Ramesh Gaichor – free them all

Ramesh Gaichor released on temporary bail, jail authority apologises to Bombay HC for delay

10/09/2025 Asha

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

HC slams police, prison authorities for delay in releasing Bhima Koregaon accused

12/09/2025

Hindustan Times / by Karuna Nidhi

The Bombay High Court criticized Maharashtra Police for not releasing anti-caste activist Ramesh Gaichor on temporary bail to visit his ailing father.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday strongly criticised the Maharashtra Police and Prison Authorities for their laxity in failing to release anti-caste activist Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, 41, arrested in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.
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Ramesh Gaichor released on temporary bail to meet ailing father, jail authority apologises to Bombay HC for delay

11/09/2025

Indian Express / by Express News Service

The Bombay High Court had pulled up Taloja Prison authorities for not complying with its August 26 order for releasing Ramesh Gaichor on temporary bail. Ramesh Gaichor was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2020.
The Taloja Prison authorities on Thursday tendered an unconditional apology before the Bombay High Court for not complying with its August 26 order and submitted that the Elgaar Parishad case accused Ramesh Gaichor was released on a three-day temporary bail on the night of September 10.
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Bombay HC grants extended temporary bail to Elgar Parishad accused

11/09/2025

National Herald / by NH Political Bureau

HC bench comes down heavily on authorities for what it describes as blatant non-compliance with judicial orders
Bombay High Court has extended temporary bail for activist Ramesh Gaichor, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, after prison authorities delayed his earlier release despite court orders. Gaichor was finally released from Taloja jail on Wednesday night, nearly two weeks after being granted three-day bail on humanitarian grounds.
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HC criticises prison authorities for not releasing Ramesh Gaichor despite bail

11/09/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

In August, the Bombay High Court granted activist Ramesh Gaichor bail for three days to meet his ailing father.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the police and prison authorities in Maharashtra for not releasing activist Ramesh Gaichor, who is accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, who was granted three-day temporary bail on August 26 to meet his ailing father, Live Law reported.
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Bombay HC Slams Prison Authorities For Failing To Release Ramesh Gaichor Despite Temporary Bail

10/09/2025

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

Asking if the State has put ‘humanity’ to rest, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Maharashtra Police and also the Prison Authorities for not releasing Ramesh Gaichor, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case, who was last month granted a temporary bail of three days to meet his ailing father in Pune.
Read more

Also read:
▪ High Court grants temporary bail to Elgar Parishad accused to meet ailing father (India Today / Aug 2025)
▪ Bail plea of Elgar Parishad case accused to take care of ailing father rejected (India Today / Jul 2025)
▪ Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system (The Polis Project | by Ramesh Gaichor | Sep 2024)
▪ Ramesh Gaichor’s parents just want to meet him again before they die (The Polis Project / Jul 2024)

Ongoing detention of activists without bail, criminalisation of dissent and ban on books

08/09/2025 Asha

monitor.civicus.org / by CIVICUS

India’s civic space is rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Even as the country celebrated its 79th Independence Day on 15th August 2025, the government continued to target activists and civil society organisations by misusing draconian anti-terror and sedition laws to silence dissent. Laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) are used to keep activists and academics behind bars and to fabricate charges against those critical of the government and its polarising, discriminative and anti-poor policies.
…
BK-16 activists detained for years continue to seek bail
Academic and anti-caste activist Hany Babu was due to appear before the Bombay High Court seeking regular (indefinite) bail on 12th August 2025 after his request was approved by the Supreme Court on 16th July 2025. However, his bail hearing has been delayed without prior notice until 8th September 2025. He has spent more than 5 years in jail awaiting trial.
Hany Babu, who has been held in pre-trial detention since his formal arrest on 28 July 2020, has applied for bail on at least five separate occasions, including medical bail, but has yet to be approved.
Read more

Also read:
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS /Jul 2024)
▪ Civic Freedoms in India ‘Repressed’: Global Monitor Civicus (The Wire / Mar 2023)

Bombay High Court grants three-day bail to Ramesh Gaichor to visit ailing father

26/08/2025 Asha

High Court grants temporary bail to Elgar Parishad accused to meet ailing father

26/08/2025

India Today / by Vidya

The Bombay High Court granted Ramesh Gaichor, arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, three-day temporary bail to visit his ailing 75-year-old father, waiving escort charges citing his modest family background.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed Elgar Parishad accused Ramesh Gaichor temporary bail for three days to meet his ailing father, whom he has not seen in over four years of incarceration.
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Bombay High Court Grants 3 Days Interim Bail To Accused Ramesh Gaichor To Visit Ailing Father In Pune

26/08/2025

Live Law / by Barsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday (August 26) granted interim bail for 3 days to Ramesh Gaichor, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case, enabling him to visit his ailing father in Pune.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Rajesh Patil ordered Gaichor’s release on a surety of Rs. 25,000. He would be escorted by a police team, to be arranged by the Commissioner of Police, Navi Mumbai as he is presently lodged in Taloja jail.
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Bombay High Court grants three-day bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Ramesh Gaichor to visit father

