'Every report I filed for Rediff.com on the professor's incarceration, would leave me wondering for days, at the depth of the State's malevolence towards this disabled professor, and his equally deep capacity to tolerate it,' recalls Jyoti Punwani.' 'No country in the world would do what our country was doing to someone so helpless.'
The callousness with which these political dissidents are being treated goes against the Supreme Court's directive, given right at the beginning of the lockdown. The apex court had directed states to release prisoners to decongest jails, which had become hotspots of the coronavirus.
More than 50 inmates of Tihar Jail have gone on a hunger strike against a recent guideline by prison authorities which allows them to meet their relatives only once a week instead of the two times which was the norm before.
A day before the event, I learnt from an old Mumbai crime branch informant that a group of gangsters were planning to serve breakfast to the prisoners at Balgandharva Rangmandir prior to the show.
This, asserts Minnie Vaid, is hardly a new phenomenon-- entitled minors getting behind the wheel of super expensive cars mowing down innocent victims in a drunken stupor and getting away with it scot-free!
With Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal having been sent to judicial custody till April 15 by a city court in connection with the excise policy case, buzz over his replacement intensified even as his party leaders asserted that he will continue to head the government no matter how long he stays in jail.
"We state that the most precious fundamental 'right to life' unconditionally embraces even an undertrial. The consideration made herein is keeping in view the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case.
The ATRs have been sought on a range of matters within four weeks, the officials said.
This is not the first time the Nagpur Jail authorities are being accused of negligence towards their inmates.
Trump, on addressing reporters after being arrested and released from jail, said: "I did nothing wrong."
Discuss the film with Rediff's film critic Sukanya Verma on ZaraBol!
The two-page note sent to Gandhi by provost K P Singh said the incident amounts to trespass and irresponsible behaviour, and asked the Congress leader to "cease and desist" from taking any such step in the future.
"Why are our jails overcrowded? Why is the the policy of remission being applied selectively?"
In a memorandum submitted to Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey, the 21 opposition MPs who signed the document demanded urgent rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected people to bring peace and harmony to the state.
Use of social media or the Internet by Navlakha could prove to be dangerous, NIA counsel, additional solicitor general Anil Singh, said while opposing the septuagenarian activist's plea that he be kept under house arrest.
Referring to a judgement, the top court asked authorities not to arrest mechanically in cases where the maximum sentence is up to seven years of jail term.
Saying that prison inmates do not cease to be human beings and can't be deprived of the fundamental right to life, the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to transfer alleged Maoist leader Nirmala Uppuganti from jail to a hospice for palliative care on account of her terminal cancer.
Justice Devan Ramachandran on Tuesday said that patriarchism even in the form of offering protection to women and girls has to be frowned upon as they are just as capable, as men and boys, of taking care of themselves.
Saying that the constitutional right to vote is not absolute, the Bombay high court on Friday rejected petitions filed by Nationalist Congress Party leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh seeking temporary release from prison for casting ballot in the June 20 Maharashtra Legislative Council election.
A government lawyer told the Bombay high court on Friday that though prison inmates can talk to their relatives or lawyers on phone, she was not sure if the facility could be granted to activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
'You realised there was a struggle outside and now your struggle is to survive, live in prison, to retain your feelings, your humanity, and collectively continue doing inside what you were doing outside.'
'We had 110 Adivasis who were languishing in jail for nearly five years because it was claimed they were responsible for some blasts.' 'When the time to give the proof came, they had no proof to show.' 'Then the people are let free, totally exonerated, but their lives are totally shattered.' 'Not only their lives, but the lives of their families.'
'She said she could have taken so much energy from her father had she got a chance to meet him before his death.'
The real scene stealer of Ajay-Tabu's Fury Road is Deepak 'Deadly' Dobriyal, applauds Sukanya Verma.
The verdict could impact a range of life choices of Indians, including food habits and sexual orientation.
The Bombay high court will pronounce on Friday its order on two petitions filed by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik and former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, both jailed Nationalist Congress Party legislators, seeking permission to cast their votes in the MLC elections scheduled on June 20.
'Umar is being targeted because he is emerging as educated, knowledgeable leader of the Muslim community and, unlike popular perceptions that many harbour about Muslims, took to peaceful means to protest against the NRC and CAA.' 'They (the State) are scared of educated Muslim leadership.'
The jail authorities have, however, said 'the death seems to be due to natural causes.'
Modi is subject to two sets of criminal proceedings, the first brought by the CBI relating to a large-scale fraud said to have been committed upon PNB and the ED case, relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.
Do Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, and Sharad Pawar want the deaths of the Bhima Koregaon accused to be associated with their regime? asks Jyoti Punwani.
The Madras high court bench in Madurai on Monday directed transferring the probe into the death by suicide of a 17-year-old girl, allegedly coerced to convert to Christianity, to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
'I was told to go to the next room and strip -- that's when it really hits you for the first time... that you are a criminal and you are being treated like one.' 'It comes as a shock when, instead of your name, you hear, "Yeh naya Maowadi aaya hai (A new Maoist has arrived)".'
'From what I hear this sister Manjula Shetye was called into the office which is far away from the barracks.' 'Even when I was there, inmates were taken to this office and beaten up mercilessly.'
As soon as he entered his barrack, Rahul noticed a group of seven inmates seated on their mattresses under the television set. They must be the terrorists, Rahul thought to himself. He knew that such accused are usually housed in murder barracks, far from jingoistic gangsters, who tend to abuse and attack them. A fascinating excerpt from Gangster On The Run: The True Story Of A Reformed Criminal.
Tendulkar spent some time with the inmates of St. Anthony's Old Age Home, in Bandra,
'The way the society functions, I don't know, they are more concerned about animals than humans.'
'There are many people languishing in jail under these draconian laws, where it takes them 10 years, 15 years, to finally be acquitted.' 'And, who is going to account for those years?' 'The home ministry's statistics says that between 2016 and 2019, the conviction rate (under UAPA) is only 2 per cent and the use of UAPA has increased by more than 70 per cent.' 'There are many people languishing in jail under these draconian laws, where it takes them 10 years, 15 years, to finally be acquitted.'
'Who is going to account for those years?'
'The home ministry's statistics says that between 2016 and 2019, the conviction rate (under UAPA) is only 2 per cent and the use of UAPA has increased by more than 70 per cent.' 'The government statistics itself is so revealing what the purpose of this law (UAPA) is.'
'It's little things like these -- sharing medicines, consoling each other after a mulaqat (meeting) or a tearful phone conversation with your loved ones or when we would return, dejected, when our bails were rejected -- that made our time in jail bearable.'
'I worked closely with Mother for decades, not once did she say become a Christian.'
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