Venugopal - Fake Charges and Real Torment PDF

Acknowledgements
These essays and reports where published earlier by the

websites - thebengalstory.com, theleaflet.in and scroll.in, as well
as my facebook wall. I am grateful to the editors of the sites. I
also thank a number of friends and readers who made comments,
shared, prodded me to write regularly and spread the word in as
many forums as possible. I also thank Rajshekar who made this
e-book.
- NV
June 6, 2019
2 Fake Charges and Real Torment

Fake Letters and Real Harassment
29 Aug 2018
In a series of several illegal acts based on a concocted letter,

Pune police with the help of Telangana police arrested
revolutionary poet and public intellectual Varavara Rao in
Hyderabad on Tuesday, after keeping him and his wife
incommunicado for about eight hours.
Some twenty men and two women claiming to be from Pune
Police Task Force and Telangana Police, in mufti, barged into
Varavara Rao’s house in Gandhi Nagar in Hyderabad around 6 in
the morning and immediately snatched his and his wife’s cell
phones and cut his landline phone as well as his intercom
connection. The main door of the house was bolted from inside
and nobody, including neighbours and domestic help was allowed
to walk in the corridor or enter the house. This situation continued
till 2.30 when he was taken away.
Similar raids took place at the houses of Varavara Rao’s
two daughters in Hyderabad during the same time. In the houses
of his daughter Anala and her husband Kurmanath, a senior
journalist as well as Pavana, an English lecturer and her husband
Satyanarayana, a professor in English and Foreign Languages
University, about twenty policemen each, again in mufti, barged
in a little later and snatching away phones and cutting all
communication from outside and keeping them incommunicado
Fake Charges and Real Torment 3

happened in the same fashion. While policemen stayed in one
daughter’s house for about six hours, in another daughter’s house
it lasted for more than nine hours.
In the same way, Pune police barged into the house of
KranthiTekula, a journalist with Namaste Telangana and a member
of Revolutionary Writers’ Association, and stayed in the house
for about six hours in the same manner.
Since the cell phones were snatched and all communication
channels were cut, the news of these invasions started coming
out late. Indeed, the purpose of cutting the communications
channels was to prevent media from reporting and friends from
gathering to protest. Even then within two hours hundreds of
friends of Varavara Rao and activists of various mass organizations
as well as dozens of media personnel including OB vans reached
the house. Strangely, dozens of Telangana police blocked the main
entrance of the apartments and did not allow media and friends to
go in. Even families and friends of more than 100 other flats were
subjected to harassment with blocking them. However, the place
has become a virtual public meeting with dozens of activists and
leaders speaking to press and live media to register their protest.
As this public protest went on for more than six hours,
Varavara Rao’s wife Hemalata was let out of the main entrance
around 2.30. She said that the police harassed them for all these
eight hours with throwing books, tearing off personal belongings
and not allowing to contact lawyers or friends. Both Varavara
Rao, 78 and Hemalata, 70 are not keeping good health and are on
regular medication. For eight hours they were subjected to mental
agony as well.
Finally, they were given a seven page note, supposed to be
a Panchanama (Seizure Report) and took their signatures.
However, the way the report is made and the way their signatures
were taken is atrociously illegal. As per law, any Panchanama
should be written in a language known to the persons in whose
house the search was conducted. But the report was written in
Marathi and not even a single letter, including digits, is
comprehensible to both of them. The other illegality is that both

the witnesses who signed on the report were stock witnesses
brought in by police from Pune, while in law it is mandatory to
have local and respected witnesses. The third illegality of the
report is that while the persons in whose house the seizure was
made has to sign on each page, Varavara Rao and Hemalata were
asked to sign on the last, the seventh page only. This gives a
dubious scope that the police can doctor or include other pages in
lieu of the first six pages.
The search without a search warrant, keeping people
incommunicado for hours together, preventing friends, lawyers
and media during the search, preparing Panchanama in an
incomprehensible language, without giving an arrest warrant to
family members, misleading the media and people waiting in front
of the gate on the way Varavara Rao is being whisked away –
every act of police was illegal, undemocratic, arbitrary, inhuman
and cruel.
But then, all these illegal acts have emanated from a forged,
concocted letter leaked to the media in June. The letter, ostensibly
written by a Maoist cadre to another Maoist cadre contained a
sentence in which Varavara Rao was linked to mobilizing
resources for an assassination attempt on Narendra Modi, as
claimed by police then. In fact, the police leaked three letters,
two in English and one in Hindi and the Hindi letter alone mentions
Varavara Rao’s name and there is nothing about Modi in that letter.
In an English letter the Modi affair was mentioned but it doesn’t
contain Varavara Rao’s name. That apart, several people including
former judges, police officers, forensic experts, journalists
covering Naxalite beat for decades have analysed the letters and
said all the letters are fake, forged and concocted.
The Congress has dismissed the letters saying that they were
created to lift the waning image of Modi. Thus within a week of
the leaking of the letters, they have become a matter of ridicule
in media and that may be the reason the police did not take any
consequent actions. Now, after three months, with a belief that
people might have forgotten the “fakeness” of the letters, they
are again resurrected and a nation-wide swoop on defenders of

people’s movements was initiated. Those in power do not want
any dissenting voices in society and want to silence all those who
are giving voice to the voiceless.
http://thebengalstory.com/english/varavarao-rao-arrest-fake-
letter-and-real-harassment/

