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.
en | 1:21:23 | 2022
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hindi | 48:02min | 2022
By Satya Hindi
Was the corporate world the reason for the arrest of Sudha Bharadwaj, a social worker who fought for the underprivileged? Was there a conspiracy to implicate him in the Bhima Koregaon case? How was her experience during his three years in prison? How does she view the current times for socio-economic movements? Does she expect times to change? Dr. Mukesh Kumar talking to Sudha Bhardwaj.
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17/03/2022
Times of India / by TNN
The special NIA court on Wednesday allowed lawyer Surendra Gadling an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, to use a computer in jail for an hour, two days a week. Gadling had sought access to his laptop, submitting that he wanted to prepare his defence.
Meanwhile, the prosecution is to hand over the cloned copies of all the pieces of electronic evidence gathered in the case to the accused.
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16/03/2022
Free Press Journal / by Staff Reporter
A special court under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act has permitted the use of a laptop in Taloja jail for Bhima Koregaon accused and lawyer Surendra Gadling.
Gadling had sought to be allowed the use of the device as he is appearing in person in the case.
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16/03/2022
The Print / by pti
A special NIA court here on Wednesday allowed advocate Surendra Gadling, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to use computer available in the prison where he is lodged, for an hour two days a week…
Meanwhile, the court allowed a plea of another accused, lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj who is currently on bail, to reside in Mumbai’s suburb of Oshiwara…
The court also granted a petition of Jyoti Jagtap, a co-accused, to receive a set of books.
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08/03/2022
The Leaflet / by Sudha Bharadwaj
If we are to do any justice to the Constitutional mandate of equality before law, and the right to legal representation, we must put in place a mechanism to provide competent and effective legal aid to all those who cannot afford it, particularly to those languishing in jail.
was in Byculla Jail, Mumbai, between February 2020 and December 2021. Prior to that, in Yerwada Jail, where I was lodged between November 2018 to February 2020, I had given an application to be permitted to help with legal aid, but that was refused, possibly since I and my co-accused Professor Shoma Sen, were lodged in separate cells in the Phansi Yard.
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08/03/2022
National Herald / by Sudha Bharadwaj
Legal aid is a right guaranteed by the Constitution but it is virtually nonexistent and ineffective, recalls the lawyer-activist, who spent three years in jail as an accused in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. Many inmates cannot follow the language and are not even aware of the name of their lawyer despite having signed the Vakalatnama. The judiciary needs to take a good, hard look at those who are in ‘judicial custody’.
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Also read:
● Sudha Bhardwaj and Shoma Sen extend solidarity to Women’s March from jail (Sabrang / March 2019)
article 14 / by Shamik Bag
By using security laws, deploying surveillance technology, and leveraging potent national interest narratives, Narendra Modi’s Hindu-first government has targeted critics and eroded the rule of law in India—often in violation of the Constitution, using legal loopholes and grey areas. Through the lens of the notorious Bhima Koregaon case, we investigate these tactics in-depth, and report how citizens are fighting to preserve the world’s largest democracy.
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TOI / by pti
Sudha Bharadwaj, recently released on bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case, on Tuesday filed an application before a court seeking permission to live in suburban Mumbai.
Bharadwaj was granted bail by the Bombay high court in December 2021. The special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases, while passing the release order, had directed that she shall not leave Mumbai without permission.
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● Sudha Bharadwaj interview: ‘I hope I can begin practising in Mumbai’ (The Indian Express │ Feb 2022)
● ‘I Am Ready To Put On My Black Coat’: Lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Out On Bail After 3 Years In Jail (article 14 │ Jan 2022)
● Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism. (PUCL │ Jan 2021 │ 316 pages)
Times of India / by Priyanka Kakodkar
After being jailed for 3 years under the UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case, human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj was released on bail on December 9, 2021. An IIT alumnus who gave up her US citizenship to work as a trade unionist among tribals in Chhattisgarh, she later qualified as a lawyer and was teaching at the National Law University in Delhi at the time of her arrest.
Bail conditions prevent her from speaking about the case but she speaks to Priyanka Kakodkar about her experiences in jail, the desperate condition of undertrials and life ahead.
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en | 30:48 min | 2022
Scroll.in / by Smitha Nair
In today’s episode we speak to Sudha Bharadwaj, human rights lawyer and trade unionist who has worked with the most marginalised in Chhattisgarh over the last three decades.
Listen to the podcast
Also read:
● Sudha Bharadwaj: My greatest strength were prison inmates (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)
● Sudha Bharadwaj: I was imprisoned in the phansi yard (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)
08/02/2022
The Leaflet / by The Leaflet
A special National Investigation Agency [NIA] Court in Mumbai, on Tuesday, allowed the application filed by the anti-terror agency to submit the seized mobile phones of the seven accused in the Bhima Koregaon case to the Supreme Court-appointed Techincal Committee which is probing the Pegasus spyware scandal.
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08/02/2022
Live Law / by Sharmee Hakim
Mobile devices of the seven accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case will be submitted to the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Committee (TC) probing allegations of snooping using Pegasus spyware, after the Special Court allowed the National Investigation Agency’s plea.
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Also read:
● Elgar Parishad Accused, Their Lawyers Write to SC’s Committee on Pegasus Spyware Targeting (The Wire / Jan 2022)
● Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)
Drawing by Arun Ferreira
Women in and Beyond the Global / by Dan Moshenberg
When Covid hit India, the reports, and for some expectation, were that the State would consider pandemic measures, such as the need for social distancing, and would reduce the incarcerated populations. To no one’s great surprise, that did not happen generally, and in particular it did not happen in women’s jails and prisons. For example, the state of Maharashtra has 60 central and district jails. Of them, one, Byculla Women’s Jail, is the only one dedicated for women and children, but that doesn’t mean the conditions are in any way better. Byculla Women’s Jail has always been an overcrowded hellhole for women and children.
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Also read:
● Sudha Bharadwaj: My greatest strength were prison inmates (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)
● Another COVID-19 Outbreak in Byculla Prison Highlights Lessons That Haven’t Been Learnt (The Wire / Sep 2021)
● Coronavirus | 38 inmates of Byculla jail test positive (The Hindu / April 2021)
Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi
The first person to get bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, Sudha Bharadwaj talks about life in prison, the dire need for better legal aid for prisoners and more.
en | 24:33min | 2022
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