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Tag: GN Saibaba

‘Tell the judge he has done no crime’: The struggles of Hany Babu’s family

‘Tell the judge he has done no crime’: The struggles of Hany Babu’s family

Scroll.in / Mekhala Saran

On July 28, Delhi University professor 57-year-old Hany Babu will complete five years of incarceration.
When the National Investigation Agency came for Babu in 2020, India was battling the Covid-19 virus, which is known to fester and multiply in densely packed spaces, such as prison cells.
The Delhi University professor, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, has been in jail for five years with no trial in sight.
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Today, Emergency Rules! / Police torture, ill-treatment make India ‘high risk’: Report

Today, Emergency Rules! / Police torture, ill-treatment make India ‘high risk’: Report

Fifty Years Later… Today, Emergency Rules!

27/06/2025

Countercurrents / by Frederic Prakash

It was fifty years ago! The nation will and should never forget that dark, infamous night of 25/26 June 1975, when, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency all over the country, citing internal and external disturbances! That terrible chapter of the country’s history lasted for a full twenty-one-month period till 21 March 1977. … Ironically and tragically, fifty years later…today, emergency still rules!
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India’s Social Regression Under Modi’s Eleven Years May Not Be Mendable

26/06/2025

The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde

While much has been written about the Modi regime’s economic failures and diplomatic missteps, the most insidious damage lies elsewhere – in the corrosion of India’s socio-cultural fabric.
… This damage is evident in the erosion of the country’s pluralistic ethos and the hardening of its deepest societal fault lines. A comparative glance at key social indicators from the pre-2014 era to the present reveals a sharp regression into communal majoritarianism, anti-intellectualism and institutionalised discrimination.
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Police torture, ill-treatment make India ‘high risk’: Report

25/06/2025

Newslaundry / by NL Team

India was among the 26 countries assessed by the World Organization.
India has been ranked a “high-risk” country for torture and ill-treatment in the World Organization Against Torture’s first Global Torture Index 2025 that was released on Wednesday.
… Prominent cases include the Bhima Koregaon trial and the continued incarceration of Kashmiri activist Khurram Parvez. The report also raises concern over reprisals against activists monitoring public protests, from anti-Sterlite demonstrators to farmers’ agitations.
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Read India report: INDIA – COUNTRY FACTSHEET 2025 (World Organization Against Torture / Jun 2025)


India among the eight worst countries in the world for torture

26/06/2025

Asia News / by Nirmala Carvalho

The report was presented in Geneva by the World Organisation Against Torture. There were 2,739 deaths in prison in 2024, an increase on the previous year.
… The report also highlights the persecution of human rights defenders as a major concern in India. ‘Torture is used as a weapon to silence them,’ Tiphagne said. He cited the case of Khurram Parvez, who has been in prison for over four years, and the defendants in the Bhima Koregaon case, who are still being held without trial.
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Why Bela Trivedi retired from Supreme Court as a deeply unpopular judge

Why Bela Trivedi retired from Supreme Court as a deeply unpopular judge

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

Scroll.in / by Vineet Bhalla

Over her four-year tenure in the court, Trivedi developed a reputation for rarely granting bail, locking horns with lawyers, and favouring the BJP.
Trivedi was elevated to the Supreme Court from the Gujarat High Court in August 2021. According to a study by the Supreme Court Observer, till October 2024, almost 40% of the judgements authored by her as a Supreme Court judge were in criminal law matters – an unusually large number.
Her track record in many of these showed that she went against the oft-repeated adage by the Supreme Court that “bail is the rule, jail is the exception”.
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Also read:
Ex-DU prof Hany Babu withdraws bail plea in Supreme Court (Hindustan Times / May 2024)
Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)
‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
When Push Comes to Shove: Tracking Judicial Recusals and Transfers (The Wire / Apr 2023)
Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)
Ten recusals in Bhima Koregaon raises the question: Should judges disclose reasons for withdrawal? (Scroll.in / May 2022)

Supreme Court to examine lack of facilities in jails for disabled prisoners after PIL cites Saibaba, Stan Swamy

Supreme Court to examine lack of facilities in jails for disabled prisoners after PIL cites Saibaba, Stan Swamy

Govt gets SC notice on plea asking better facilities for disabled prisoners

11/03/2025

Business Standard / by pti

Citing instances of professor G N Saibaba and activist Stan Swamy to highlight the “severe neglect” of disabled prisoners, the plea said necessary provisions should be incorporated in Prisoners Act
The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Centre on a plea seeking adequate facilities for disabled prisoners in jails, and implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, in prisons across the country.
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Supreme Court to examine lack of facilities in jails for disabled prisoners after PIL cites Saibaba, Stan Swamy