26/08/2025

Bar & Bench / by Sahyaja MS

A special NIA court had earlier rejected Gaichor’s bail application to meet his ailing father.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted three-day temporary bail to Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case of 2018 [Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor v National Investigation Agency].
A Bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Rajesh Patil granted temporary relief to Gaichor to enable him to visit his ailing 76-year-old father.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Bail plea of Elgar Parishad case accused to take care of ailing father rejected (India Today / Jul 2025)
▪ Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system (The Polis Project | by Ramesh Gaichor | Sep 2024)
▪ Ramesh Gaichor’s parents just want to meet him again before they die (The Polis Project / Jul 2024)

Ramesh Gaichor Moves Bombay High Court, Seeks Interim Bail To Visit Ailing Father

06/08/2025 Asha

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday (August 6) ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take instructions and file a reply in response to the petition filed by Ramesh Gaichor, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case, who has sought temporary bail to visit his ailing father.
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Daring, Fearless and Kind, Father Stan Swamy Remains a Beacon of Resistance

04/07/2025 Asha

The Wire / by Hany Babu, Jyoti Jagtap, Mahesh Raut, Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe, Surendra Gadling

On the fourth anniversary of Father Stan’s death due to alleged medical negligence in prison, his co-defendants in jail have vowed to lead a hunger strike.
On July 5, 2021, Father Stan Swamy left us, succumbing to failing health aggravated by the deliberate denial of medical care by a repressive state as part of its devious strategy in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case. Four years have passed since this institutional murder of Father Stan. We seethe in indignation on the very memory of this day, when the real, violent, blood-thirsty face of the state unravelled to one and all.
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Symptoms cited to meet ailing father ‘common for almost every senior citizen’: NIA court denies Ramesh Gaichor interim bail

02/07/2025 Asha

Symptoms cited to meet ailing father ‘common for almost every senior citizen’: Mumbai court denies interim bail for Ramesh Gaichor

03/07/2025

The India Express / by Sadaf Modak

Ramesh Gaichor has been in jail since 2020 over alleged Maoist affiliation in the Elgaar Parishad case and sought interim bail for two weeks to meets his father.
A special court in Mumbai Tueday denied interim bail for two weeks sought by an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, citing that symptoms suffered by his father are “quite common for almost every senior citizen”.
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NIA Court rejects interim bail plea by Bhima Koregaon violence accused Ramesh Gaichor
[Read Order]

03/07/2025

Bar & Bench / by Sahyaja MS

A special NIA court in Mumbai on Tuesday denied interim bail to Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case [Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor v National Investigation Agency]
Gaichor had sought a two-week temporary release to visit his ailing father.
Read more

Also read/watch:
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system (The Polis Project / Sep 2024)

▪ WE ARE CHILDREN OF AMBEDKAR: Shahir Ramesh and Sagar

hindi/english subtitles | 07:26min | 2020

Shahir Sagar Gorkhe and Shahir Ramesh Gaichor, prominent members of Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerna Abhiyan and Kabir Kala Manch, found themselves at the receiving end of the BJP government’s actions when they were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 7th September 2020.
Both Shahir Sagar Gorkhe and Shahir Ramesh Gaichor have asserted that the NIA forced them to provide false testimony against those already arrested. They were coerced into writing confessional statements seeking forgiveness and implicating other individuals in the case. However, their steadfast refusal to comply with these unjust demands has put them at risk of being arrested by the NIA.
In a recorded video statement, Sagar emphasized their commitment to following the constitution and their allegiance to Dr. Ambedkar, stating, “We aren’t progenies of Savarkar but are children of Dr. Ambedkar. Confessing to things we have never done is out of the question.”

Watch video

Approver | A Poem From Prison by Sudhir Dhawale

22/02/2025 Asha

Outlook India / by Sudhir Dhawale, translated from Marathi to English by Vernon Gonsalves

Dalit rights activist Sudhir Dhawale, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case wrote this poem in prison on ‘Why he will not collaborate’
… The following poem is an ode to his artiste friends Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor from Kabir Kala Manch, who were arrested in connection with the same case in 2020 by the National Investigation Agency. Before their arrests, the duo released a video, disclosing that they were being threatened by security agencies to turn an approver and spend less time behind bars. The two continue to remain imprisoned.

I didn’t plant the bomb,
I didn’t even dream of it,
I shall not collaborate, with you.

