Sagar Gorkhe – Page 2 – free them all

Raising the bar from behind bars: Mahesh Raut and Sagar Gorkhe pass law entrance test

08/05/2024 Asha

Maharashtra: Raising the bar from behind bars

08/05/2024

Midday.com / by Eshan Kalyanikar

Bhima-Koregaon accused Mahesh Raut and Sagar Gorkhe clear law exam even as their own controversial case drags on
Two of the 16 activists charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the Bhima-Koregaon case cleared their Common Entrance Test (CET) for law college admission while in jail, clinging to hope for bail and an eventual declaration of innocence by the court. For the past six years, Mahesh Raut and Sagar Gorkhe, both 36, have spent their days in Taloja jail surrounded by undertrials. Their families and friends said this experience motivated them to become lawyers, providing legal aid to those in need.
Read more

Bhima Koregaon case: Two prisoners pass law entrance test

08/05/2024

Hindustan Times / by Sabah Virani

Mahesh Raut and Sagar Gorkhe hold master’s degrees from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Yashawantrao Chavhan Maharashtra Open University
With only the aid of old books from the Taloja Central Prison’s library, Mahesh Raut, arrested in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case, scored 99.79% in the state common entrance test (CET) for law. Sagar Gorkhe, a fellow accused, also passed the test, scoring 57.7%. The results were declared on May 3.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Mahesh Raut’s bail gets entangled in tagging of similar matters (The Leaflet / Jan 2024)
▪ What is Kabir Kala Manch, the cultural group accused of being a Maoist front? (The Indian Express / Jan 2024)
▪ Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)

HC grants bail to Sagar Gorkhe to attend brother’s wedding

29/04/2024 Asha

Sagar Gorkha, Ramesh Gaichor. Poster by #bakeryprasad

Hindustan Times / by Sahyaja MS

The cultural activist and member of Kabir Kala Manch is set to be released from Taloja Central Jail on May 1. He must return to the prison by May 4
The Bombay high court has granted temporary bail to Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon conspiracy case, to attend his brother’s wedding in Pune. The cultural activist and member of Kabir Kala Manch is set to be released from Taloja Central Jail on May 1. He must return to the prison by May 4 and would be escorted by police personnel in the interim period.
Read more

Also read/watch:
▪ Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 20, 2022)
▪ Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
▪ Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022

‘Never Adjusted Your Stand’: 9 Elgar Accused Congratulate Anand Teltumbde From Jail

04/02/2024 Asha

‘Never Adjusted Your Stand’: 9 Elgar Accused Congratulate Anand Teltumbde From Jail

05/02/2024

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Their co-accused who is out on bail, Teltumbde has been conferred the Basava National Award – Karnataka’s highest honour.
… Although a few have been granted bail on medical and technical grounds, nine remain behind bars at Byculla and Taloja prisons in Maharashtra. The latter have written a congratulatory letter to co-accused Dr Anand Teltumbde, on his being given the Karnataka government’s highest award, the Basava Award.
The letter, which the prisoners released through their lawyers, is being produced below.
Read more

‘A small streak of light’: Seven BK prisoners congratulate Anand Teltumbde on award

04/02/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The writer, who is on bail in the same case, was honoured with the Basava Award by the Karnataka government on January 31.
The seven people who are still in jail in the Bhima Koregaon case have congratulated their co-accused Anand Teltumbde for having been granted the Karnataka government’s Basava Award on January 31 and pushing “forward the wheel of democratic revolution of annihilating the caste system”.
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘My state has done the greatest honour by putting me in jail’: Anand Teltumbde after receiving award (Indian Express / Feb 2024)

What is Kabir Kala Manch, the cultural group accused of being a Maoist front?

29/01/2024 Asha

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The KKM was formed by a Pune activist, Amarnath Chandaliya, after the Gujarat riots in 2002 for promoting unity.
An alleged operative of the banned CPI-Maoist, Santosh Vasant Shelar alias Vishwa alias Painter, who went missing from Pune in November 2010, returned home over a week ago in bad health.
… The KKM was among the outfits that organised Elgaar Parishad at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Koregaon Bhima, fought between Peshwas and Britishers on January 1, 1818.
Read more

Also read/watch:
▪ Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
▪ Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022
▪ The Security Playbook Used To Erode Democracy In Modi’s India & How The Tide Might Turn (article 14 / March 2022)
▪ Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week? (Scroll.in / Sep 2020)

Bhima Koregaon: The process continues to clot as punishment as another year passes by

01/01/2024 Asha

The Leaflet / by Ayaz Parrey and Sarah Thanawala

Many of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad case have now spent one more year incarcerated without a trial. A far cry from the verbiage of high judicial officials that even a day’s denial of liberty is too much.
… Here is a recap of the major developments in the case this year, of bail applications granted, stayed and pending; the consistent pleas for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to comply with the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973; and the courts heeding to medical conditions-related pleas of the accused.
Read more

‘How Long Can the Moon be Caged?’ documents increasing suppression of free speech in India

29/11/2023 Asha

WBUR / Deepa Fernandes speaks with Suchitra Vijayan

Host Deepa Fernandes speaks with Suchitra Vijayan, co-author of the new book “How Long Can the Moon be Caged?,” which documents how people who speak in favor of Muslims and minority communities have increasingly been arrested and imprisoned by the Indian government.
Podcast
en | 9:45min | 2023
Listen to the podcast