08/03/2025

Bar & Bench / by Ummar Jamal

While Stan Swamy had passed away while lodged in jail as an undertrial prisoner, Saibaba had passed away last year a few months after he was acquitted and released from prison
The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the Central government to a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) seeking adequate facilities for disabled prisoners in jails and and full implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act of 2016 in prisons across the country [Sathyan Naravoor v. Union of India & Ors.]
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SC takes up the cause of disabled prisoners on the basis of a plea invoking Saibaba, Stan Swamy

07/03/2025

The Hindu / by Krishnadas Rajagopal

Petition raised a “serious” issue about the lack of disabled-friendly accommodation and facilities in prisons across the country
The Supreme Court on Friday (March 7, 2025) said a petition highlighting the trauma and inhumane conditions suffered by Professor G. Saibaba and the elderly Stan Swamy raised a “serious” issue about the lack of disabled-friendly accommodation and facilities in prisons across the country.
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Also read:
G.N. Saibaba’s Lifelong Campaign Was Against the Violence of Silencing (The Wire | by Rona Wilson | Oct 2024)
Stan Swamy parallel in former DU professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba’s death after 10-year jail (The Telegraph / Oct 2024)
Some personal reflections on prison medical care (The Leaflet | Vernon Gonsalves | Apr 2024)

India: Death of human rights defender and continued repression of dissent highlights risks facing activists

India: Death of human rights defender and continued repression of dissent highlights risks facing activists

CIVICUS / by CIVICUS

India’s civil space is rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. In recent years, the government has misused the draconian anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other laws to keep activists behind bars and fabricate cases against activists and journalists for undertaking their work. The authorities have blocked access to foreign funding for NGOs and human rights defenders, using the restrictive Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
… There are other human rights defenders who have remained in jail for years under the draconian UAPA and also died in custody.
They include those implicated on baseless charges linked to the Bhima Koraegon violence in 2018 including Surendra Gadling, Hany Babu, Rona Wilson, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut and Jyoti Jagtap.
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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 / Oct 2023)

Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud: The New Right liberal

Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud: The New Right liberal

Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud: The New Right liberal

05/11/2024

The Leaflet / by Indira Jaising

Does the outgoing Chief Justice of India represent the emergence of a New Right in India, one that is modern and yet able to rely on a norm above the Constitution to perform the judicial function, writes Indira Jaising.
… It was during this period that pre-trial jail and not bail became the norm of the Supreme Court of India. The accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, granted bail by the Bombay High Court, had their bail Orders stayed by the Supreme Court of India by a Bench of which Justice Trivedi was a member. Many withdrew their petitions for bail rather than have them dismissed by the Supreme Court.
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I Have Always Granted Bail From A To Z, From Arnab To Zubair: CJI DY Chandrachud

05/11/2024

Live Law / by Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

Speaking at yesterday’s discussion organised by The Indian Express, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud answered many pressing issues and controversies including whether the Supreme Court stands true to the ‘bail is the rule, jail an exception’ principle.
Set to demit the office on November 10, CJI was asked by Apurva Vishwanath, The Indian Express, what institutional processes and mechanisms are required to prevent cases such as that of G.N. Saibaba and Stan Swamy, who have languished as undertrial prisoners for years in jail.
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Also read:
Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)
As Bhima Koregaon case completes its fourth anniversary, State reprisal is writ large in its twists and turns (The Leaflet / June 2022)
#BhimaKoregaonVerdict: Between the majority and the minority judgments of the Supreme Court (The Leaflet / Oct 2018)

G.N. Saibaba’s Lifelong Campaign Was Against the Violence of Silencing

G.N. Saibaba’s Lifelong Campaign Was Against the Violence of Silencing

The Wire / by Rona Wilson

Activist Rona Wilson, incarcerated in the Elgar Parishad case that has still not gone into trial, pens a note for a friend.

“I have lived all my conscious life on the campuses of learning and teaching in search of knowledge, love and freedom. In the course of this search, I learnt that freedom for a few was no freedom.”

