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Tag: prison conditions

Appeal: Save our father Varavara Rao – Release him immediately from Taloja Jail

Appeal: Save our father Varavara Rao – Release him immediately from Taloja Jail


Varavara Rao greeting family members, 2018 (Photo: DC)

South Asia Citizens Web / by P Sahaja, P Anala, P Pavana

To
The Governor, Maharashtra,
The Chief Justice, High Court of Maharashtra,
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra,
We, P Sahaja, P Anala, P Pavana, daughters of the famous revolutionary poet P Varavara Rao, who is incarcerated in Maharashtra jails (in Yerawada, Pune jail till February 2020 and in Taloja, Navi Mumbai jail since then) in a fabricated case, are perturbed to see the news that a prisoner died in Taloja jail due to Covid-19, as admitted by the government in a PIL case in Mumbai High Court yesterday.
Read full letter

CITING HEALTH, VARAVARA RAO’S DAUGHTERS URGE MAHARASHTRA CM UDDHAV THACKERAY FOR HIS PAROLE

The New Indian Express / by Express News Service

Earlier, at least 40 prominent writers had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting the release of Rao amid the crisis.
MUMBAI: Family members of poet, writer and activist Varavara Rao, jailed in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case, appealed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to release him on parole amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state and in its prisons.
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COVID-19: Jails turn into hotbeds of disease

COVID-19: Jails turn into hotbeds of disease


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

COVID-19: AT LEAST THREE DIE IN MAHARASHTRA PRISONS

26/05/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

In an affidavit submitted to the Bombay high court in response to a PIL, the state government said that a prisoner each has died in the central prisons of Taloja and Yerwada, and in Dhule district prison. Maharashtra is the first state to have reported deaths in prisons so far.
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COVID-19: Jails turn into hotbeds of disease

25/05/2020

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Judges withhold bail; several prison reforms recommended over the years have fallen through the cracks.
On May 5, two months after the Arthur Road jail superintendent warned that an outbreak of COVID-19 could not be contained in the jail due to overcrowding, his worst fears came true: the first positive case was discovered in the precincts.
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Maharashtra Prisoner Released on Parole Says Jails Unprepared to Handle COVID-19 Pandemic

30/03/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

No transport has been arranged for those who are released, while inmates still in prison fear for their health.
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Mumbai Police Quiz Jailed Activist’s Family About His Whereabouts

Mumbai Police Quiz Jailed Activist’s Family About His Whereabouts


Pic: Sagar, Vernon, Susan

The Quint / by Ankita Sinha

On 11 May 2020, two police officials with the Mumbai Crime Branch reportedly paid a visit to social activist Vernon Gonsalves’s home, with the intent of finding out Gonsalves’s whereabouts. They questioned his wife, Susan Abraham, who is also an advocate and his son Sagar.
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UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings

UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Leaflet / by Ujjaini Chatterji

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes, the World Health Organization, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have taken note of the spread of Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings. In this regard, they have issued a statement urging political leaders to undertake the necessary public health measures to counter and mitigate this threat.
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MAHARASHTRA RELEASES 7,200 PRISONERS TO CURB OVERCROWDING

17/05/2020

The New Indian Express / by PTI

In a bid to decongest state jails due to coronavirus outbreak, the state prisons department has so far released over 7,200 prisoners across the state on either temporary bail or parole.
PUNE: Authorities in Maharashtra have released over 7,200 prisoners so far to check overcrowding in jails amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Sunday.
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INDIA DECONTESTS ITS JAILS TO CHECK CORONAVIRUS BUT POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE STILL LOCKED UP

14/05/2020

Quartz India / by Manavi Kapur

Overcrowded Indian prisons have become hotbeds of coronavirus cases.
In March, India’s supreme court recognised this risk—total occupancy of India’s jails standing at 115% —and set down guidelines for releasing some prisoners on parole and bail.
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Video: Joint Opposition Memorandum to President of India [full statement]

Video: Joint Opposition Memorandum to President of India [full statement]


en | 3:06 min | 2020

By Communist Party of India – Marxist Leninist-Liberation

Leaders of CPIML, CPI(M), CPI, AIFB, RSP, RJD, LJD and VCK have written a Joint Opposition Memorandum to the President of India demanding an end to the ongoing witch-hunt and release of all political prisoners in view of their enhanced health risk and to wage a united fight against Covid19.
Watch video

