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Court asks NIA to provide Surendra Gadling copies of the police report and other documents

Court asks NIA to provide Surendra Gadling copies of the police report and other documents

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

Surendra Gadling, along with 15 other activists and academics, has been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Gadling has been in custody since June 2018 and is lodged at Taloja Central Prison in Mumbai.
On Monday, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria heard an application filed by human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist Surendra Gadling regarding a plea for the NIA to comply with Section 207 (supply to the accused of copy of police report and other documents) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Read more

Also read/watch:
● Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire / July 2021)

● Video: The Second Song of Surendra Galding (Adv-Surendra-Gadling-Defence-Committee / lyrics by Sagar Gorkhe)

hindi | 8:43min | June 6, 2023
Five years back this day they took him away hoping to break his spirit.
1825 days so far behind bars and see who won?
During the short release he sang his heart.
Caged yet fearless.
U can jail him not his charisma.
This is the second of the songs.
Watch video / Listen to the song

● Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling (The Wire / lyrics by Ramesh Gaychor)

hindi | 11min | 2021
51- year-old Gadling, a well-known criminal lawyer in Nagpur, was once a cultural activist, who sang songs of political resistance. The 11- minutes- long rendition tells you what it means to be incarcerated in Indian prisons. From food, water, to medical care, everything is a struggle, Gadling narrates. The song was recorded by one of Gadling’s colleagues and was made available to The Wire after obtaining his consent.
Watch video / Listen to the song

The Bhima Koregaon 16 Must Not Be Forgotten

The Bhima Koregaon 16 Must Not Be Forgotten

National Herald / by Aakar Patel

Independent agencies find evidence was planted. Yet the 16 accused remain in jail, denied basic health needs, denied bail to honour dead family members one last time
This month marks five years since the first arrests in the Bhima Koregaon case.
A total of 16 people were arrested in the case, including Father Stan Swamy, who died in custody. Most of them remain in jail. None has been convicted in the case, none has been connected with violence in the place for which the matter is named.
Read more

Also read:
● Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice! (Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) / June 6, 2023)
● Five Years Since The First Arrests In Bhima-Koregaon Case (Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO) / June 6, 2023)
● Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case (Campaign Against State Repression / June 7, 2023)

Thread by Amnesty India / @AIIndia (June 6, 2023):
In a series of arrests, 16 activists were imprisoned simply because they spoke up for the rights of the most marginalized in the country. Today, 5 years have passed since the first round of arrests of activists in the Bhima Koregaon case.

‘Half a decade of arrest, meet time cut to 10 mins’

‘Half a decade of arrest, meet time cut to 10 mins’

TOI / by Shishir Arya

A post on Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya’s Facebook page has a picture of his wife Shoma Sen, with the lines below reading: Five years of incarceration. Another post has pictures of her along with co-accused Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Mahesh Raut. The lines read ‘Repeal UAPA: Behind bars five years and no charges framed, no bail’. A couple of likes can be seen in response.
Read more

Also read:
● Shoma Sen’s discharge application at NIA asserts discrepancies in evidence against her (The Leaflet / June 2023)
● Shoma Sen moves Supreme Court seeking bail (The Leaflet / Apr 2023)
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● Part 1: ‘It is very difficult to see my mother like this’ (Rediff.com / May 2022)
● Part 2: When Your Mother Is In Prison… (Rediff.com / May 2022)

SC directs Gautam Navlakha to pay INR 8 lakhs as cost of deploying police for his house arrest

SC directs Gautam Navlakha to pay INR 8 lakhs as cost of deploying police for his house arrest

Gautam Navlakha

Supreme Court directs Gautam Navlakha to pay INR 8 lakhs as cost of deploying police for his house arrest

28/04/2023

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The NIA has been directed by the court to file a counter affidavit on Navlakha’s plea for change of place of house arrest to another part of Mumbai.
On Friday, the Supreme Court directed Gautam Navlakha to pay INR 8 lakhs towards the cost of deploying police personnel for his house arrest, which was granted to him by the court in November last year.
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Supreme Court Asks Gautam Navlakha To Deposit Rs 8 Lakhs Towards Surveillance And Security Expenses For House Arrest

28/04/2023

Live Law / by Sohini Chowdhury

The Supreme Court, on Friday, directed human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, to deposit Rs 8 lakhs to meet the expenses of surveillance and costs as indicated in its order dated 10.11.2022.
On 10th November, 2022 the Court ordered to move Navlakha, 73, from Taloja Central Prison to house arrest, considering his advanced age and multiple multiple ailments. In that order, the court had recorded that while he was on house arrest, the expense of surveillance, approximately Rs. 2.4 lakhs, would be borne by Navlakha himself.
Read more

Also read:
● Gautam Navlakha moves SC seeking change of address for house arrest (The Telegraph / April 2023)
● Explainer: As activist Gautam Navlakha is allowed house arrest, what does this actually involve? (Scroll.in / Nov 2022)

Podcast: Living inside prison is a dehumanising experience | Sudha Bharadwaj

Podcast: Living inside prison is a dehumanising experience | Sudha Bharadwaj


en + hindi | 37:45min | 2023

CJP / by CJP Team

Episode 19 of CJP’s Podcast Series RightsCast
Over the past three decades, Sudha Bharadwaj has served the most marginalized sections of this country as a trade unionist, activist and lawyer. Among 16 activists and academics arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, she was the first to be granted default bail after more than three years in prison.
Listen to her about living in jail and discovering the harsh reality of women in Indian prisons on this exclusive podcast.
Listen to the podcast

