by Live Law / @LiveLawIndia (Aug 21):
#SupremeCourt to soon hear Dalit rights’ activist and advocate Surendra Gadling’s bail plea in the 2016 Gadchiroli Arson Case. The Nagpur-based lawyer is also among the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Bench: Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar Gadling filed a special leave petition challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to reject his bail application in the Gadchiroli arson case, which involved around 80 vehicles transporting iron ore from Surjagarh mines in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district from allegedly being set on fire by Maoists in December 2016.
Elgaar Parishad accused seeks jail reforms, action against ‘corrupt’ officer
15/08/2024
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
Gorkhe’s letter also called for better regulation of the prices for vegetables and chicken provided to prisoners, and requested that access to the canteen be increased from twice to four times a month.
Elgaar Parishad case accused Sagar Gorkhe wrote a letter to the DIG, Prisons requesting better access to jail canteen and action against a jail officer who was accused of corruption. Read more
Exorbitant Prices of Food, Corrupt Officials Divert Ration to VIP Prisoners: Jailed Activists
14/08/2024
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
Earlier this month, Gadling sent his complaint letters to the prison authorities and the local Panvel police station, under whose jurisdiction Taloja Prison falls, naming senior jailor Sunil Patil as the person behind the rampant corruption.
In a detailed complaint to the police and the court, human rights defenders Surendra Gadling and Sagar Gorkhe, both arrested for their alleged role in the Elgar Parishad case, have exposed the ongoing corruption in the functioning of the canteen facility inside Taloja Central Prison on the outskirts of Mumbai. Read more
Special food for the rich, infested curries for others: Lawyer on graft in Taloja canteen
08/08/2024
Hindustan Times / by Revu Suresh
Sumit Gadling, lawyer and son of Surendra Gadling, said that they are planning to move the Bombay high court for a larger investigation into the matter
Surendra Gadling, a human rights lawyer and activist arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, has complained to the state anti-corruption bureau regarding widespread graft in the functioning of the canteen at Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai. Read more
New complaint alleges Taloja prison underbelly: ‘Mutton meals for RS 8.000 per kg, 40% cuts, zero record’
06/08/2024
Newslaundry / by Prateek Goyal
Surendra Gadling’s complaint comes a month after Bhima Koregaon co-accused Sagar Gorkhe raised similar concerns in a letter to authorities.
Fried chicken for Rs 2,000, Hyderabadi-Muradabadi biryani for Rs 1,500, Schezwan rice for Rs 500, prawns biryani for Rs 2,000, mutton masala for Rs 8,000, and mutton curry for Rs 7,000.
This may sound like an egregiously overpriced menu of a five-star hotel, but these are prices per kilogram offered allegedly through VIP canteen services for wealthy prisoners lodged at Maharashtra’s Taloja central prison. Read more
As the J&K High Court recently reiterated, allegations of ‘terrorism’ have become a copy-paste template that the State uses to muffle dissent, but why do courts freeze the process of criminal justice on hearing ‘national security’?
…
The jurisprudence has resulted in widening the coercive powers of the police and investigation agencies. Since the court only forms its assessment on broad probabilities, a pattern has emerged from the evidence submitted by the prosecution in a wide range of UAPA cases where there is a similarity in terms of enormous allegations running into thousands of pages, generalised testimonies of witnesses; most of which are protected witnesses, lack of incriminating evidence and heavy reliance on electronic evidence and literature.
There are similarities in three specific instances: those arrested in the backdrop of the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence, deoperationalisation of Article 370, and 2020 Northeast Delhi riots. Read more
Bombay HC rejects default bail of five accused in Bhima Koregaon case
26/07/2024
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The petitioners had moved the High court challenging special court orders in 2022 that denied them default bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday rejected the default bail petitions of five persons accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Bar and Bench reported.
A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam C Chandak issued the order on petitions filed by lawyer Surendra Gadling, activist and researcher Rona Wilson, poet and political commentator Sudhir Dhawale, forest rights activist Mahesh Raut, and former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen. Read more
Bombay High Court rejects default bail of five accused
26/07/2024
Bar & Bench / by Satyendra Wankhade
A Division Bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam C Chandak passed the order on pleas filed by the five accused challenging 2022 special court orders that denied them default bail.
