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Increasing spread of virus infection in Byculla prison is worrisome: Friends & Family of Sudha Bharadwaj

Increasing spread of virus infection in Byculla prison is worrisome: Friends & Family of Sudha Bharadwaj

By Friends & Family of Sudha Bharadwaj

Press Release
Friends and Family of Sudha Bharadwaj are extremely worried over the alarming and disturbing news of the rising Covid-19 infection in Byculla women’s jail forcing the authorities to seal the premise.
Last week, in a prison supervised phone conversation Koel Sen had with her mother Shoma Sen, former professor of English from Nagpur University, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case and incarcerated for the last three years in Byculla prison without trial, it was informed that 20 inmates from the prison were infected, which appears to have now risen to 39!
Three women political prisoners, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj and Jyoti Jagtap, all arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case for the past three years without trial and bail, are housed in the women’s prison of Byculla jail. Alarmingly, two out of the 20 infected are from the barrack that houses 40 senior women inmates, including 61-year-old Shoma Sen and 59-year-old Sudha Bharadwaj. The barrack of 40 senior citizen women inmates is fully vaccinated, however the virus infection of the two fully vaccinated women has sent fear and concern to all the women inside the prison and their family waiting for them in their homes. …

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Human rights bodies must intervene to help Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj get medical bail

Human rights bodies must intervene to help Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj get medical bail

National Herald / by Satyaki Chakraborty

The situation has got precarious with COVID infection spreading in their barrack in Mumbai’s Byculla Jail. The Stan Swamy case should not be allowed to be repeated.
Bhima Koregaon accused activists Shoma Sen and Sudha Bharadwaj who are languishing in the Byculla Jail of Mumbai after being accused of conspiracy against the state by the National Investigating Agency(NIA), are facing a serious danger to their lives. At least 20 persons have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 at Byculla women’s jail, according to Koel Sen, daughter of activist Shoma Sen.
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Inmate found COVID-19 positive in barrack holding Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen

Inmate found COVID-19 positive in barrack holding Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

20 women, 5 children test Covid positive in Byculla women jail, 10 in male ward

25/09/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

A prison official said that those who tested positive have been shifted to a nearby school. One of the prisoners, who is a senior citizen, has been shifted to a civic hospital. There are over 450 prisoners in Byculla prison.
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Inmate found COVID-19 positive in barrack holding Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen

23/09/2021

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Both of them have tested negative on the RTPCR test, says DIG.
A senior citizen inmate, lodged in the same barrack as Sudha Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen at the Byculla jail, was found COVID-19 positive on Thursday.
Confirming it with The Hindu, DIG Yogesh Desai said, “One senior citizen who was given one dose of vaccination has tested positive and has been shifted to a temporary COVID Center next to the jail.”
He said Ms. Sen and Ms. Bharadwaj have tested negative on the RTPCR test.
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Days after special NIA court rejects Shoma Sen’s medical bail plea, daughter alleges two co-prisoners tested Covid-positive

23/09/2021

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

More than 20 COVID cases reported in Byculla women’s jail.
At least 20 persons have allegedly tested positive for COVID-19 at Mumbai’s Byculla women’s jail, according to Koel Sen, daughter of activist Shoma Sen who is presently lodged in the jail. Earlier on Thursday, September 23, 2021, Koel reportedly spoke with her mother Shoma over an official call supervised by the jail superintendent, where she was informed of the same.
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Also read:
● Inhumane prison conditions for Bhima Koregaon Human Rights Defenders (UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders / Aug 12, 2021)
● Amid pandemic, India’s political prisoners struggle with failing health in unequipped jails (The Caravan / June 22, 2021)
● ‘Left to die’: Families of Bhima Koregaon accused demand their release, say jail conditions poor (The Print / June 12, 2021)

They Don’t Want us to Sing our Songs, Read our Poems

They Don’t Want us to Sing our Songs, Read our Poems

Newsclick / by Parth MN

Moved by the death of anti-caste activist Vira Sathidar, Ramesh Gaichor, an Elgar case accused, had penned a poem in Taloja prison, but the jail chief found it ‘objectionable’ for circulation. Gaichor has moved the court.
Civil and Sessions Court, complaining against one of its prisoners, Ramesh Gaichor. Gaichor, one of the 16 political prisoners arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, had written a poem as a tribute to Vira Sathidar, a committed anti-caste activist and an Ambedkarite, who died of COVID-19 in April 2021.
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10 prisoners accuse ex-jail superintendent of ‘political censorship’

10 prisoners accuse ex-jail superintendent of ‘political censorship’

Prisoners accuse ex-jail superintendent of ‘political censorship’

27/08/2021

Sabrang / by Sabrangindia

The former Taloja Jail Superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar has been allegedly saving copies of the letter exchanged between the accused and their family and lawyers
Ten activists, who have been falsely implicated in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, have written to the Home Minister of Maharashtra, alleging that Taloja Central Jail’s former Superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar has been taking scans and saving copies of the letters exchanged between them and their family and advocates.
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10 Elgaar Parishad accused allege ‘political censorship’ by jail authorities

27/08/2021

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Kaustubh Kurlekar of Taloja jail scans and saves letters, they have said in a letter to State Home Minister
Ten accused in the Elgar Parishad case have written a letter to Home Minister of Maharashtra on Thursday alleging that Taloja Central Jail’s Superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar scans and saves copies of letters written by them to their family and advocates.
The letter written on Thursday has been signed by Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor.
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Newswire’s special issue dedicated to Father Stan Swamy / AILAJ’s August issue