– G.N. Saibaba, from Why Do You Fear My Way So Much? Poems and Letters from Prison

The untimely death of G.N. Saibaba (fondly known as Sai among his friends and well-wishers) when he was about to start his life afresh after acquittal betrays the brutality and inhumanity that the state had meted out to him during his long incarceration.
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Also read/watch:
G.N. Saibaba’s Life Is Not Just a Chronicle of His Times, but Also What the Times Refused to Chronicle (The Wire / Oct 2024)
Was the trial judge who convicted G.N. Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice (The Leaflet / March 2024)
Five Years of Incarceration – and the Audacity of Hope (The Wire | Rona Wilson | Jul 2023)


▪ Video: State’s Job is to Serve People, Not Punish Them: G N Saibaba


en | 38:33 | 2024

Newsclick / by Newsclick Team

Former DU professor G.N. Saibaba, who passed away in Hyderabad on Saturday, had recounted his harrowing ordeal during 10 years in jail at a press conference in New Delhi in March this year.
Watch video

Demonising dissent: GN Saibaba’s death and the dark siede of UAPA’s manipulation

Demonising dissent: GN Saibaba’s death and the dark siede of UAPA’s manipulation


en | 13:32 | 2024

The News Minute / by Pooja Prasanna

From 2014 to 2022, 8,719 people were charged under the draconian UAPA. A majority are languishing in jail, with trials delayed and bail denied, as in the case of Professor GN Saibaba.
… In this week’s Let Me Explain, Pooja Prasanna looks at how jails mistreat people, how courts are complacent in denying justice and the blatant abuse of power by the police and governments where evidence and witnesses are fabricated or manipulated.
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GN Saibaba’s death puts spotlight back on plight of incarcerated activists / Various Statements

GN Saibaba’s death puts spotlight back on plight of incarcerated activists / Various Statements

G.N. Saibaba’s 2017 Prison Letter Sheds Light on the Rights of Disabled Prisoners

17/10/2024

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

‘I have refused to be carried to a government hospital outside the prison because I was once treated like baggage.’
Professor G.N. Saibaba wrote a letter to disability rights activist Muralidharan from Nagpur central prison in October 2017.
It had been only a few months since Saibaba, a wheelchair user with over 90% disability, was handed a life sentence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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‘Failing to grasp’ his immense pain, would GN Saibaba’s death haunt judiciary?

16/10/2024

Counterview / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The death of Prof. G.N. Saibaba in Hyderabad should haunt our judiciary, which failed to grasp the immense pain he endured. A person with 90% disability, yet steadfast in his convictions, he was unjustly labeled as one of India’s most ‘wanted’ individuals by the state, a characterization upheld by the judiciary. In a democracy, diverse opinions should be respected, and as long as we uphold constitutional values and democratic dissent, these differences can strengthen us.
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People, politicians pay last tributes to Sai Baba

15/10/2024

Times of India / by TNN

“Long live, long live, Sai Baba long live” slogans reverberated as people paid tributes to the former Delhi University (DU) professor GN Sai Baba on Monday. Sai Sai Baba died on Saturday while undergoing treatment for a gall bladder ailment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science (NIMS).
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A Decade In Jail And A Death Foretold

15/10/2024

Free Press Journal / by FPJ Editorial

The death of G N Saibaba at the age of 57 is a severe indictment of the political system and the judiciary of the country that kept the wheel-chair bound academic incarcerated for nearly 10 years under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act until he was finally acquitted of all charges by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court earlier this year.
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GN Saibaba death: UAPA has no place in a democracy | Mihir Desai Inverview | Pooja Prasanna


en | 21:40 | 2024
Former Delhi University professor and activist Dr GN Saibaba, who had become a symbol of state repression, passed away on Saturday, October 12, at the age of 58. This comes just seven months after his acquittal in a UAPA case which alleged that he was involved with Maoists.
…TNM’s Pooja Prasanna spoke to senior advocate Mihir Desai on Dr Saibaba’s death, UAPA and indian prisons. Mihir Desai as been the legal counsel for many who have faced UAPA including Father Stan Swamy and Dr Saibaba
Watch video


G N Saibaba was killed by wrongful imprisonment and medical neglect

14/10/2024

Peoples Dispatch / by Peoples Dispatch

Human rights defender and academic G N Saibaba was over 90% handicapped and during his years in prison was repeatedly denied bail by the courts and denied timely treatment for his various medical issues.
Human rights defender and academic, G N Saibaba (57) died on Saturday, October 12 at Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in Hyderabad due to cardiac arrest. His death took place merely seven months after being released from a decade of wrongful imprisonment in Indian jails.
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When the state turns rogue even protests dry up, Salutes & Apologies Professor Saibaba!