Another Case Against
‘Literary Naxal’ Varavara Rao
21 Sep 2018
At least 48 years before being branded as ‘Urban Naxal’,

he was termed ‘Literary Naxal’ or ‘Naxalite in literature’. Twenty
five cases were foisted against him in the subsequent 45 years
but the prosecution could not prove a single charge in a single
case. Now, under a new nomenclature of urban Naxal, a new
draconian Act as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Action and a
new case called BhimaKoregaon violence, Varavara Rao is going
to be prosecuted and persecuted again. This time around, will the
state be able to prove its charge, much more ridiculous and
fabricated than all the earlier ones?
When Varavara Rao, a 30 year old poet with a collection of
poems, Chalinegallu, published two years ago and the respect he
commanded as the editor of Srjana, a quarterly forum for modern
literature in Telugu to his credit, founded Viplava Rachayitala
Sangham (popularly known by its acronym Virasam –
Revolutionary Writers’ Association) that openly champions the
cause of the Naxalite path of liberation for Indian masses, along
with doyens of Telugu literature like Sri Sri, Kodavatiganti
Kutumba Rao, Rachakonda ViswanathaSastri, KV Ramana Reddy,
Kalipatnam Rama Rao as well as young firebrand poets like
Cherabandaraju, Jwalamukhi, Nikhileswar and Nagnamuni, all

of them were branded as ‘literary Naxals’ or ‘Naxalites in
literature’ by a pro-establishment, highly respected literary critic.
The state, particularly police, also relished this coinage and
began implicating these ‘literary Naxals’ in case after case. Several
cases were foisted on many members of Virasam, but in none of
them the prosecution could prove the charges and the ‘literary
Naxals’ came out of the trials without any conviction. Stranger is
the case of Varavara Rao, against whom the state was particularly
vindictive and arrested at least 15 times in the last 45 years and
implicated in 25 cases.
For the first time Varavara Rao, along with Cherabandaraju
and M T Khan, was arrested in October 1973 under the
Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), a draconian law
passed by Parliament in July 1971, giving police unlimited powers
like indefinite preventive detention, search and seizure of property
without warrants and tapping personal means of communication,
amended several times in Emergency and finally repealed in 1977.
However, Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down the application
of the MISA against writers and the three detained were released
within five weeks.
The High Court judgment asked the government not to
resort to such actions against writers unless their writings have
an immediate and direct bearing in a physical action. Taking cue
from this hint, the government prepared a grand conspiracy case
wherein all the actions of Naxalites, including murder, attempt to
murder, dacoity, rioting, unlawful assembly, criminal conspiracy,
waging war against government, spreading disaffection and
sedition were shown as the direct consequences of a poem or a
speech or a writing of revolutionary writers.
Prominent Virasam leaders Cherabandaraju, KV Ramana
Reddy, T Madhusudana Rao, M T Khan, Varavara Rao and M
Ranganatham were implicated in the case along with 41
revolutionary activists. This infamous conspiracy case, known as
Secunderabad Conspiracy Case, was filed in May 1974 and ended
in acquittal in February 1989, after 15 years of prolonged and
tiresome trial.

In connection with the Conspiracy Case, Varavara Rao was
arrested in May 1974. He was denied bail several times and finally
released on conditional bail in April 1975, only to be arrested
again on June 26, 1975, on the eve of proclamation of Emergency.
During Emergency he was a detainee under the MISA again. He
was one of the few prisoners whose interviews with their relatives
were restricted and their mail was subjected to stringent scrutiny.
Though all the prisoners were released on the day Emergency
was lifted, Varavara Rao was arrested again at the entrance of the
jail and was kept behind the bars for a week more on a fresh
MISA warrant. He was released only when the new Janata
government repealed the Act itself.
Later, Varavara Rao was implicated in 20 more cases with
serious charges including rioting, armed with deadly weapons,
attempt to murder, murder, using arms and explosive substances,
assault on public servant, unlawful assembly, criminal
intimidation, criminal conspiracy, waging war against
government, spreading disaffection, and sedition. He was charged
not only under various sections of Indian Penal Code, but also
under the Indian Arms
Act, the Explosive Substances Act, the Maintenance of
Internal Security Act, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities
(Prevention) Act. But none of these dreaded charges could be
proved by the prosecution and he was acquitted as “not guilty” in
all the cases by courts of law.
In one of the cases he was charged with procuring and
distributing bombs while actually he was arrested a day before a
bandh call given by various mass organisations in protest of the
death of a student activist in police lock-up. The poem he wrote
at that time said: “I never distributed bombs, I did not even spread
ideas. But it is only your iron heel that crushed the ant-hill and
there sprouted the ideas of revenge”.
The story of Ramnagar Conspiracy Case against Varavara
Rao too is interesting to know. In May 1986, some Naxalites
including NallaAdi Reddy, the then secretary of AP State
Committee of CPI (ML) (Peoples War), were arrested in a shelter

in Ramnagar (Hyderabad) along with literature, arms and
ammunition. Police made a big case out of this showing various
offences in the preceding years as conspired at this shelter.
Varavara Rao was also included as an accused and prosecution
leveled several unimaginable charges including that the minutes
of a district committee conference of Peoples War were in the
hand writing of Varavara Rao and the police failed to prove that
it was his writing. Finally after 17 years of trial, he was acquitted
as not found guilty.
Even though he was not convicted on any charge in any
case, he had to be in various jails in the state for over seven years
as an under-trial prisoner leading to his health problems and
suffering of his family. That also meant that for seven long years
he could not be in public life and was unable to lend his voice to
the voiceless as he has always been doing for the last five decades.
This time also the police very well know that their charges will
not hold water in any court of law, but in the meanwhile, they
hope that he can be imprisoned and his voice can be silenced at
least for a few months till he gets bail. Silencing his voice now is
very much needed for the ruling classes, particularly when
Hindutva onslaught against people in general and dissenters in
particular is on the rise.
http://thebengalstory.com/english/after-25-failed-cases-another-
case-against-literary-naxal-varavara-rao-updated/

