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Tag: prison conditions

Taloja jail official who wanted Elgaar accused shifted gets transferred

Taloja jail official who wanted Elgaar accused shifted gets transferred

Taloja jail superintendent transferred

05/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Had sought accused in Bhima Koregaon case to be shifted to other prison.
Taloja jail superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar, who recently sought the transfer of the male accused in the Bhima Koregaon case to another prison, has been moved to another posting attached to the office of the Inspector General (prisons) as a part of an administrative shuffle, a senior prison department official said.
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Elgar Parishad Accused Could Soon Be Separated, Moved to Different Prisons Across Maharashtra

29/06/2021

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The Taloja Central jail authorities have moved NIA court claiming that the lawyers and family members of those arrested have been giving ‘fake information’ to the media.
The activists and academics arrested in the Elgar Parishad case now have a new challenge before them – the possibility of being separated and thrown into different prisons across the state.
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Also read: Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails (The Caravan, June 22)

Bombay HC issues notice on petition against jail authorities withholding letters

Bombay HC issues notice on petition against jail authorities withholding letters

Bombay HC issues notice on petition by Rama Anand Teltumbde, Susan Abraham Gonsalves against jail authorities withholding letters to and from their jailed husbands

03/07/2021

The Leaflet / by Hamza Lakdawala

The Bombay High Court Saturday issued a notice to the Maharashtra Government, the National Investigation Agency(NIA), and the jail superintendent on a petition filed by Rama Anand Teltumbde and Susan Abraham Gonsalves seeking a direction from the court to the Superintendent of Taloja Prison to allow letter communication between the petitioners and their respective jailed husbands.
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Permit Anand Teltumbde & Vernon Gonsalves To Receive & Send Letters : Spouses Move Bombay High Court

03/07/2021

Live Law / by Shrutika Pandey

A plea has been filed by wives of Anand Teltumbde and Vernon Gonsalves in the Bombay High Court seeking action against the Superintendent of Taloja Prison for withholding communication from Teltumbde and other co-accused to their family members. The matter was posted before a division bench of Justice S.S Shinde and N.J Jamadar, where counsel on behalf of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Sandish Patel, contended not receiving a copy of the petition; thus, the matter was adjourned with directions to serve the respondents.
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Medical Negligence: NHRC Seeks Action Taken Report from Taloja Jail on Stan Swamy

Medical Negligence: NHRC Seeks Action Taken Report from Taloja Jail on Stan Swamy

Medical Negligence: NHRC Seeks Action Taken Report from Taloja Jail on Stan Swamy

01/07/2021

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The NHRC’s move came after a Jesuit lawyer sought its intervention, saying that an Ayurveda doctor had treated the severely ailing activist at a time when he had showed several symptoms of COVID-19.
The National Human Rights Commission has asked for an ‘action taken’ report from the Taloja jail superintendent in connection with allegations that 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy was denied medical facilities.
The Telegraph newspaper has reported that NHRC assistant registrar of law, Subhra Tyagi, sent the email to jail authorities on June 26.
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NHRC seeks report on Stan Swamy jail care

01/07/2021

The Telegraph / by Animesh Bisoee

The octogenarian was allegedly denied medical facilities at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought an action taken report from the superintendent of prisons in connection with the alleged denial of medical facilities to octogenarian Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.
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Also read: Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails (The Caravan, June 2021)

Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails

Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails


Prison diaries. Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails

22/06/2021

The Caravan / by Nileena MS

As of 6 June this year, five of the 16 persons accused in the Bhima Koregaon case have spent over three years in jail without trial. These 16 individuals include lawyers, academics, a poet, a priest and activists. They are among scores of political prisoners in the country who have been arrested under the Narendra Modi government. Seven of the 16 have tested positive for COVID-19, and many of the others suffer from serious conditions, including comorbidities. Despite a rampaging second wave and increasing reports about worsening health conditions in jails, India appears intent on keeping its political prisoners behind bars.
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Vaccination drive in Maharashtra prisons going slow

22/06/2021

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Only 4,409 of 33,971 inmates have received at-least the first dose.
The vaccination drive across 47 prisons in Maharashtra has been rather slow with only 4,409 inmates having received at least the first dose out of the total 33,971 inmates, that it houses.
According to the Maharashtra Prison Department, there are 28,716 under-trials and 5,255 convicts lodged across the State of which 3,338 under-trials and 1,021 convicts have been vaccinated.
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Also read: Imprisoned and Unsafe – Prisoners and the Pandemic (PUCL, Sep 2020)