The Bombay High Court on Friday denied default bail to Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Shoma Sen in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case. Read more
Bombay HC dismisses default bail pleas of 5 accused in Elgaar Parishad case
26/07/2024
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
The case dates back to the Elgaar Parishad event held in Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, following which violent clashes broke out the next day between Maratha and Dalit groups near Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra.
The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed default bail pleas by five Elgaar Parishad case accused Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut and Shoma Sen who were arrested by the Pune police in June 2018. The Supreme Court had granted regular bail to Sen in April. Read more
Bombay High Court Rejects Default Bail To Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawade & Rona Wilson
26/07/2024
Live Law / by Narsi Benwal
The Bombay High Court today rejected the default bail to Dalit rights’ activist and advocate Surendra Gadling and co-accused Mahesh Raut, in the infamous Elgar Parishad case of 2018.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Shyam Chandak pronounced the order in their chamber. Bail was also denied to Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawade and researcher Rona Wilson. Read more
In this excerpt from his new book ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’, Ajaz Ashraf recounts the moments that changed the lives of three activists
We tend to recall vividly the moment life changes tack. And so Minal will never forget that on 17 April, at 6.30 am, she left her house at Misal Layout, in Nagpur, for a walk in nearby Dayanand Park with her friends. She will remember that her children were still asleep and her husband, Surendra Gadling, the Nagpur-based lawyer, was in the toilet. She will remember that a little after the group of friends entered the park, the phone of one rang. Read more
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496 Read more/order
▪ 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
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.
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
THE POLIS PROJECT / By MINAL GADLING
6 June 2024 marked six years since Surendra was arrested. Six long years! It is very difficult to talk about this time in a few words. During these six years, life completely changed. Life, which earlier meant stability, security, friends, relatives, and happiness, was suddenly altered completely, and I found myself forced to face a reality that I could not have imagined in my worst nightmares.
I recall that grim dawn of 17 April 2018, when our house was raided; that sinister morning of 6 June 2018, when Surendra was taken away. Read more
Since reaching power, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has jailed political critics using bogus terrorism and incitement charges. But an electoral setback for his party offers hope of change in India and a crack in his authoritarian Hindutva order.
… There are those who do make it out of prison. But in one harrowing case, imprisonment under the UAPA became a death sentence. In 2018, violent clashes broke out between Dalits and Hindu militant groups in Bhima Koregaon, a village in Maharashtra state. Instead of arresting any militants, police in the state arrested sixteen eminent activists, academics, and lawyers over the next two years — all of whom were involved in civil rights work supporting marginalized Dalits and tribal Adivasi communities. Read more
Video: Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial
By The Telegraph en | 4:45 | 2024
From Kashmir to Pune, from the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the Delhi riots case accused to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending. Watch video
From Kashmir to Pune, here are some of the most high-profile names in India’s prisons for whom the criminal justice process has been made the punishment
From the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending. Read more
The Wire / by Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling and Mahesh Raut
Intimations on the sixth year of continuing incarceration of the BK-16.
We live in a moment where truth is treason. Under the fascist onslaught of Brahmanical Hindutva, truth has become consumed with fear – the fear of being watched, being surveilled, being criminalised, neutralised, or even eliminated. But the fear, at the end, is itself a whistleblower.
We, the BK 16, known after the eponymous Bhima Koregaon case, complete six years of incarceration on June 6, 2024 under the stringent anti-terror law, UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act], where the onus is on the accused to prove their innocence; under heavy odds against the Modi dispensation that dubs speaking truth to power treason, anti-Hindu, an act of terror. Read full statement
by Campaign Against State Repression (May 27):
6 Years Of Wrongful Incarceration In Bhima Koregaon case
JOIN Demonstration at Jantar Mantar 6 June
Release All Political Prisoners !!
Repeal UAPA !!
Repeal NIA !!
by Live Law / @LiveLawIndia (Aug 21):
Author: Ajaz Ashraf 