Charges Against Varavara Rao
Echo Cases He Faced for 45 years
Sep 28, 2018
Since arresting Varavara Rao and four other human rights

activists on August 28, the Pune police have accused the Telugu
poet of plotting to assassinate Narendra Modi, helping Maoists
buy arms from suppliers in Nepal and Manipur, and funding
“Urban Naxal” activities.
Strikingly, these allegations, largely culled from letters
written by other people, mirror the charges the state has repeatedly
brought against him for the last 45 years – and failed to prove in
a court of law every single time. Varavara Rao, 78, has faced as
many as 25 cases so far but has been acquitted in all.
In 2005, for example, Varavara Rao was implicated in four
cases. He was charged with abetting criminal activity through his
writings and speeches as usual, but also, unlike earlier, with
participating in or directing attacks on police and killing some
people. The cases were filed after Maoists attacked police stations
in Chilakaluripet and Achampet, a senior official’s convoy in
Ongole, and a policeman in Balanagar – all in undivided Andhra
Pradesh – early that year.
In court, the police claimed that the Chilakaluripet attack,
which left five policemen and three civilians dead, was a result

of “provocation and direction being constantly provided” to
Maoists by Varavara Rao and other leaders of the Revolutionary
Writers Association. A memo submitted in the court by
Chilakaluripet’s Sub Divisional Police Officer even accused
Varavara Rao and four fellow accused of “continuously
emboldening” the rebels through cell phone calls to blast the police
station.
In Achampet, where two constables were shot dead, the
police alleged the “offence was committed by Maoists only after
taking directions from their think tank”, referring to the
Revolutionary Writers Association, which is “instigating violent
actions against police”.
Varavara Rao was also accused, along with the writer
Kalyan Rao, of providing the instigation for the April 2005 attack
on the convoy of a superintendent of police in Ongole that led to
the death of three civilians. The police even paraded two
“surrendered Naxalites” at a press conference who claimed to
have attended the meeting at Varavara Rao’s home where the
attack was supposedly planned.
A month before, the police had blamed the killing of a
constable “on instigation and conspiracy of Maoist
representatives”, including Varavara Rao.
The police duly listed these accusations in first information
reports and chargesheets but also, as they are doing now, fed the
more spicy details to the press. Yet, because they were plainly
without merit, three of the cases were withdrawn before the trail
even started. In the Ongole attack case, the trial went on for several
years before Varavara Rao was found “not guilty”.
Previously, four other cases against Varavara Rao had fallen
flat because the police could not prove the charges of “provocation
to murder” and “attempt to murder”.
It is nearly the same charges related to murder that he is
facing now, except the Pune police have also added to the list,
after feeding it to the press, the allegation of a plot to kill the
prime minister.

Same old story
As for Varavara Rao’s alleged dealings with arms suppliers,
he has faced at least nine cases under the Arms Act of 1959 and
the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 over the last four decades. In
perhaps the most ludicrous of them, the poet was arrested and
charged with distributing bombs to ensure the success of a strike
against the custodial death of a Radical Students Union activist
in 1985. In response, Varavara Rao wrote a memorable poem,
titled Reflection.
I did not supply the explosives
Nor ideas for that matter
It was you who trod with iron heels
Upon the anthill
And from the trampled earth
Sprouted the ideas of vengeance
It was you who struck the beehive
With your lathi
The sound of the scattering bees
Exploded in your shaken facade
Blotched red with fear
When the victory drum started beating
In the heart of the masses
You mistook it for a person and trained your guns
Revolution echoed from all horizons.
Varavara Rao was eventually acquitted in all nine cases.
Two of these related to the Secunderabad Conspiracy Case, 1974
and the Ramnagar Conspiracy Case, 1986, in which he was
additionally held for criminal conspiracy, dacoity, attempt to
murder, murder, collecting arms, spreading disaffection, and
sedition.

The charge of funding activities to promote Maoist ideology
is relatively new for Varavara Rao. Though the Andhra Pradesh
police, responding to a notice from the State Human Rights
Commission against Varavara Rao’s arrest in the 2005 cases,
mentioned the poet’s alleged funding of such activists, they did
not book him for it.
Varavara Rao retired as a college teacher in 1998 and has
been living on his pension ever since. It is, thus, difficult to
imagine that he would have enough money to fund such a vast
array of activities the police claim he does.
https://scroll.in/article/895697

Cases Against Varavara Rao
In the last 45 years since his first arrest in October 1973

under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) till the
arrest on August 28, 2018 under the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act (UAPA), Varavara Rao was arrested at least 15
times and was implicated in 25 cases.
However, the prosecution could not prove a single charge
in a single case and he was acquitted in 13 cases after years of
trial. Secunderabad Conspiracy Case took 15 years and Ramnagar
Conspiracy Case went on for 17 years. The courts also quashed
or discharged three cases and the prosecution had withdrawn other
9 cases.
But then, he had to spend more than seven years in various
prisons as an under-trial prisoner, some years in solitary
confinement also, leading to severe health problems and mental
agony.
(Table continued..)

16
S. Case Name Date Sections Charges Court

No. verdict
1. The Maintenance of Internal 1973 MISA Threat to internal Acquitted/ Struck
Security Act (MISA) security down
2. Secunderabad Conspiracy 1974 Sec 120-B, 302, Criminal conspiracy, Acquitted
Case Crime No. 13/74 395, 397, 121, murder, Dacoity,
SC No. 10/75 121-A, 122, 123, Dacoity with murder,
124-A IPC Waging war against
Government of India,
Conspiracy, Collecting
arms Incitement,
spreading disaffection
against government,
Attempt to overthrow
the government,
Fake Charges and Real Torment

Sedition
3. MISA 1975 Detention Emergency Acquitted/
without charges
4. MISA 1977 MISA Extension of Acquitted/
Emergency Released
imprisonment
5. Gurthur (Warangal dist.) January Sec 147, 148, Rioting, Armed with Quashed
case Crime No 25/81 1981 307 & 302 r/w deadly weapons,
SC No. 139/85 149 IPC, 25 (I) Attempt to murder,
(a), 27 &36 Murder, Using arms
of Indian Arms and explosive
Act, 3&5 of substances
Explosive
Substances Act,
120 (B) IPC
6. Hanumakonda case January Sec 353 IPC Assault on public Acquitted
(Warangal dt) 1983 r/w 149 IPC servant, Unlawful
assembly
7. Sironcha (Maharashtra) case May Sec 147 & Rioting, Unlawful Acquitted
1984 149 IPC assembly (On the way
to participate in an
Adivasi conference)
8. Mahabubabad (Warangal dt) July Sec 147, 307, Rioting, Attempt to Acquitted
case Crime No. 105/83 1984 332 427 & 445 murder, Hurting public
SC No. 140/86 IPC, 3&5 of servant to deter from
ES Act his duties, Causing
damage, Criminal tress
pass (Participation
in a meeting to
commemorate student
leaders killed in a fake
encounter)