Joint Opposition Memorandum to President of India

11 May 2020
Release all political prisoners-
Dissenting Voices
Activists of Peoples Movements
and Opposition leaders
End Overcrowding in India’s Jails

Read full statement below

81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive

81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Hindu / by Gautam S. Mengle and Sonam Saigal

One positive at Byculla women’s jail.
As many as 81 more inmates at the Arthur Road Central Jail tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the number of cases among prisoners lodged there to 158. A prisoner at the women’s prison in Byculla has also tested positive.
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SUPERINTENDENT OF ARTHUR ROAD JAIN IN QUARANTINE

09/04/2020

Mumbai Mirror / by Somendra Sharma and David Delima

… Families of prisoners and undertrials in jails across the city made frantic calls to their lawyers on Friday morning, after hearing the news that 103 people lodged at Arthur Road jail had tested positive for Covid-19 …
“I have not spoken to my father properly since February, when I last saw him in court. I don’t know if he is safe as there as been zero communication from the authorities. We have no way of getting in touch with any official,” said Sagar Gonsalves, son of incarcerated activist Vernon Gonsalves.
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103 TEST COVID-19 POSITIVE IN MUMBAI’S ARTHUR ROAD JAIL

07/04/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The Maharashtra home department had promised to release over 11,000 prisoners but so far fewer than 7,000 have been released as the health crisis rages.
Mumbai: The delay in the process of decongesting Maharashtra’s prisons has already led to the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in Mumbai’s Arthur Road central prison.
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Maharashtra Women Prisons Hit Hard, Safety of Children a Prime Concern

Maharashtra Women Prisons Hit Hard, Safety of Children a Prime Concern

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

With a woman inmate testing positive for coronavirus at Byculla prison, a look at the rise in cases in Maharashtra’s overcrowded state prisons.
Mumbai: Contrary to the claims made by the Maharashtra home and prisons department that utmost care has been taken to save prisons from COVID-19 outbreak, cases of infection have been on the rise in state prisons.
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BYCULLA JAIL INMATE TESTS POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS

Indiatoday / by Saurabh Vaktania

A woman has tested positive for novel coronavirus in Byculla women’s jail in Mumbai. The patient, a 54-year-old inmate, tested positive on Saturday.
A 54-year-old inmate of the Byculla women’s jail tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said on Sunday. The new case of coronavirus from the central Mumbai jail comes two days after a doctor attached to it tested positive for Covid-19.
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Why Activists Want Prisons Decontested

Why Activists Want Prisons Decontested

Newsclick / by Subhash Gatade

The Supreme Court also wants to reduce the Covid-19 risks posed by overcrowded jails, but there is little progress so far.
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COVID Treat in Jails Is Real,
Ailing Inmates Must Be Released Now

The Quint / by People’s Union for Democratcic Rights

PUDR expresses apprehensions over the health status of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha who surrendered before the NIA in Mumbai and Delhi respectively on 14 April 2020. Both are implicated in the Bhima Koregaon case of January 2018 in which eleven human rights defenders have been arrested.
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Covid-19 Pandemic: Crackdown On Dissent Putting Lives At Immediate Risk In India

Covid-19 Pandemic: Crackdown On Dissent Putting Lives At Immediate Risk In India


Campaign poster, 2019

By Amnesty International India

The Government of India’s ongoing crackdown on dissent and free speech is leading to the arrest of journalists, activists, lawyers and students under repressive laws and being sent to overcrowded prisons which are potential COVID-19 hotspots. This crackdown during the pandemic puts their lives at immediate risk, said Amnesty International India today.
Read full statement

MORE THAN 300 ACTIVISTS CONDEMN ARRESTS, HARASSMENT OF ANTI-CAA PROTESTERS

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

‘We have reasons to believe that the investigation is being (mis)used to crackdown on political dissent,’ write the signatories. …
These arrests seem to mark the continuation of a disturbing trend: the BJP government’s practice of covering up the violence committed by Hindutva groups by blaming democratic activists and citizens for the same, and its general disregard for the lives of citizens. Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde have been arrested over the Bhima Koregaon violence of 2018, even as its real perpetrators such as Milind Ekbote (a leader of local Hindutva groups) roam free.
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