Book excerpt: ‘How Long Can the Moon be Caged?’
By Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
A Dalit activist we spoke to said that most people do not encounter the state the way Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims do. She told us: ‘The state has always had a boot on our necks.’ Forget living; imagine what it takes to survive this. The boot is always pressed against minorities’ necks, making it hard to breathe, demanding that they beg for dignity every day. She added: ‘[For us] it doesn’t matter who is in power; oppression is the only thing that hasn’t changed’.
Read more

Also read/watch:
● Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
● Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022

NIA Court rejects plea of Sagar Gorkhe to continue medical treatment in Taloja Prison

16/11/2023 Asha

You’re not of unsound mind, elaborate on med issues: Court to Elgar accused

16/11/2023

Times of India / by Rebecca Samervel

Even as an accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case sought continuation of his psychiatric treatment, saying he was suffering from depression and and excessive worry for two years, a special court said that considering the treatment papers received from the chief medical officer of Taloja prison and answers given by him the judge’s interaction, prima facie, there is no reason to believe that he has any sort of “unsoundness of mind” or mental illness.
Read more

‘No reason to believe accused is mental ill’: Court rejects plea of Elgaar Parshad accused to continue treatment

15/11/2023

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

The court directed jail authorities at Taloja Central Prison to submit his medical records. Referring to the reports, the court said that while the accused was referred to JJ Hospital and was on medication for depression and referred for counselling, the psychiatrist in October had advised that the medicines be stopped.
An accused in the Elgaar Parishad case told the court, on November 8, that although he has been suffering from depression for the past two years, the medicines prescribed to him have been discontinued from last month.
Read more

Also read:
● NIA court directs prison authorities to provide Sagar Gorkhe treatment at J.J. Hospital (The Leaflet / Nov 2023)
● Securing the right to health of political prisoners (The Leaflet / Oct 2022)
● Relatives of BK16 Flag Prison Authorities’ ‘Criminal Negligence’ and Deteriorating Health of Undertrials (Newsclick / Sep 2022)
● Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 20, 2022)

NIA court directs prison authorities to provide Sagar Gorkhe treatment at J.J. Hospital

08/11/2023 Asha

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

An application was filed by Sagar Gorkhe, praying the court to direct urgent and necessary treatment for his mental and physical health. According to the application, the prison authorities have deprived Gorkhe of medicines and treatment for his psychiatric conditions.
Today, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria directed the jail superintendent of Taloja Central Prison to refer Sagar Gorkhe to J.J. Hospital, Mumbai to provide him with the required medical treatment.
Read more

Also read:
● Securing the right to health of political prisoners (The Leaflet / Oct 2022)
● Relatives of BK16 Flag Prison Authorities’ ‘Criminal Negligence’ and Deteriorating Health of Undertrials (Newsclick / Sep 2022)
● Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
● Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 20, 2022)

Truth and dare in Bhima Koregaon

02/10/2023 Asha

The Leaflet / by Susan Abraham

The Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad ‘Maoist’ conspiracy case is a grand experiment with truth where the State is daring the people to stand up for justice.
‘TRUTH or dare’ is a mostly verbal party game requiring two or more players. Players are given the choice between answering a question truthfully, or performing a ‘dare’. The premise is simple: Players take turns asking one another ‘truth or dare?’ If they choose truth, they have to answer a question of the asker’s choosing. If they choose dare, the asker dares them to do something rather than make a confession.
Suppose the State were to subject its citizens to a macabre version of this game by cooking up a conspiracy case and locking up people behind bars. Then tell them that in order to win their freedom, they have to choose the ‘truth’ of the conspiracy or the ‘dare’ to dissent.
This is the absurd logic that plays out when you try to make sense of the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case.
Read more

Also read:
● Five years of Bhima Koregaon arrests: CDRO marks ‘black day’ (The Leaflet / Jun 2023)

Three years have passed since Ramesh, Jyoti and Sagar were arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case

08/09/2023 Asha

By Kabir Kala Manch via fb

… Three years have passed today since Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, the three artists and activists of Kabir Kala Mancha were arrested in the false case of Bhima Koregaon without any evidence under UAPA …
#FreeAllBK16
#FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners
Read more [Marathi]

by Apeksha Priyadarshini / @apeksha_9 (Sep 9)
Three Years of Injustice!
Free People’s Artists Jyoti, Ramesh and Sagar!
Free All Activists wrongfully incarcerated in the Bhima Koregaon case!
Repeal UAPA!
#FreeBK15 #baso

by ajay kasbe / @journalistajay_ (Sep 8)
#FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners #freeBk16 #releasesagar #releasejyoti #releaseramesh #bhimakoregaon #jaybhim #jaibheem

Also read/watch:
● Supreme Court asks whether Gonsalves and Ferreira judgment “formula” can be applied to Jyoti Jagtap (The Leaflet / Aug 2023)
● Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022
● Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
● The Security Playbook Used To Erode Democracy In Modi’s India & How The Tide Might Turn (article 14 / March 2022)
● Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week? (Scroll.in / Sep 2020)