9. Narsampet (Warangal dt) case 1984 Sec 506 IPC, 3 Criminal intimidation, Quashed

Crime No. 113/84 of the Police Incitement to
17
18
(incitement to disaffection
disaffection) Act

1922 and 7 of
Crl Law
Amendment Act
10. Hanumakonda (Warangal dt) January Sec 4 & 5 of Distributing explosive Acquitted
case Crime No. 8/85 1985 ES Act substances
(Participating in a
bundh against a
lock-up death)
11. Mills Colony (Warangal dt) January Sec 148, 452, Armed with deadly Discharged
case Crime No. 17/85 1985 436, 307 r/w 149 weapons, Tresspass,
IPC, 25 (I) IA using explosive
Act and 3 & 5 substance, attempt to
of ES Act murder, unlawful
assembly

12. Subedari (Warangal dt) case January Sec 3 & 5 of ES Using explosive Acquitted
Crime No. 9/85 1985 Act, 120 B and substances, criminal
506 IPC conspiracy, criminal
intimidation
13. Etur Nagaram (Warangal dt) September Sec 302, 148, Murder, Armed with Withdrawn
case Crime No. 20/85 1985 324, 149 IPC deadly weapons,
25 (I)(a) & 27 unlawful assembly,
IA Act, 120 B Abetting terrorist act
r/w 302 IPC,
3(3) & 4 (3) of
TADA
14. Ramnagar (Hyderabad) 1986 Sec 121, 121 A, Various offences Acquitted
Conspiracy case Crime No. 122, 123, 124 including murder,
92/86SC No.54/87 IPC 3(3) & 4(1) attempt to murder,
r/w 4(3) of incitement, spreading
TADA, 4 of ES disaffection, criminal
Act r/w 6 of conspiracy to
TADA overthrow the
government, sedition,
terrorist acts
15. Saifabad (Hyderabad) case 1999 Sec 144 IPC Unlawful assembly Withdrawn
FIR No. 569 No. CC/1500404/ (Protest picketing
2015 against fake encounter
of NallaAdi Reddy,
Arramreddy Santosh
Reddy, Seelam Naresh
and Arun)
16. Mudigubba (Anantapurdt) case 2004 Sec 147, 148, Rioting, Armed with Withdrawn
Crime No. 60/04 332, 341, 353, deadly weapon,
324, 307 r/w Hurting public servant,
149 IPC Wrongful restraint,
Assaulting public
servant, Hurting with
dangerous weapons,

Attempt to murder,
Unlawful assembly

19
20
17. Virasam Ban Case 2005 Sec 8 (1) of Leading an organization Acquitted as ban

The AP Public banned under The was not ratified by
Security Act AP PS Act judicial panel
18. Dachepalli (Guntur dt) case 2005
Crime No. 101/99 (1999) Sec 143, 341, Disturbing public Acquitted
188 IPC, 7(1) tranquility, Wrongful
Criminal restraint, Disobedience
Amendment Act to order by public
servant, Obstruction
19. Chilakaluripet (Guntur dt) case 2005 Sec 147, 148, Rioting, Armed with Withdrawn
Crime No. 87/2005 302, 395, 307, deadly weapon, Murder,
120-B r/w 149 Dacoity, Attempt to
IPC, 25 & 27 of murder, Criminal
Arms Act, 5 of conspiracy, Unlawful
ES Act assembly,

20. Balanagar (Mahabubnagardt) 2005 Sec 302, r/w 34 Murder, Criminal Withdrawn
case Crime No. 61/2005 IPC, 25 (1)(a) intention
of Arms Act
21. Achchampet 2005 147, 148, 302,
(Mahabubnagar dt) case
Crime No. 29/2005 120-B r/w 149 Rioting, Armed with Withdrawn
IPC, 25 (1)(a) & deadly weapon,
27 of Arms Act Murder, Dacoity,
Criminal conspiracy,
Unlawful assembly
22. Manthani (Karimnagar dt) case 2005 Sec 144 IPC Unlawful assembly Withdrawn
(Participation in a
meeting to unveil
Martyrs’ Statue at
Begumpet)
23. Ongole (Prakashamdt) case 2005 Sec 302, 307, Murder, Attempt to Withdrawn
Crime No. 84/2005 324, 427, 120-B murder, Hurting,
IPC Causing damage,
Criminal conspiracy
24. Husnabad (Karimnagar dt) 2007 Sec 124-A, 147 Sedition, Rioting Acquitted
case IPC (Participation in
Sande Rajamouli’s
funeral)
25. Panjagutta (Hyderabad) 2013 Sec 144 IPC Unlawful assembly Closed
case FIR No. 1500479/ (Protest picketing
2013Regn No. 1500404/ at Chief Minister’s
2015 residence)

21
Arrests and Detentions
S.No. Arrested on Released on Duration

1. 10.10.1973 16.11.1973 5 weeks
2. 18.5.1974 24.4.1975 (bail) 11 months
3. 26.6.1975 23.3.1977 21 months
4. 23.3.1977 31.3.1977 1 week
5. 25.7.1983 1.8.1983 1 week
6. 24.2.1984 27.2.1984 3 days
7. 1984 3 days
8. 18.1.1985 15.2.1985 1 month
9. 26.12.1985 21.3.1989 39 months
10. 12.1999 1 week
11. 19.8.2005 1.4.2006 8 months
12. 4.7.2013 1 day
13. 30.9.2014 1 day
14. 16.12.2017 1 day
15. 28.4.2018 1 day