Families of Bhima Koregaon accused demand their release, say jail conditions poor

Families of Bhima Koregaon accused demand their release, say jail conditions poor

The Print / by Sravasti Dasgupta

The families and friends of Bhima Koregaon prisoners organised a webinar Friday to highlight the deteriorating health of the prisoners and unhygienic conditions in jails.
The family members of activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case demanded their immediate release, in view of the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
To mark three years since the first arrests in the case, the families and friends of the accused Friday organised a webinar — “Three Years Too Many…” — to highlight the deteriorating health of the prisoners, with many of them testing positive for Covid, and unhygienic conditions in jails.
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Watch video: THE BHIMA KOREGAON CONSPIRACY CASE – THREE YEARS TOO MANY … (June11)
Also read (Hindi): SALAAKHON MEIN QAID AVAAZEIN (IMPRISONED VOICES).

Covid-ve, yet Surendra Gadling kept in quarantine barrack: Wife

Covid-ve, yet Surendra Gadling kept in quarantine barrack: Wife

The Times of India / by George Mendonca

Wife of an Elgar Parishad case accused, Surendra Gadling (53), who is lodged in Taloja prison, has alleged that jail authorities have kept her husband in unhygienic conditions in the quarantine centre in a cramped space, despite Gadling testing negative for Covid on May 31.
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Also read: In Maharashtra, Prison Quarantine Centres Are More Harrowing than Main Jail Barracks (by Sukanya Shantha, June 2)

What does state’s treatment of pre-trial political prisoners tell us?

What does state’s treatment of pre-trial political prisoners tell us?

The Indian Express / by Harsh Mander

Harsh Mander writes: It’s been three years since Bhima Koregaon accused were incarcerated by a state that continues to oppose bail for them, despite Covid and other grave threats to their health.
June 6 was a sombre milestone — the third anniversary of the incarceration of five rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. Eleven more were subsequently jailed for the same conspiracy. These 16 women and men — the BK-16 accused — are intellectuals, lawyers, a poet, professors, cultural and rights activists and an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, all with sterling records of service with India’s most oppressed people.
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Violating the rights of older persons: Why Stan Swamy’s continued detention is so unjust

Violating the rights of older persons: Why Stan Swamy’s continued detention is so unjust

Scroll.in / by Arvind Narrain

The activist, by virtue of his age as well as his health condition, should be detained – if at all – only within his home.
On 28 May, tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy was finally shifted to Mumbai’s Holy Family Hospital for medical treatment on the orders of the Bombay High Court. However one cannot forget that the Jesuit priest was in Taloja Jail for over seven months, along with 15 others in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Mahesh Raut, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor test Covid positive at Taloja jail

Mahesh Raut, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor test Covid positive at Taloja jail

Bhima Koregaon case: 3 accused test Covid positive at Taloja jail

03/06/2021

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

Mahesh Raut, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor have tested positive after an RT-PCR drive was conducted at Taloja.
After Father Stan Swamy tested positive for Covid-19 at Holy Family Hospital, an RT-PCR test drive was conducted at Taloja jail for all inmates. The Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor have tested positive.
According to Republican Panthers Jatiya Antachi Chalwal activist Harshali Potdar, who was also questioned by the NIA in the Bhima Koregaon matter, the three accused persons have been quarantined in a very congested room in the Central jail. Despite testing positive, neither medical treatment of any kind has started, nor they have been given a medical diet to follow.
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Co-inmates of Stan Swamy who attended to him test negative

03/06/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Stan Swamy, the 84-year old Jesuit priest arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, requires assistance to complete his daily chores in jail.
Days after Father Stan Swamy tested positive for Covid-19, two of his co-inmates who were attending to him, tested negative at Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday.
One of his co-accused, Arun Ferreira, and another inmate usually help him in jail.
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In Maharashtra, Prison Quarantine Centres Are More Harrowing than Main Jail Barracks

In Maharashtra, Prison Quarantine Centres Are More Harrowing than Main Jail Barracks

The Wire / by Sukanya Shanta

While some have a crushing lack of space, others have no clean water or trained staff to take care of ill prisoners.
In the last two months, Shweta Salve*, a 42-year-old undertrial prisoner, fell ill three times.
Twice, because of a stomach infection – a severe yet common illness that most prisoners learn to live with – and then fever, which then led to a COVID-19 positive report. Each time she complained of ill health, her lawyer had to move court to ensure she could access medical treatment outside the Byculla women prisons.
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