Newswire’s special issue dedicated to Father Stan Swamy / AILAJ’s August issue

Newswire – A special issue dedicated to Father Stan Swamy

22/08/2021

By India Civil Watch

Here’s what you will find inside Newswire 9
1. Spotlight: South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network (SADAN), Canada
2. Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Interview with Rana Khan
3. The Compassionate Revolution of Saint Stan Swamy (1937 – 2021), Shaj Mohan and Divya Dwivedi
4. Under the Mango tree, Madhumita Dutta
5. Stan Swamy in the eyes of a Thirteen Year old, Ananya Mamatha Anil
6. This Month in History, Balmurli Natarajan
7. Poetry!
Download here

AILAJ’s August issue

19/08/2021

By All India Lawyers´Association for Justice (A)

AILAJ’s August issue is out! It has pieces on Pegasus, UAPA, Father Stan Swamy and the plight of prisoners in light of the pandemic. It also contains all the representations AILAJ has made to various judicial and state functionaries.

Download here

Independence Day / Resign Modi: Banner dropped from London’s Westminster Bridge

Independence Day / Resign Modi: Banner dropped from London’s Westminster Bridge

“Resign Modi”: Independence Day banner dropped from London’s Westminster Bridge

15/08/2021

The Caravan / by Diaspora Members and Friends of India in the UK

On the occasion of Indian Independence Day, a group of diaspora Indian activists in the United Kingdom dropped a banner from London’s Westminster Bridge, demanding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation…

Press release issued by the group:
… The Modi regime has imprisoned thousands of people whose only ‘crime’ has been to dissent, to advocate for the most marginalised and oppressed groups, or to take part in nonviolent protests, under draconian laws like the UAPA. Elderly and vulnerable academics and lawyers, students and young activists, including thousands of Adivasi youth, are locked up in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions in the middle of a pandemic.
Read full statement

Demand Justice India: International protest


en | 10:34min | 2021

By International Coalition for Justice in India

They stood by the marginalised. They protected lands, hills and forests from mining companies. They stood up to protect minorities. They did not trust the Indian government”s false promises. They are students, academics, lawyers, journalists and social activists, in thousands, are imprisoned in over-crowded prisons. An 84-year old Jesuit priest and human rights defender, Father Stan Swamy, has passed away while waiting for trail.
Watch video

August 15: Zurich – Lotika for release of BK-16 – Berlin – Dundee

How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison

How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison

Scroll.in / by Arun Ferreira

Although we received news by late evening on October 8, 2020, of Father Stan Swamy’s arrest, we were quite shocked to see him the next morning in the adjourning barrack conversing with inmates in his impeccable Hindi.
I was at that time lodged in a cell at the prison hospital with my co- accused Varavara Rao (or VV) and Vernon Gonsalves. It was part of our daily routine for VV and I to do a couple of rounds in his wheelchair before the morning breakfast. The three of us had assumed that the National Investigation Agency would want Stan’s custodial interrogation and hence it would not be until a couple of days before he would be sent to judicial custody i.e. Prison.
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Mary Lawlor: Inhumane prison conditions for Bhima Koregaon Human Rights Defenders

Mary Lawlor: Inhumane prison conditions for Bhima Koregaon Human Rights Defenders

By Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

On 11 June 2021, I wrote a letter jointly with two other UN experts on the alleged inhumane prison conditions and deteriorating condition of 15 human rights defenders, as well as Varavara Rao who was granted medical bail.
Of pressing concern was the inhumane prison conditions and deteriorating health of the human rights defenders. The death of Fr. Stan Swamy shortly after this communication was written demonstrate the severity of the conditions in which the human rights defenders are being held. It is haunting to now read how Fr. Swamy’s requests to be transferred to hospital to receive treatment were initially denied repeatedly.
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Bombay High Court Refuses To Stay Prison Transfer Order Of Bhima Koregaon Accused

Bombay High Court Refuses To Stay Prison Transfer Order Of Bhima Koregaon Accused

Bombay High Court Refuses To Stay Prison Transfer Order Of Bhima Koregaon Accused

06/08/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court on Friday observed that the accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case resisting their transfer out of Taloja Prison, despite repeatedly complaining about the prison authorities there, is confusing and paradoxical.
The bench refused to stay the transfer orders without hearing the State and adjourned the matter to Wednesday after the State sought time.
The court was seized with one plea filed by the kin of accused Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde, civil rights lawyer Surendra Gadling and activist Sudhir Dhawale’s friend. Tribal rights activist Mahesh Raut has filed the second plea.
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Victimized For Demanding Their Rights as Prisoners: Kin of Bhima Koregaon Move Bombay High Court Against Prison Transfer Orders

03/08/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The petition accuses Taloja’s previous Superintendent of initiating the transfers to cover up violations of the rights guaranteed under The Prisons Act, 1894
Kin of three accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case have approached the Bombay High Court challenging three orders to transfer ten accused out of Taloja Central Prison to any other prison in Maharashtra.
The petition states that Special NIA Judge DE Kothalikar’s orders, repeatedly permitting their transfers without issuing a notice, giving a hearing to them or recording reasons, violates principles of natural justice.
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Kin of Surendra Galding, Anand Teltumbde, Sudhir Dhawale move Bombay HC challenging transfer from Taloja jail

03/08/2021

Bar & Benach / by Neha Joshi

Immediate family members of Dr. Anand Teltumbde, Surendra Gadling and Sudhir Dhawale, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case of 2018, have approached the Bombay High Court challenging the decision to transfer them out of Taloja Central Prison to any other “unspecified prison” in the State.
The petitioners said the Superintendent was attempting to transfer the accused, by dividing them and sending them to separate jails and it was “an act of victimization for having demanded their rights as prisoners.
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