Timeline of a Terrifying,
State-Sponsored Farce
November 15, 2018
In its life of about ten months, the Bhima-Koregaon case

has undergone as many twists and turns as no such case could
ever imagine. Beginning simply as a rioting case, implicating the
diametrically opposite group of people to protect the actual
perpetrators, it went on to become a case of criminal conspiracy
and then to a dreaded UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act)
case of a conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister, all through
involving a number of procedural lapses and arbitrary changes.
Then it moved on to another level of searches and arrests violating
established procedures, and then led to the Supreme Court’s
intervention and at least five other courts of law delivering
different, contradictory and often evasive verdicts, leaving
everyone in utter confusion. Is the whole affair being enacted as
a theatre of State-sponsored harassment for the accused-arrested
activists and a terrible farce for the observers? Of course.
At this point of time, it is interesting to recapitulate the
case and to examine the way the investigation and the legal process
have proceeded till now.
The conduct of the main investigating agency, Pune Police,
demonstrates that the procedure adopted was far from reasonable
and legal, at least on 11 counts:

1. Pune Police either did not act at all or acted shoddily on the
first FIR filed on January 2, a day after the actual
BhimaKoregaon violence (rioting, vandalism and murder),
in which the actual perpetrators, ShambhajiBhide and
MilindEkbote, were named.
2. Pune Police acted swiftly on the second FIR filed on January
8 as an afterthought, in which the violence was linked to
ElgaarParishad meeting in Pune on December 31, 2017.
While the meeting was organised by two former judges —
P B Sawant and BG KolsePatil — and addressed by several
eminent persons, including Dalit leaders Prakash Ambedkar
and JigneshMevani, as well as adivasi leader SoniSori, JNU
student leader Umar Khalid and Radhika Vemula, the
mother of deceased Dalit scholar RohithVemula, the FIR
cast aspersions on the meeting by alleging that it was held
by a front organisation of the Maoists where provocative
speeches were made and songs were sung.
3. On March 6, Pune Police extended the scope of the
BhimaKoregaon violence case by introducing the element
of criminal conspiracy (Sec 120-B IPC) to widen the net
and implicate more people from anywhere.
4. On April 17, Pune police implicated advocate
SurendraGadling from Nagpur and research scholar Rona
Wilson from New Delhi (even though both of whom were
not associated with the meeting in any way) and raided their
houses.
5. On May 17, the purview of the case was further widened
under the stringent Sections of the Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act (UAPA) and implicated Professor Shoma
Sen of Nagpur University and activist Mahesh Raut, along
with the already accused Republic Panther activist
SudhirDhawle, SurendraGadling and Rona Wilson.
6. On June 6, SurendraGadling, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut
and SudhirDhawle were arrested along with Shoma Sen
after a 10-hour search at her house in Nagpur. All the

arrestees, except SudhirDhawle, neither addressed nor
participated in the ElgaarParishad meeting.
7. After the arrests, Pune Police, in a press conference, raised
various wild allegations, including a conspiracy to indulge
in a “Rajiv Gandhi type of assassination” against Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, based on unverified, later proved
to be fake, letters, which contained dozens of names of
persons and organisations, probably to implicate all of them
at a later stage.
8. Pune Police leaked out some “letters” and selected portions
of the “letters” to some media organisations to tarnish the
image of the accused and would-be accused and a high-
decibel media trial began to be conducted by police, parallel
to, if not circumventing, the legal trial.
9. On August 28, Pune Police conducted raids and searches
on ten houses in six cities across the country without proper
warrants, violating the established procedures, taking stock
witnesses along with them, and giving out seizure reports
in a language not known to the accused. They arrested
Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves in Mumbai
and ArunFerriera in Thane and tried to arrest
SudhaBharadwaj in Faridabad and GautamNavlakha in
Delhi, but failed to do so thanks to the promptness of their
lawyers and intervention of courts.
10. Pune Police produced transit warrants and managed to get
transit remands, and in at least three cases, the transit
warrants were in a language not known either to the accused
or even to the local courts.
11. Pune Police and Maharashtra Police held a press conference
on August 31 and leaked some more “letters” and read out
portions of “letters”, even as the Supreme Court specifically
asked them to furnish the evidence on September 6.
This is the saga of irregularities carried out by Pune Police
that went on for eight months and then the Supreme Court
intervened on a petition by historian RomilaThapar and others.

The apex court adjourned the hearings to September 6 and gave
an interim order to keep the five accused under house arrest.
The arguments on the RomilaThapar petition were heard
on September 6, 17, 19 and 20 and a 2:1 judgment was delivered
on September 28. The majority judgment written and pronounced
by Justice A M Khanwilkar in consonance with the then Chief
Justice of India, Justice Dipak Mishra said, “the interim order
passed by this court on 29th August, 2018 shall continue for a
period of four weeks to enable the accused to move the concerned
court”. Justice D Y Chandrachud, in his dissenting judgment,
accepted the petitioner’s contention that the present investigation
was mala fide and it needs to be done by another agency under
the supervision of the court.
State-sponsored harassment
As the chain of events beginning from January to August
clearly demonstrated that the investigating agency was not
following the law of the land in letter and spirit, indicating its
ulterior motive, the petitioners sought relief from the Supreme
Court in terms of a “fair and independent investigation” by a
different agency monitored by the court.
Strangely, the majority judges have not taken this chain of
events into consideration and dealt a lot on the prayer and its
legality alone and raised obviously unnecessary question of
whether the accused or their friends have a right to choose
investigating agency. In fact, the petitioners or the accused never
thought or asked for an investigative agency of their choice. They
just showed the series of events for eight months and expressed
their suspicion on the present investigating agency and hence
sought the help of the highest court in the land. The judgment
kept silent on that long process and picked holes on the prayer
which actually was the end result of that process.
Further, the learned judges after hearing the oral
submissions and written arguments of the petitioners, which
clearly portrayed the mala fide nature of Pune police investigation,

