alleged that the prison canteen at Taloja Central Jail is being run for the benefit of the wealthy inmates, at the expense of others. He has also made a shocking allegation that when he and his co-accused Mahesh Raut tried to voice these concerns, a senior jailor threatened them and also instigated criminals accused of serious crimes against them.
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‘Jailor instigating influential criminals against us for speaking up on graft’: Bhima Koregaon accused

09/07/2024

Newslaundry / by Prateek Goyal

Kabir Kala Manch activist Sagar Gorkhe has written to the police and the state human rights panel seeking action.
Bhima Koregaon violence case accused and Kabir Kala Manch activist Sagar Gorkhe has written to the Navi Mumbai police commissioner alleging that officials at the Taloja prison have directed other prisoners to silence them for trying to raise the issue of alleged corruption within the jail.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
▪ Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 2022)
▪ Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling (The Wire / lyrics by Ramesh Gaychor)

hindi | 11min | 2021
51- year-old Gadling, a well-known criminal lawyer in Nagpur, was once a cultural activist, who sang songs of political resistance. The 11- minutes- long rendition tells you what it means to be incarcerated in Indian prisons. From food, water, to medical care, everything is a struggle, Gadling narrates. The song was recorded by one of Gadling’s colleagues and was made available to The Wire after obtaining his consent.
Watch video / Listen to the song

Release India’s Political Prisoners / Video: 10 Political prisoners of the Modi era

03/07/2024 Asha

Jacobin.com / by Safa Ahmed

Since reaching power, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has jailed political critics using bogus terrorism and incitement charges. But an electoral setback for his party offers hope of change in India and a crack in his authoritarian Hindutva order.
… There are those who do make it out of prison. But in one harrowing case, imprisonment under the UAPA became a death sentence. In 2018, violent clashes broke out between Dalits and Hindu militant groups in Bhima Koregaon, a village in Maharashtra state. Instead of arresting any militants, police in the state arrested sixteen eminent activists, academics, and lawyers over the next two years — all of whom were involved in civil rights work supporting marginalized Dalits and tribal Adivasi communities.
Read more

Video: Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

By The Telegraph

en | 4:45 | 2024
From Kashmir to Pune, from the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the Delhi riots case accused to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending.
Watch video

Also Read:
▪ How The Indian Prison System Denies Basic Freedoms, Rights And Dignity To Political Prisoners (The Polis Project / June 2024)
▪ The Opposition Must Demand the Release of all Political Prisoners (The Wire / June 2024)
▪ Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
▪ India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)

Why Mahesh Raut needed an interim bail on top of a regular bail to attend his grandmother’s funeral

21/06/2024 Asha

Why Mahesh Raut needed an interim bail on top of a regular bail to attend his grandmother’s funeral

23/06/2024

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

Are the legislature, through laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the judiciary, through the evolving jurisprudence of stays on bail, in perfect synchrony to deny life and liberty to the citizenry?
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted interim bail of two weeks to Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut to attend rituals in connection with the death of his grandmother.
A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti passed an Order to this effect even as the National Investigating Agency (NIA) strongly opposed the application.
Read more

Relief for activist as Supreme Court allows for interim bail

21/06/2024

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

NIA argued against bail, court considers exceptional circumstances.
The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to Mahesh Raut, a key accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, allowing him to attend the ceremonies related to the last rites of his grandmother. The bench, comprising Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti, heard the matter and ruled in favour of Raut’s request for a temporary release.
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Supreme Court Grants 2-Week Interim Bail To Bhima Koregaon Case Accused Mahesh Raut To Attend Grandmother’s Post Funeral Rituals

21/06/2024

Live Law / by Debby Jain

The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut for two weeks in order to attend ceremonies related to last rites of his grandmother.
The vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti granted him interim bail from June 26 to July 10.
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Supreme Court grants interim bail to Mahesh Raut to attend grandmother’s final rites

21/06/2024

Bar and Banch / by Debayan Roy

Raut, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, was arrested in June 2018 and has been in custody since.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted two weeks of interim bail to Mahesh Raut, who is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, to allow him attend the ceremonies relating to the last rites of his grandmother [National Investigation Agency v. Mahesh Sitaram Raut and anr].
Read more

Also watch/read:
▪ Book Excerpt | Intellectual Insurgency And Mahesh Raut (The Wire / June 2024)
▪ Video: 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
by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (May 23, 2024). Watch video
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ In Jail for 5 Years, Activist Mahesh Raut Gets Bail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Sep 2023)

Book Excerpt | Intellectual Insurgency and Mahesh Raut

19/06/2024 Asha

The Wire / by Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan

We are witnessing a pretend politics which lives on the time borrowed from a deferred revolution.
“I shall speak of ghost, of flame, and of ashes”

– Jacques Derrida, Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question

It is not easy to write about the scholar and activist Mahesh Raut without sorrow and rage. Raut was a fellow of Prime Minister’s Rural Development programme; it has been five years since he was arrested on June 6, 2018. He is the youngest prisoner in the Bhima Koregaon case, currently awaiting the mercy of the judiciary for bail in Taloja central jail. His health has been deteriorating in prison.
Read more

Also read:
▪ SC to hear plea of activist seeking interim bail on June 21 (Legalworld.com / June 2024)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ In Jail for 5 Years, Activist Mahesh Raut Gets Bail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Sep 2023)
▪ Gadchiroli’s 300 Gram Sabhas Pass Resolution in Support of Activist Mahesh Raut (The Wire / Oct 2018)

Supreme Court seeks NIA’s stand on activist Mahesh Raut plea seeking interim bail

14/06/2024 Asha

Mahesh Raut Approaches Supreme Court For Interim Bail To Attend Ceremonies Related To Grandmother’s Funeral

14/06/2024

Live Law / by Anmol Kaur Bawa

Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut has approached the Supreme Court to seek interim bail for attending the ceremonies relating to the last rites of his grandmother.
The vacation bench of Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and AG Masih which was hearing the matter has adjourned the case till 21st June at the request of the National Investigating Agency (NIA).
Read more

Supreme Court seeks NIA’s stand on activist Mahesh Raut plea seeking interim bail

14/06/2024

The Telegraph / by pti

A vacation bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Augustine George Masih posted the matter for hearing on June 21
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take instructions on a plea filed by activist Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, seeking interim bail to attend rituals following the death of his grandmother.
Read more

SC to hear plea of activist seeking interim bail on June 21

15/04/2024

Legal News / by ANI

The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear on June 21 a plea filed by activist Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, seeking interim bail to attend rituals following the death of his grandmother.
Read more

Also read:
▪ NIA court refuses temporary bail to Mahesh Raut (Hindustan Times / June 2024)
▪ ‘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)

Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

12/06/2024 Asha

The Telegraph / by Telegraph Web Desk

From Kashmir to Pune, here are some of the most high-profile names in India’s prisons for whom the criminal justice process has been made the punishment
From the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending.
Read more

Also read:
▪ 7/16 Bhima Koregaon Accused Get Bail, Courts Raise Prima Facie Doubts About Evidence (Live Law / May 2024)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report