Sudhir Dhawale – free them all

After six years in jail, Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale have been released on bail

07/02/2025 Asha

Peoples Dispatch / by Abdul Rahman

After spending six years in jail without trial, Indian activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawle were finally granted bail.
Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawle, two of the 16 human rights activists arrested in the Bhima Koreagaon case under India’s draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), were released on bail on January 24 after spending nearly six and half years in prison waiting for trial.
… Nevertheless, they were released on stringent bail conditions including regular visits to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters, surrender of their passports, restrictions on travel outside Mumbai and a surety of 100,000 rupees (USD 1,142).
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Also read:
▪ 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 interview: ‘My arrest was a warning to others who stand against the abuse of power’ (Scroll.in / Feb 2025)
▪ Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale released: Seven years of injustice by a state that punishes dissent [read order] (Sabrangindia / Jan 2025)

Sudhir Dhawale interview: ‘The law remains blind to injustice even with the blindfold gone’

05/02/2025 Asha

Credits: Tabassum Barnagarwala/Scroll.in

Scroll.in / by Tabassum Barnagarwala

The writer spent six years and seven months in jail before receiving bail in the Bhima Koregaon case.
On January 24, when Sudhir Dhawale walked back into the narrow lane in the Mumbai neighbourhood of Govandi where he lived until he was arrested in June, 2018, young men welcomed him with the beat of the dhol.
His neighbours then marched in a celebratory procession to a statue of BR Ambedkar 100 metres away. Dhawale garlanded the statue and gave a short speech about the importance of safeguarding Dalit rights. And just like that, he said, his life returned to normal.
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Also read:
▪ Interview | Sudhir Dhawale’s Work Will Go on (The Wire / Feb 2025)
▪ Rona Wilson interview: ‘My arrest was a warning to others who stand against the abuse of power’ (Scroll.in / Feb 2025)
▪ Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale released: Seven years of injustice by a state that punishes dissent [read order] (Sabrangindia / Jan 2025)
▪ Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati │ by Sudhir Dhawale │ March 2018)

Interview | Sudhir Dhawale’s Work Will Go on

04/02/2025 Asha

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The lifelong activist spent 2,422 days in jail. But through personal loss, injustice and 23 months of solitary confinement, the activist has fought for what he has believed to be right.
A day after Father Stan Swamy passed away, Sudhir Dhawale, overcome with emotion, sat down in his barrack and wrote a long poem. “Words just flowed,” he says.
Dhawale, a prolific writer, author of several books, and editor of the radical anti-caste bi-monthly magazine Vidrohi, had never before written poetry. This was his first. But in the three-and-a-half years since Swamy’s death, Dhawale has written at least a hundred more – on issues that directly impact him, on news that stirs his emotions, on politics that kept him awake in prison, on Modi, on the “Manuwaadi” government, and even on society’s apathy towards “corroding democracy.”
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Also read:
▪ Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale released: Seven years of injustice by a state that punishes dissent [read order] (Sabrangindia / Jan 2025)
▪ Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale Get Bail After 6.5 Years of Jail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Jan 2025)

Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale released: Seven years of injustice [read order] / Extraordinary delay in trial

27/01/2025 Asha

Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale released: Seven years of injustice by a state that punishes dissent [read order]

29/01/2025

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

Their freedom comes after years of judicial neglect and the systemic abuse of laws to silence opposition; highlights the weaponisation of anti-terror laws to crush dissent and derail justice.
After spending nearly seven years in jail, activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale were finally released from Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai on January 24, 2025. Their release came over two weeks after the Bombay High Court granted them bail in the controversial Bhima Koregaon case on January 8. The court noted the activists had been incarcerated since 2018, with no realistic hope of their trial concluding anytime soon—a grim reflection of India’s justice system and its treatment of dissenters.
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Bail for Bhima Koregaon accused highlights extraordinary delay in trial

28/01/2025

Scroll.in / by Vineet Bhalla

The snail’s pace at which the Bhima Koregaon case has proceeded through the criminal justice system is due to delays attributable to the prosecution.
Activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale walked out of prison on Friday after being under incarceration for six and a half years in the Bhima Koregaon case.
The Bombay High Court granted them bail on January 8 on grounds that they had spent a long period in jail without trial or even charges being framed against them.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale Get Bail After 6.5 Years of Jail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Jan 2025)
▪ Year after being granted bail, Mahesh Raut remains in jail as stay extended (The Indian Express / Sep 2024)

After 6.5 years in jail: Sudhir Dhawale and Rona Wilson released from Taloja Central Jail

24/01/2025 Asha

Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale released on bail after over 6 years in prison

26/01/2025

The Sunday Gardian / by Correspondent

On January 24, 2025, researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale were released on bail from Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai, more than 6 years after their arrest in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
The duo walked out of the prison around 1:30 pm after completing bail formalities, following a decision by the Bombay High Court.
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Activists Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale released from jail

