Browsed by
Tag: prison conditions

1.000 Taloja Jail inmates, including some BK case prisoners, have COVID-like symptoms, say families

1.000 Taloja Jail inmates, including some BK case prisoners, have COVID-like symptoms, say families


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

COVID-19, Political Prisoners, and the Overcrowding of Prisons

03/08/2020

Jurist / by Abhishek Chakravarty and Abhijit Rajkhowa

Barely a few months after news broke about a novel virus with the potential for a global pandemic, COVID-19 brought the entire world to a grinding halt … The virus has mercilessly affected all sections of our society whether rich or poor, young or old. Now the virus knocks at the door of a highly vulnerable group of people whose choices are limited – prisoners.
Read more

1.000 Taloja Jail inmates, including some BK case prisoners, have COVID-like symptoms, say families

02/08/2020

Firstpost / by Parth MN

Anand Teltumbde’s family is anxiously awaiting his test results. The high court directed the state to inform the family on 1 August.
When Monali Raut spoke to her imprisoned brother Mahesh last week, it got her a bit worried. “He said almost half the prisoners in Taloja Central Prison have been suffering from flu, cough or cold in the past week,” she said.
Read more

Jails become the new Covid hotspots

Jails become the new Covid hotspots

Click to enlarge poster

The Print / by Aneesha Bedi

New Delhi: With poet Varavara Rao and activists Akhil Gogoi and Sharjeel Imam testing positive for Covid-19 inside crowded prisons, the cases have brought to the fore concerns about the safety of inmates and jail staff amid the Covid pandemic. Jails across the country are reporting increasing cases of the infection, and the situation appears to be alarming at some places.
Read more

Right of Political Prisoners to Healthcare

Right of Political Prisoners to Healthcare

India Legal / by Srishti Ojha

Even though international treaties and the apex court have batted for the right of prisoners to healthcare, recent cases have shown that governments will show no leniency when it comes to activists.
Read more

Prison Dispatches from Anand Teltumbde

Prison Dispatches from Anand Teltumbde

By The Real Anand Teltumbde

Click to enlarge

 

Anand Teltumbde: Cards and letters for jailed India scholar as he turns 70

15/07/2020

BBC / by Geeta Pandey

On Wednesday, when he turns 70 in a Mumbai jail where he’s been imprisoned for 90 days, his family and friends are trying to ensure that he’s not greeted with silence.
Scores of letters and cards wishing him well on his birthday are expected to be delivered at Taloja jail where he’s being held.
Read more

Vernon Gonsalves, 19 other inmates at Taloja jail test negative

Vernon Gonsalves, 19 other inmates at Taloja jail test negative


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Two days after writer-poet Varavara Rao (80), accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, tested positive for Covid-19, 20 other inmates of Taloja Central Jail, including Vernon Gonsalves (61), a co-accused in the case, have tested negative, prison officials said Saturday.
Read more

The extra-judicial punishment of jailing ailing activists during COVID-19

The extra-judicial punishment of jailing ailing activists during COVID-19

The Leaflet / by Indira Jaising

The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly held that imprisonment does not deprive a prisoner of other fundamental rights that can be exercised consistently with detention. This logic should apply with more force to undertrials and doubly during a pandemic.
Read more

CRYING FOR JUSTICE – IMPLICATIONS FOR KEEPING POLITICAL PRISONERS LOCKED DURING A PANDEMIC

The Leaflet / by Megha Katheria

From the senior activists and lawyers to younger activists like Safoora Zargar, the state has walked at turtle space in granting bail or even protecting the health of the political prisoners during a pandemic. The state of our prisons and the necessity to decongest them is well known. The author explores the democratic and constitutional implications on keeping political prisoners, with comorbidities, locked during a pandemic.
Read more

Chained Muse: Notes from Prison by Varavara Rao/ How To Read A Letter From Jail

Chained Muse: Notes from Prison by Varavara Rao/ How To Read A Letter From Jail

The Wire / by Varavara Rao

In November 2019, when the Bhima Koregaon accused were still housed in Yerawada Central Prison and their case had not yet been transferred to the NIA, the Telugu poet penned some thoughts about his experience there, and the carceral nature of the state.
Read more

HOW TO READ A LETTER FROM JAIL


ARUN FERREIRA’S PRISON MEMOIR, 2014

08/06/2020

Bloomberg Quint / by Priya Ramani

“Read it not once, but many times,” says Mohammad Aamir Khan explaining the process clearly over the phone. “Each word has a story. Try to feel the pain behind each word.”
Khan, 39, should know. After he was “kidnapped” one night (he never uses the word arrested because he was snatched from the street, tortured, made to sign blank sheets of paper, and then produced in a court only a week later), Khan spent 14 years in prison, incarcerated for serious crimes he never committed, before being acquitted in 2012.
Read more

Bhima Koregaon inmates can barely communicate, worried about their health: Families

Bhima Koregaon inmates can barely communicate, worried about their health: Families

The Caravan / by Nileena MS

On the evening of 11 July, the 81-year-old poet Varavara Rao called his wife, Hemalatha, from the overcrowded Taloja Central Prison in Maharashtra, sounding incoherent and delirious, according to a press release circulated by his family …
Families and lawyers of others who have been imprisoned in connection to the Bhima Koregaon case have pointed out they are barely able to communicate with the inmates during the pandemic. At least four of the 11 undertrial prisoners have pre-existing medical conditions that make them vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.
Read more

Press Note from Vara Vara Rao’s Family

Press Note from Vara Vara Rao’s Family


VV Rao’s daughter Pavana and wife Hemalatha in May 2020

By Vara Vara Rao’s Family

DON’T KILL VARA VARA RAO IN JAIL !!
We, the family members of Varavara Rao, world-renowned Telugu revolutionary poet and public intellectual, who is incarcerated in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail, are very much worried about his deteriorating health. His health condition has been scary for over six weeks now, ever since he was shifted in an unconscious state to JJ Hospital from Taloja Jail on May 28, 2020. Even as he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail three days later, there has been no improvement in his health and he is still in need of emergency heathcare. …

Read More Read More

Varavara Rao health condition deteriorates, Family Alleges Severe Negligence by Authorities

Varavara Rao health condition deteriorates, Family Alleges Severe Negligence by Authorities

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Rao, who has been in jail for close to two years, has been unwell since the lockdown and his family claim that he is suffering from memory loss.
Mumbai: The health of 78- year-old political activist, poet and writer Varavara Rao, who has been in jail for close to two years, has worsened. His family has alleged that the prison department has been blocking information on his condition from reaching them.
Read more

VARAVARA RAO NEEDS MEDICAL HELP: FAMILY

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

81-year-old famous poet not receiving any treatment inside jail, they say.
Varavara Rao, 81-year-old famous poet incarcerated at the Taloja jail, called his family after eight days on Saturday and spoke about his parents’ death, said his daughter Pavana …
Mr. Rao’s appeal against rejecting his bail is slated to be heard by the Bombay High Court on July 17.
Read more