Mumbai: 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.
All in all, 16 people were arrested in the case. After a few bails and one death, seven men and one woman are still in jail. Those striking include rights lawyer Surendra Gadling, Delhi University professor Hany Babu, prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson, cultural activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, editor and writer of Vidrohi magazine Sudhir Dhawale and tribal rights activist Mahesh Raut.
Activist Jyoti Jagtap, also arrested in the case and lodged at the Byculla women’s prison, was produced before the court.
All 16 persons have been accused of being “urban Naxals” and booked under several stringent charges of the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Festivals, elections and VIP visits usually mean there is a lack of security personnel to ferry those imprisoned from the jail to court or to hospital.
Among those still in jail, Gadling is defending himself and his not being produced in court will mean he will not get to move his application in or make arguments before the court.
In the last hearing, Gadling, along with others, was produced through video conferencing. The court had then specifically directed the police to produce all arrested persons in the case before the court today. The police defied the order.
The video conferencing service in the court developed a technical glitch and the arrested human rights defenders could not be produced online either. Failing video conferencing facilities are an everyday reality in the Indian judiciary, yet most states insist on producing prisoners through video conferencing.
Gadling’s son Sumit, a young practising lawyer, spoke to his father around noon.
“It was one of the weekly calls that my father is allowed. In the call my father informed me that all of them had decided to go on a hunger strike against the police’s defiance of the court’s direction and their refusal to produce them for hearing as they are legally bound to,” Sumit told The Wire.
Babu’s wife Jenny Rowena, also a professor in Delhi University, expressed concern when she learned about the hunger strike.
The Maharashtra government has acknowledged that prisoners have been long denied regular production before court and that the courts have time and again reprimanded the state for not providing adequate escort teams to transport prisoners from jail to the courts.
A government order sanctioning new posts and appointing policemen in the Local Armed police unit was issued a few years ago. This, however, has not changed anything on the ground.
Prisoners are only able to meet their family members and be in open spaces for a few hours when they are produced before a court. Their trips to the courts are high points in their time incarcerated and several prisoners have time and again complained to the police and the courts about the insensitivity shown towards them.
In the Elgar Parishad case, those still suffering incarceration have been imprisoned for many years, some since mid-2018. They have several applications pending, including applications for discharge from the case.
Those who have been granted bail include poet Varavara Rao, academics Anand Teltumbde and Shoma Sen, journalist Gautam Navalakha, lawyers Sudha Bharadwaj and Arun Ferreira, and activist Vernon Gonsalves.
Their bail decisions were taken on the basis of a range of considerations, including lack of evidence.
Eighty-four year-old Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, who was also arrested in the case, died before his bail application could be decided. His lawyers have accused the state of not providing him with adequate and timely medical care when he had COVID-19.
Despite the undertrials’ prolonged incarceration, the trial is yet to commence in the case.