said “except pointing out some circumstances to question the
manner of arrest…no specific material facts and particulars are
found in the petition about mala fide exercise of power by the
investigating officer.”
The majority judgment contained at least three major
debatable aspects like arbitrariness in framing the questions or
issues of the case, spelling out leading and prejudicial statements,
even while categorically saying it was not in their purview, and
suddenly becoming aware of something called “jurisdictional
court” and “appropriate court” and the petitioners naturally
appealed for a review. However, the Supreme Court rejected the
review petition on October 27.
In the meanwhile, the activists arrest case has appeared in
various forms before at least five different courts (Delhi, Punjab
& Haryana, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and Bombay High
Courts and Pune Special Sessions Court):
1. SudhaBharadwaj withdrew her earlier petition in Punjab &
Chandigarh High Court, which actually restrained the police
from arresting her on August 28. She continued to be under
house arrest till October 26, as per the Supreme Court’s
order. In the meanwhile, she moved Pune Special Sessions
Court for bail which was rejected a day prior to the end of
he house arrest and she was immediately arrested
2. GautamNavlakha challenged the way the transit remand was
issued by CMM in Delhi High Court. This was in fact a
continuation of his petition on August 28, which was
pending due to the Supreme Court’s intervention. Finally,
on October 1, Delhi High Court observed that the CMM
did not apply mind in granting transit remand and set it
aside, thereby releasing Navlakha from house arrest. State
of Maharashtra challenged this verdict in the Supreme Court
which gave notice to Navlakha on October 29 asking him
to respond in two weeks.
3. GautamNavlakha also moved Bombay High Court to quash
the charges against him. The court gave notices to police

and asked them not to arrest him till November 1 initially
and later extended it till November 21.
4. Varavara Rao challenged his transit remand in Telangana
& Andhra Pradesh High Court, after the August 28 petition
by his wife P Hemalata was closed due to the Supreme
Court’s intervention. The matter came for hearing on
October 25, a day prior to the end of the house arrest and
the court, without going into the challenge of transit remand,
extended his house arrest for three more weeks.
5. ArunFerriera and Vernon Gonsalves applied for bail in Pune
trial court which was rejected a day before the end of the
house arrest and then they moved Bombay High Court to
extend their house arrest, as was done by Hyderabad court
in VaravaraRaos case. But the court rejected their appeal
and they were immediately arrested.
6. SurendraGadling petitioned Bombay High Court to strike
down the Pune trial court’s grant of additional 90-day time
for filing charge sheet, without following proper procedure.
Bombay High Court accepted his contention and struck
down the trial court’s order. However, state of Maharashtra
moved the Supreme Court against this verdict and the apex
court granted stay on October 29.
7. AnandTeltumbde and Stan Swamy moved Bombay High
Court to quash the charges against them. The court posted
the hearing for November 21 and asked police not to arrest
them.
It is strange that each of these five courts took different
takes on similar petitions before them and gave different
judgments and reliefs. The idea behind most of the courts seems
to be what Justice C V Nagarjuna Reddy said during the arguments
on Varavara Rao’s petition: “I have to satisfy both individual
liberties and state’s interests!”
But the moot question is whether it is possible to reconcile
individual liberties and state’s interests. The bigger question would
be what would be the responsibility of the courts if individual

liberties and state’s interests are at loggerheads and state uses
illegal means to curtail individual liberties.
https://theleaflet.in/bhimakoregaonarrests-timeline-of-a-
terrifying-state-sponsored-farce

Charged, Momentous Scenes
from An Arrest
November 9, 2018
Starting from 1.40 in the afternoon of Friday, when the High

Court in Hyderabad dismissed the petition of Varavara Rao, till
8.40 in the night of Saturday, when he was taken away by Pune
police, a little more than thirty hours, his house in Gandhinagar
in Hyderabad witnessed highly charged, inspiring and momentous
scenes of anxiety, anger, confidence, hope, and protest on the part
of people as well as cunning, bluffing, illegality and high
handedness on the part of police.
Earlier, Varavara Rao filed a petition before Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh High Court, seeking quash of the Transit Remand
Warrant issued by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Hyderabad
on August 28 facilitating his arrest that day. It was contended
that the warrant was illegal and did not follow the proper legal
procedures. The petition sought the relief of quashing the warrant
and vacate the house arrest, executed since August 29 with the
Supreme Court’s intervention and extended till November 15 by
Hyderabad High Court on October 25.
Justice B Siva Sankara Rao, admitted the petition on
November 6 and posted it for hearing on November 26, directing
a team of doctors from Gandhi Hospital to conduct medical

checkup of Varavara Rao and submit a report in the meanwhile.
However, till November 14, no medical examination was done
and Varavara Rao’s defence counsel brought it to the notice of
the judge since the extension of the house arrest was going to end
the next day. Then the judge asked the prosecution to expedite
medical examination and posted the case to November 16. He
suspended the Transit Remand Warrant till November 17 as well.
Then the state moved in a haste and got the medical
examination done on November 15 and submitted the report to
the judge on November 16. Though in his earlier oral and written
orders the judge specifically said the matter on quash would be
heard on November 26 only and the November 16 hearing was
only for medical report, he suddenly changed his mind and without
any arguments on the quash petition dismissed it. Since it was
already executed, it is a dead order and there is no need to go into
it again, he said. Without anybody asking for it, he also said
Varavara Rao was fit for transit, based on the medical report!That
order was given a few minutes after the lunch break, without
giving any scope for further arguments.
It led to a great confusion. The house arrest extension
expired the previous day and the interim order of suspending the
warrant would be applicable till the next day. Moreover, the judge
who suspended an order two days ago now said it was dead two
months ago, defying any logic how a dead order can be revived
and suspended and within two days again pronounced dead!
Leaving that confusion to legal pundits to resolve, people
of different walks of life felt an immediate possibility of Varavara
Rao’s arrest and started pouring into his house. The policemen
posted in front of his apartment and flat, who were not allowing
anybody except family members inside, for the last 78 days, got
confused with the legal meandering. The suspension of Transit
Remand on November 14 would logically mean that house arrest
was not legal and they have no right to not only stop people, but
be present there at all. But because they did not get any orders
from higher-ups, they continued. Added to that confusion,
November 16 dismissal made it imperative for Pune police to