24/01/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The Bombay High Court granted them bail on January 8, stating that ‘there is no possibility of the trial to conclude in the near future’.
Activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale were released from jail in Navi Mumbai on Friday, more than two weeks after the Bombay High Court granted them bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, PTI reported.
The High Court granted them bail on January 8, stating that the activists had been in jail since 2018 and “there is no possibility of the trial to conclude in the near future”.
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Activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson released from Taloja Central Jail

24/01/2025

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Sudhir Dhawale and Rona Wilson were earlier granted bail by the Bombay High Court on grounds of long incarceration without trial.
ctivists Sudhir Dhawale and Rona Wilson, both of whom were arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case in 2018, were released from Taloja Central Jail on Friday afternoon. The two were granted bail by the Bombay High Court on January 8. Their lawyers completed the bail procedures on Thursday before the Mumbai trial court, after which release memos were issued.
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Also read:
▪ Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale Get Bail After 6.5 Years of Jail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Jan 2025)

Bombay HC tells special NIA court to expedite trial, complete framing of charges within 9 months

15/01/2025 Asha

Why Rona Wilson & Sudhir Dhawale were granted bail after 6 yrs in jail

15/01/2025

The Print / by Khadija Khan

Wilson, a researcher, and Dhawale, an activist, were booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which has strict bail provisions. Bombay HC relied on a 2021 SC ruling.
Trial in the Elgar Parishad or Bhima Koregaon violence case is not likely to end soon, given that the prosecution has named 363 persons as its witnesses. With this crucial observation and noting that charges have not yet been framed in the case filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Bombay High Court last week granted bail to researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale.
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Bombay HC tells special NIA court to expedite trial, complete framing of charges within 9 months

15/01/2025

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The court’s directive came while granting bail to Elgaar Parishad accused activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhavale, citing prolonged incarceration of over six and half years.
The Bombay High Court has asked the special court designated under National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act to expedite the trial in Elgaar Parishad case and said that framing of charges be completed within nine months.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale Get Bail After 6.5 Years of Jail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Jan 2025)

Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale Get Bail After 6.5 Years in Bhima-Koregaon Elgaar Parishad Case

09/01/2025 Asha

Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale Get Bail After 6.5 Years of Jail in Elgar Parishad Case

08/01/2025

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The NIA claimed before the Bombay HC that it would ‘expedite the trial’ in the case in which charges are yet to be framed.
After over six years and six months of incarceration, the Bombay high court today, January 8, granted bail to two human rights defenders, Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale.
Both Wilson and Dhawale were among the first group of human rights activists to be arrested in the highly contentious Elgar Parishad case over what law enforcement claimed was their alleged Maoist links. Their bail in the high court, granted by a bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata, came after an appeal was filed by their lawyers following rejections by the trial court.
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Bombay High Court Grants Bail To Rona Wilson & Sudhir Dhawale In Bhima-Koregaon Elgar Parishad Case

08/01/2025

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

In a major relief for researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday (January 8) granted them bail in the Bhima-Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Kamal Khata considered the fact that the duo have spent more than 6 years in jail as undertrials.
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Bail for activists Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale in Bhima Koregaon case

08/01/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

‘They are in jail since 2018, even the charges in the case are yet to be framed,’ the Bombay High Court observed on Wednesday.
Activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale were on Wednesday granted bail by the Bombay High Court in the Bhima Koregaon case, Live Law reported.
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Bombay High Court grants bail to Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale

08/01/2025

Bar & Bench / by Sahyaja MS

A Bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata granted bail citing prolonged incarceration, the non-framing of charges and the fact that over 300 witnesses would have to be examined.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale, accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case.
…
Bail was granted subject to bail bonds of ₹1 lakh and also on the condition that the accused shall report before National Investigation Agency (NIA) every Monday.
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Activists Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale get bail, six accused in Elgaar Parishad case still remain behind bars

08/01/2025

The Indian Express / by Omkar Gokhale

Cites long incarceration, trial unlikely to conclude in near future
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale, both of whom were arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case in 2018, on grounds of long incarceration without trial.
With this, of the 16 arrested in the case—initially by the Pune police in 2018 and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2020—nine are out of jail. While Father Stan Swamy passed away in custody in 2021, six still remain in custody, including Mahesh Raut, who was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in September 2023, but remains behind bars as his bail plea is pending before the Supreme Court.
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Elgar Parishad Prisoners’ Hunger Strike Marks a Momentous Victory for Prison Rights

11/11/2024 Asha

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

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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How Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis encounter the State. ‘It has its boots on our necks’

27/07/2024 Asha

The Print / by Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia

In ‘How Long Can The Moon Be Caged’, Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia look at present-day India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.
A Dalit activist we spoke to said that most people don’t 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.’
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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
A powerful look at authoritarian India through the experiences of political prisoners
How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? includes visual testimonies and prison writings from those falsely accused of inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence, by student leaders opposing the new discriminatory citizenship law passed in 2020, and by activists from the Pinjra Tod’s movement. In bringing together these voices, the book celebrates the courage, humanity and moral integrity of those jailed for standing in solidarity with marginalised and oppressed communities.
Read more / order