Also watch/read:

● Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails

By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022

en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails.
Watch video

● ‘Buzz of a Mosquito… But With the Sound of Grief’: The Lives of India’s Women Prisoners (The Wire / March 2021)

Gautam Navlakha moves SC seeking change of address for house arrest

Gautam Navlakha moves SC seeking change of address for house arrest

Gautam Navlakha

The Telegraph / by pti

The bench was told by counsel for the activist, that the place, where he is under house arrest, is a public library and needs to be vacated
Activist Gautam Navlakha Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking to be shifted from the public library in Mumbai, where he is under house arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to some other place in the city.
Navlakha’s counsel told a bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna that the public library needed to be vacated.
Read more

Also read:
● Explainer: As activist Gautam Navlakha is allowed house arrest, what does this actually involve? (Scroll.in / Nov 2022)
● All I ask is an hour to breathe in fresh air, soak in sun, rights activist Gautam Navlakha in plea (Free Press Journal / Dec 2021)

Taloja prison authorities not complying with order allowing computer use, court told

Taloja prison authorities not complying with order allowing computer use, court told

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The accused, Surendra Gadling and Arun Ferreira, were permitted by the court on January 23 to use computers twice a week and software to view documents submitted by the National Investigation Agency as evidence.
Nearly three months after a special court directed authorities at Taloja Central Prison to permit two accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, who are lawyers representing themselves, use of computers twice a week and necessary software to view evidence, they informed the court on Thursday that prison officials had not complied with the order.
Read more

Also read:
● Provide access to computer, court tells jail authorities on plea made by Surendra Gadling and Arun Ferreira (The Indian Express / Jan 2023)
● Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)

Surendra Gadling’s plea to allow him to appear in person pending before the Bombay High Court

Surendra Gadling’s plea to allow him to appear in person pending before the Bombay High Court

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

In the application, Gadling detailed his right to appear in person and the tedious process of in-person visits for undertrial prisoners.
On April 10, 2023, a division Bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sharmila Deshmukh, recused itself from hearing an appeal by human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist Surendra Gadling for the grant of default bail. With its recent change in assignments, the high court is yet to decide on Gadling’s application to appear in person and allow his production before the high court, where his appeal for grant of default bail is pending. The application was sent by Gadling from Taloja jail in November 2022.
Read more

Also read:
● To allow or not allow Surendra Gadling to argue his own case, Bombay HC deliberates (India Today / March 2023)
● Explainer: Arsenal Report on Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet / July 2021)

Also watch:
● Video: The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling
hindi | 11min | 2021

The Wire / lyrics by Ramesh Gaichor

51- year-old Gadling, a well-known criminal lawyer in Nagpur, was once a cultural activist, who sang songs of political resistance. The 11- minutes- long rendition tells you what it means to be incarcerated in Indian prisons. From food, water, to medical care, everything is a struggle, Gadling narrates. The song was recorded by one of Gadling’s colleagues and was made available to The Wire after obtaining his consent.
Watch video

Podcast: How are women treated in Indian prisons | Teesta Setalvad | Sudha Bhardwaj | Sokalo Gond

Podcast: How are women treated in Indian prisons | Teesta Setalvad | Sudha Bhardwaj | Sokalo Gond


en/hindi | 13:18min | 2023

By Citizens for Justice and Peace (cjp)

Episode 18 of CJP’s Podcast Series RightsCast
How does the Indian Prison system strip the women inmates of their basic rights and dignity? In a patriarchal society, within a prison system that’s designed to focus on male inmates, how do female prisoners navigate their incarceration?
Listen to this in-depth podcast on the conditions of women inmates in India’s prisons where human rights activists, Adivasi leaders, student activists, lawyers and citizens-in-resistance share stories of horror and explore the plight of women in prison.
Listen to the podcast

Video: Being inside the Jail is a dehumanising experience | Sudha Bharadwaj | QUAID KE PARE

By Citizens for Justice and Peace
hindi | 3:13min
Watch video

Video: Healthcare and Mental Health inside Prison | Sudha Bharadwaj | QUAID KE PARE

By Citizens for Justice and Peace
hindi | 5:51min
Watch video

Also watch/read:

● Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails

By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022


en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails.
Watch video

● ‘Buzz of a Mosquito… But With the Sound of Grief’: The Lives of India’s Women Prisoners (The Wire / March 2021)

Video: “Plan to curtail civil society,” says Hany Babu’s wife Jenny Rowena

Video: “Plan to curtail civil society,” says Hany Babu’s wife Jenny Rowena


en | 11:58min | 2023

Maktoobmedia.com / by Shaheen Abadulla

Jenny Rowena, the wife of jailed Delhi University professor Hany Babu, laments the situation of prisons in India and accuses that, as a society, we failed to have a social ethos that never undermines prisoners’ rights.
While talking to Maktoob‘s Shaheen Abdulla, she emphasized that medical negligence in prisons has led to serious conditions for Babu, who is booked under UAPA in the Elgar Parishad Bhima Koregaon case.
Watch video