take away Varavara Rao, in which case, house arrest and police
post in front of the house in the intervening period would not
have any legal sanction.
Maybe thanks to this confusion, from November 16
afternoon police at the gate did not try to stop hundreds of people
coming to see Varavara Rao. People were guessing on the probable
duration for Pune police to arrive either in flight or by road and
expecting them to be in Hyderabad by late night. Thus people
wanted to meet Varavara Rao before that. The word spread and
many people from various districts as well as from the city began
coming to his house to see him before he was taken away. Besides
a hundred friends and relatives, more than a hundred activists
gathered within two hours and the activists sat in protest in front
of the house. The protest holding banners and placards with songs
and speeches continued till 10 in the night.
By that time, a few friendly advocates said since the High
Court order copy was not released either to prosecution or to
defence, the police cannot arrest and they may be waiting for
getting the order. Thus the picketing was dissolved with a call to
observe protest marches all over the state next morning. But
around two dozen activists continued their vigil and refused to
leave the place, apprehending police arrival any moment. By that
time the policemen in front of the house became strict again and
refused to allow more people into the house and the patrolling
vans increased their activity. Inside the house about a ten of family
members continued their wait with baited breath and they had to
spend a sleepless night expecting police any time.
As Pune police did not come that night, by Saturday morning
the people’s stream further broadened and that entire day
witnessed at least five hundred people visiting Varavara Rao.
Besides his friends, relatives and supporters, activists from various
streams like students, youth, dalits, poets, writers, workers and
civil liberties as well as academics went on coming and wishing
him farewell. People from different parts of the state also began
coming to meet him. Each and every person of these hundreds
would come into the flat, shake hands with him, give him a hug
in a demonstration of a sense of camaraderie, confidence and hope.

As part of the state-wide protest call, in many districts
people held demonstrations and in front of Varavara Rao’s house
also a demonstration began in the morning. Various students,
youth, writers, workers organizations participated and spoke at
the demonstration. Several songs against state repression were
sung. It was like a full-fledged public meeting, as it was on one
of the main roads in the city.
Even by the evening the High Court order did not come out
and some people started doubting whether Pune police can take
Varavara Rao into custody without that order. They were guessing
that Pune police would not be able to arrest him till Monday.
Then people began to leave the demonstration and by 7.15 the
entire protest pandal became empty.
Noting that there is no protest demonstration in front of the
house, perhaps on the tip of the watching intelligence men, within
10 to 15 minutes Pune police, accompanied by Hyderabad police
in huge numbers entered the building at 7.40. At that time, there
were only about ten family members and the advocate who fought
the case in High Court present in the house.
The advocate and the family members insisted on seeing
the warrant or the High Court order before taking away Varavara
Rao. The police officer from Pune said they don’t need any warrant
to take a person into their custody. Accompanying Telangana
police officer claimed that they arrested many people without any
warrants. “If you do not cooperate for the arrest, we have to use
force,” they threatened and gesticulated. “We will cooperate, if
only it is legal,” insisted the family members to register their
protest and to expose that the police action was illegal. Then the
family relented and asked them to allow Varavara Rao to have his
dinner after which they can take him away.
This argument went on for about ten, fifteen minutes and
by that time heavy police forces were deployed to block the entire
apartment with ropes and barricades since at least 200 to 250
activists and came back to protest and gathered in front of the
apartment, besides about 50 media personnel.

As Varavara Rao was hurried to finish his dinner, he and
his wife Hemalata were asked to countersign on intimation letters
on the arrest. They wrote their protest remarks and signed on the
letters. Their signatures had the time: 8.31.
Immediately Varavara Rao was taken to the cellar of the
apartments where two police vehicles were waiting. All the people
and media personnel waiting outside the apartment were given
an impression that both the police vehicles would take the exit
gate in normal fashion and all 200 to 300 people were waiting
there. Suddenly, the vehicle in which he was made to sit took an
about turn and climbed up the ramp from entry gate! People ran
the hundred-metre distance from the exit gate to the entry gate
and a couple of them almost fell under the vehicle. The vehicles
were so fast that the ever busy, more crowded with the activists,
road would have seen fatal accidents.
Varavara Rao was taken directly to Gandhi Hospital where
a routine medical checkup was conducted and he was moved in
vehicles to Pune, despite the police intimation to the family that
he would be taken in flight. The 78-year old highly respected
writer, suffering with sinusitis at the time and a chronic patient of
pedal edema (swelling of feet with sitting for long hours), was
subjected to over ten-hours travel on road in an uncomfortable
vehicle.
Back in Hyderabad, the activists gathered in front of the
house stayed there for two more hours consoling the family, giving
bytes to media and thinking of future course of action, while a
hundred activists marched to the nearest main thoroughfare and
held a rasta-roko for some time and returned to the apartment in
a procession. They raised the slogans “Long Live Varavara Rao!
Sangarshkaro, hum tumharesaathhain (Go on fighting, we are
with you) and demanded the government to withdraw the false
case and release all the accused immediately.
https://theleaflet.in/the-highly-charged-momentous-hours-before-
varavara-raos-arrest

