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Tag: prison conditions

No Headway in Decongestion of Maharashtra Prisons, Despite SC Directive

No Headway in Decongestion of Maharashtra Prisons, Despite SC Directive


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Newsclick / by MN Parth

Mumbai: On March 23, the Supreme Court of India asked the state governments to decongest prisons in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus inside jail premises. The Maharashtra government, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, subsequently constituted a high-power committee (HPC) to decide on the prisoners to be released. However, the decongestion process in Maharashtra seems to be going nowhere.
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1,414 INMATES ABOVE THE AGE OF 60, STATE TELLS HC

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

The State government has informed the Bombay High Court that as of Friday, 1,414 inmates lodged in prisons across the State are above the age of 60, while 425 of them have co-morbidities.
Advocate General (AG) Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M.S. Karnik that as on May 11, there were 1,340 inmates above 60 years, and as of June 26, the number was 1,414. The court expressed surprised over the numbers, to which the AG replied crime rate has not decreased.
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Open Letter to Maharashtra CM Seeks Interim Bail for Political Detenues

Open Letter to Maharashtra CM Seeks Interim Bail for Political Detenues


Bilaspur, June 25, 2020

Newsclick / by Newsclick Report

New Delhi: Marking the 45th year of the Emergency in India on June, civil rights groups have written an open letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, drawing his attention to the “deplorable and abysmal condition of jails and quarantine facilities in Maharashtra”, especially in the light of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, where several political activists are incarcerated.
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Temporary jail condition deplorable, Navlakha tells partner, lawyer

Temporary jail condition deplorable, Navlakha tells partner, lawyer


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Last month, activist Gautam Navlakha was shifted from Tihar jail in Delhi to Mumbai and has since been kept in the school as new inmates are being quarantined before being shifted to the Taloja central jail to avoid an outbreak inside.
Journalist and activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, informed his lawyers and family members on Saturday that a school in Kharghar set up as a temporary jail where inmates were being kept was in a ‘deplorable condition’.
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NAVLAKHA KEPT IN ‘DEPLORABLE’ CONDITIONS, SAYS PARTNER

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

As many as 350 Taloja inmates crammed into six classrooms being used as quarantine facility.
Activist Gautam Navlakha, incarcerated in the Bhima-Koregaon case, is being kept in deplorable conditions in a quarantine facility in Taloja for the last three weeks, his partner Sahba Husain said on Sunday.
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Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan shares worrying letter on jail conditions in #TalojaJail #Maharashtra as narrated by activist Gautam Navlakha to partner Sahba.

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Citing ‘Inhuman Treatment’ of 11 Activists, Brinda Karat Writes to Amit Shah [read letter]

Citing ‘Inhuman Treatment’ of 11 Activists, Brinda Karat Writes to Amit Shah [read letter]

cpim.org / by CPI(M) Central Committee Office

We are herewith releasing the full text of the letter addressed to the Home Minister, Amit Shah by CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member, Brinda Karat. This pertains to the inhuman treatment of human rights activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. The letter was sent today.
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Interview with Maaysha: Please release my mother, Sudha Bharadwaj

Interview with Maaysha: Please release my mother, Sudha Bharadwaj

Rediff.com / by Prasanna D Zore

On August 28, 2020, the respected lawyer and human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj will complete two years in jail …
“If somebody is working for poor people, then does it mean they are criminals?”, Maaysha, Bharadwaj’s daughter who got to speak with her mother after four months on June 9, asks Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.
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Things Getting Really Bad in Overcrowded Maharashtra Prisons

Things Getting Really Bad in Overcrowded Maharashtra Prisons

Newsclick / by Parth MN

Even after 2 deceased inmates were found COVID-19 positive, testing is not being done in Taloja where rights activists, mostly 60+, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case have been lodged.
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OF 269 PRISON INMATES WHO TESTED POSITIVE IN MAHARASHTRA, 115 RECOVERED

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

As of June 13, 17, 695 screenings and 1681 swab tests were conducted in 10 Central Prisons in Maharashtra and in the Additional Director General, Prisons (ADGP) office of which 269 tested positive, 115 recovered and four died, the Bombay High Court was informed on Monday.
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Despite Court Order, Sudha Bharadwaj Denied Basic Right of Phone Calls in Jail

Despite Court Order, Sudha Bharadwaj Denied Basic Right of Phone Calls in Jail

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

While others who have been accused in the case have managed to stay in touch with their families and lawyers, Bharadwaj’s daughter and lawyers have not been able to do so despite multiple requests and a court order.
Mumbai: Maaysha saw her mother, Sudha Bharadwaj, last on February 22. It was a day after Maaysha’s birthday; she turned 23 this year. In the mulaqaat (meeting) at Yerwada prison in Pune, Bharadwaj – an academic and human rights activist – was barely given five minutes to talk to her daughter who had travelled from Delhi just for this meeting.
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UPDATE, June 10: After nearly 3 months, jail authorities allowed Sudha Bharadwaj to call her daughter & speak to her for 2 minutes.

Covid cases in jail where Shoma lodged worry kin

Covid cases in jail where Shoma lodged worry kin

The Times of India / by Shishir Arya & Sarfaraz Ahmed

Nagpur: Two years after activists — Nagpur University professor retired) Shoma Sen and lawyer Surendra Gadling – were arrested in Bhima-Koregaon case, their kin say the lockdown has left them clueless about their well-being in jail. They were already complaining of a slow progress in the case.
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Denying bail in Elgaar Parishad case to political prisoners is callous: PUCL

Denying bail in Elgaar Parishad case to political prisoners is callous: PUCL

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

‘In COVID-19 times, especially when Maharashtra has emerged as the State with the highest number of cases, differentially treating bail petitions by political prisoners is gross injustice’.
The denial of bail to all accused in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case was “patently callous”, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said on Monday, and urged that the health and safety of political prisoners be treated with the same urgency as other prisoners.
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PUDR: The Lessons of Bhima Koregaon Case: No Bail, Only Jail

01/06/2020

Kractivism / by PUDR

With the surrenders of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on April 14, 2020 in Mumbai and Delhi respectively, the NIA, the investigative agency, has ensured the arrest of all 11 prominent human rights activists in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case under the draconian UAPA. The recent rejection of the bail applications of Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen and Sudha Bharadwaj, and the sudden transfer of Gautam Navlakha by the NIA, raise significant questions about the rights of political prisoners amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
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