Read the poem in full

Also read/watch:
▪ Sudhir Dhawale interview: ‘The law remains blind to injustice even with the blindfold gone’ (Scroll.in / Feb 2025)
▪ Interview | Sudhir Dhawale’s Work Will Go on (The Wire / Feb 2025)
▪ Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale released: Seven years of injustice by a state that punishes dissent [read order] (Sabrangindia / Jan 2025)
▪ WE ARE CHILDREN OF AMBEDKAR: Shahir Ramesh and Sagar

hindi/english subtitles | 07:26min | 2020

Shahir Sagar Gorkhe and Shahir Ramesh Gaichor, prominent members of Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerna Abhiyan and Kabir Kala Manch, found themselves at the receiving end of the BJP government’s actions when they were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 7th September 2020.
Both Shahir Sagar Gorkhe and Shahir Ramesh Gaichor have asserted that the NIA forced them to provide false testimony against those already arrested. They were coerced into writing confessional statements seeking forgiveness and implicating other individuals in the case. However, their steadfast refusal to comply with these unjust demands has put them at risk of being arrested by the NIA.
In a recorded video statement, Sagar emphasized their commitment to following the constitution and their allegiance to Dr. Ambedkar, stating, “We aren’t progenies of Savarkar but are children of Dr. Ambedkar. Confessing to things we have never done is out of the question.”

Watch video

Elgar Parishad Prisoners’ Hunger Strike Marks a Momentous Victory for Prison Rights

11/11/2024 Asha

The Polis Project / by Prashant Rahi

On October 24, the lawyers and activists accused in the Elgar Parishad case were brought to court from Taloja Central Jail for their hearing. This bare minimum satisfaction of their basic legal right to be present for their case had become far from routine. It happened for the first time in nearly two months, after many hearings held in their absence, and despite specific directions from the court for their production. In fact, it took a hunger strike by seven of the accused – the latest of numerous protests by the BK-16 over the denial of bare necessities and basic rights – for the prison administration to concede to their demands.
Read more

Also read:
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries (By The Polis Project)
▪ Elgar Parishad case accused seeks contempt action against Navi Mumbai cop (India Today / Oct 25, 2024)
▪ Elgaar Parishad case undertrials on protest path for not being produced in court for successive hearings (The Telegraph / Oct 20, 2024)
▪ Not Produced in Court Despite Directions, Seven Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike (The Wire / Oct 18, 2024)

Hunger strike called off for now | Not Produced in Court Despite Directions – Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike

18/10/2024 Asha

Elgaar Parishad case undertrials on protest path for not being produced in court for successive hearings

20/10/2024

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

Non-availability of police escorts is a common reason for undertrials not being produced in courts across India
Seven inmates at the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai, awaiting trial in the 2018 Elgaar Parishad case, on Saturday evening ended the hunger strike that they had started on Friday to protest against police who didn’t produce them in court for successive hearings.
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by Sukanya Shantha @ sukanyashantha (Oct 20)

Update: The hunger strike has been called off for now.
The prison officials submitted an urgent application to the court & have assured them that they’ll be a produced before the NIA court on Oct 24.
If the seven men aren’t presented then, they plan to resume their hunger strike.

Not Produced in Court Despite Directions, Seven Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike

18/10/2024

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The activists have not been produced before the court for the last three hearings in the case. Seven human rights defenders facing prolonged incarceration in the infamous Elgar Parishad case went on a hunger strike on Friday (October 18).
The activists have not been produced before the court for the last three hearings in the case. Today, despite a court order, the Navi Mumbai police failed to provide an escort team to take the incarcerated individuals from the Taloja central prison to the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court located in south Mumbai, prompting the activists to announce their hunger strike.
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BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system

19/09/2024 Asha

To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system

19/09/2024

The Polis Project / by Ramesh Gaichor

Jinhe naaz hai Hind par unko lao
Jinhe naaz hai Hind par woh kahaan hain?
(Bring those who are proud of this land
Where are they who are proud of this land?)

These lines of Sahir Ludhianvi, written shortly after the country gained independence, still strike a deep chord. But today, in what way will the neo-Peshwai government of this country receive these words, and what will it do to poets and song-writers like Sahir?
Perhaps it will put them behind towering impenetrable walls, erected over segregated acres of land, under the watchful eye of 24-hour security guards, armed with firearms, lathis, and belts.
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HC slams police, prison authorities for delay in releasing Bhima Koregaon accused

Ramesh Gaichor released on temporary bail to meet ailing father, jail authority apologises to Bombay HC for delay

Bombay HC grants extended temporary bail to Elgar Parishad accused

HC criticises prison authorities for not releasing Ramesh Gaichor despite bail

Bombay HC Slams Prison Authorities For Failing To Release Ramesh Gaichor Despite Temporary Bail

High Court grants temporary bail to Elgar Parishad accused to meet ailing father

Bombay High Court Grants 3 Days Interim Bail To Accused Ramesh Gaichor To Visit Ailing Father In Pune

Bombay High Court grants three-day bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Ramesh Gaichor to visit father

Symptoms cited to meet ailing father ‘common for almost every senior citizen’: Mumbai court denies interim bail for Ramesh Gaichor

NIA Court rejects interim bail plea by Bhima Koregaon violence accused Ramesh Gaichor [Read Order]

Elgaar Parishad case undertrials on protest path for not being produced in court for successive hearings

Not Produced in Court Despite Directions, Seven Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system

NIA Court rejects interim bail plea by Bhima Koregaon violence accused Ramesh Gaichor
[Read Order]