14/10/2024

Sabrangindia / by Teesta Setalvad

If there is one unique and malevolent achievement of the present Indian state in its third, albeit less armoured term, it is, how it has through its venal acts, battered down alliances and voices of protest; GN Saibaba’s death after a long and deliberately negligent incarceration is the latest of one such
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GN Saibaba’s death puts spotlight back on plight of incarcerated activists

14/10/2024

The Federal / by The Federal

Dissent is not easy in India. After his acquittal this March, Saibaba publicly said he was repeatedly tortured and subjecte to abuse while in prison
The demise of former Delhi University professor and human rights activist GN Saibaba in Hyderabad on Saturday (October 12) has once again put the spotlight on the alleged injustice and torture being faced by the activists who are in prison under various charges like having links with Maoists.
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Stan Swamy parallel in former DU professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba’s death after 10-year jail

14/10/2024

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

A polio patient, Saibaba was paralysed below his waist and developed life-threatening complications in his Nagpur prison that he blamed on poor living conditions and inadequate medical treatment. Saibaba had gone on hunger strike several times in protest
Former Delhi University professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba, a paraplegic acquitted seven months ago after spending a decade in jail on terror charges, died on Saturday of complications following gall bladder surgery at a Hyderabad hospital. He was 57.
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The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled expresses deep shock and profound anguish at the untimely death of Dr. G N Saibaba

13/10/2024

Countercurrents / by National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD)

The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled expresses deep shock and profound anguish at the untimely death of Dr. G N Saibaba.
It was just a few months ago that he was released after being incarcerated for ten long years. He was implicated in false cases and had to continuously wage legal battles before finally being acquitted by the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, it was a freedom that was short-lived.
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Saibaba’s Death Was Institutional Murder by the Centre: Activists

13/10/2024

Deccan Chronicle / by DC Correspondent

Rights activists and political parties termed the death of Prof. G.N. Saibaba as institutional murder resulting from his incarceration for nine years. They drew parallels with Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, who died in hospital while in custody after being denied basic needs like a drinking straw and sipper.
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G.N. Saibaba’s Life Is Not Just a Chronicle of His Times, but Also What the Times Refused to Chronicle

13/10/2024

The Wire / by Saroj Giri

He was just letting us back into his life after all the pain and suffering he had endured. And then he was taken away.
We must now think of Saibaba as someone who could not finish telling us his story. We must have imaginary conversations with him, so that we can hear him. We gasped for Father Stan Swamy, for Pandu Narote, to commune with them. Now, we are gasping for Saibaba, who has been snuffed out of our lives so suddenly.
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Prof G N Saibaba a victim of our insensitive system

13/10/2024

Countercurrents / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The death of Prof G N Saibaba in Hyderabad yesterday should haunt our judiciary which were unable to rise up and understand the pain he was going through. That a person with 90% disability yet full of convictions was made as India’s most ‘wanted’ person by the state, equally endorsed by the judiciary as well. I have mentioned it many time that in democracy people might have divergent views and as long as we have faith in constitutional values and democratic dissent, these views ultimately strengthen us.
Read more


▪ Video: State’s Job is to Serve People, Not Punish Them: G N Saibaba


en | 38:33 | 2024

Newsclick / by Newsclick Team

Former DU professor G.N. Saibaba, who passed away in Hyderabad on Saturday, had recounted his harrowing ordeal during 10 years in jail at a press conference in New Delhi in March this year.
Watch video


Also read:
Some personal reflections on prison medical care (The Leaflet | Vernon Gonsalves | Apr 2024)
Was the trial judge who convicted G.N. Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice (The Leaflet / March 2024)
‘It Is Only by Chance That I Came Out of Prison Alive’: G.N. Saibaba (The Wire / March 2024)

‘How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?’: An investigation of how the state can stifle dissent brutally

‘How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?’: An investigation of how the state can stifle dissent brutally

Scroll.in / by Shevlin Sebastian

Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia also write about those who are battling to uphold individual and human rights.

Vijayan and Recchia talk at length about the notorious Bhima Koregaon case, where 16 activists, teachers, intellectuals, university professors, writers, and lawyers were arrested and charged with arms smuggling, for allegedly helping Maoists, and for hatching a plan to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apart from waging war against the state – Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, and Father Stan Swamy (who died tragically while imprisoned).
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How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners

Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247
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Also read:
Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration (The Caravan / Jul 2024)
Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Author: Ajaz Ashraf  
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Pages: 496
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The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India

Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672
Read more / order