Prison Walls Could not Stop Him Writing
December 17, 2018
I mprisonment basically consists of restrictions on

movement as well as on freedoms of speech, expression and
association. Prison walls, however, will only be able to restrict
the movements of a person successfully, but fail to do so in
curtailing one’s imagination. A thinking person’s imagination
blossoms literally everywhere – be it a desert or an ocean or a no-
man’s land or a solitary summit and more so amidst prison walls
that reverberate loneliness. Jail, at best, can only restrict the open
propagation of expression, but cannot stop a person from
expressing his or her desires and dreams as well as thoughts and
troubles. There are thousands of examples of writers behind bars
continuing their writing with added energy and as many of those
who began expressing themselves in jails.
In one word, prison walls cannot stop imagination and
expression, however much they try to curb freedom of expression.
A case in point, for the present, is of Varavara Rao.
The renowned poet and public intellectual is again behind
bars, this time round as an under trial prisoner in Pune’s Yerawada
Central Prison in the famous BhimaKoregaon or Urban Naxal
case. In his public life spanning about sixty years, the 78-year
old poet spent more than seven years in various prisons in the

erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, beginning with his first arrest in 1973.
Despite implicating him in as many as 25 cases, with grave charges
ranging from unlawful assembly to rioting, murder, attempt to
murder, use of explosive substances and lethal weapons, the
prosecution could not prove a single charge in a single case and
law courts acquitted him in all the cases as “not guilty”.
Even as the state wanted to limit his freedom of expression,
the 84 months in prison gave him ample free time to continue and
hone his writing with more vigor, thoughtfulness and insight.
Indeed, prison writing forms such a major part that it occupies
almost half of his body of literature. More than 300 pages out of
his over 1000-page collected poems of sixty years (published as
Varavara Rao Kavitvam1957-2017 in two volumes in 2018) were
written in jail and at least five out of his sixteen collections of
essays and two major translation works were all done in jail.
Varavara Rao’s sojourn in jail began in October 1973 when
he, along with two other writers, was arrested for the first time
under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act. Andhra Pradesh
High Court struck down the detention saying that writers cannot
be imprisoned for their writings unless their writings had any direct
connection with any crime and released the arrested in November.
His third poetry collection, published in January 1974, contained
eight poems in a section titled ‘in jail’. Thus his first incarceration
for a little over a month produced at least two poems per week!
Ironically, his first poem in jail, written on October 12, 1973,
was titled ‘Comma’ suggesting that the jail life would only be
considered as a comma in the sentence he was thinking, writing
and practicing!
From amidst the people who speak
Came into the trees that do not.
From the rocking movements
And the air filled with slogans
Came into the swinging dumb trees
And the high walls trying to arrest wind

was the first stanza of the poem. In another poem written
two days later, he said,
This is jail for the voice and the feet
But the hand hasn’t stopped writing
The heart hasn’t stopped throbbing
Dream still reaches to the horizon of light
Travelling from this solitary darkness…
And also
Of course, in this jail moon is not allowed
To share his light,
But who can stop me from
Marching into the dawn of the eastern sun.
He was again arrested in May 1974 as an accused in the
Secunderabad Conspiracy Case. Though he came out on a
conditional bail in the last week of April 1975, he could not be
outside for barely two months as Emergency was imposed and he
was among the first to be arrested. Even though every other
prisoner across the country was released on March 23, 1977, he
was again arrested in front of the jail gate, to be released only
after a week on bail. About 36 poems, written during this thirty
months imprisonment formed part of his next collection of poetry,
paradoxically named Sweccha (freedom), published in April 1978.
Breezes blow in the night,
As a poet-friend fancied
The moon gets caught in the barbed wire
Over the prison walls
And we, after singing and discoursing,
Lose ourselves in the dreams of revolution
But the poor lonely policeman

Exiled from sleep and shelter
Yawn out at every hour
Sab Theek Hai!
During this incarceration Varavara Rao wrote his
characteristic, oft-quoted poetic lines,
When crime becomes authority
And hunts down people branding them criminals
Everyone with a voice and keeps silent
Becomes criminal himself.
During Emergency, more than 30 members of Virasam
(Viplava Rachayitala Sangham - Revolutionary Writers
Association) were imprisoned in various jails in Andhra Pradesh
and in each of these jails, they produced their own hand-written
literary magazines, to be shared between different jails and even
smuggled out sometimes!
By the time his next poetry collection, Bhavishyatthu
Chitrapatam (Portrait of the Future) came out in September 1986,
he had again to be in jail. In 1985, the then chief minister NT
Rama Rao’s government unleashed severe repression by
announcing a ‘no dance, no song, no speech’ policy. At the height
of this repression, Dr A Ramanatham, Varavara Rao’s close
associate, a popular pediatrician and vice president of Andhra
Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), was shot dead in
his clinic by policemen passing in a procession on the main road
of Warangal. Those in the procession also raised slogans naming
Varavara Rao and K Balagopal the then general secretary of
APCLC as their targets. In that grave situation Varavara Rao
cancelled is bail in Secunderabad Conspiracy Case (in which he
was acquitted of all charges in February 1989, after 15 years of
trial) and chose to go to jail in December 1985. Even while in
jail, he was shown as accused in another conspiracy case named
Ramnagar Conspiracy Case in May 1986 (in which he was
acquitted of all charges in September 2003 after 17 years of trial).

Bhavishyatthu Chitrapatam contained a few poems written
about repression and his time in police custody, but not any jail
term. The book was promptly proscribed by the government in
January 1987 and the ban was withdrawn in March 1990.
The incarceration between December 1985 and March 1989
was a prolific period for Varavara Rao as a poet, writer and
translator. He wrote about 80 poems, collected in a volume titled
Muktakantam (with two meanings – free voice and unified chorus)
published in January 1990. The themes and forms of these jail
poems are so diverse, contemporary and all-encompassing that
almost there was no single major issue on which he did not express
his stand in poetic terms.
This jail term not only produced poetry, but also a lot of
prose writing and translation. Besides several essays on
contemporary literary, social and political issues, he also wrote a
full-length book of literary criticism on Sri Sri’s Maro Prasthanam
in this jail. He came in touch with the writings of Kenyan writer
in exile NgugiwaThiongo just before going to jail this time and
he used the occasion to translate two of Ngugi’s books – novel
‘Devil on the Cross’ and jail memoirs ‘Detained – A Writer’s
Prison Diary’ – into Telugu.
Most important of his contributions during this time was a
series of letters from prison he wrote on the request of Arun
Shourie, the then editor of Indian Express. In August 1988 Shourie
asked him to write a column from jail, with a three-fold demand:
“You should be able to tell us what it is like to live as a prisoner
confined in a small space for such a long period. You should be
able to show us the anxieties that characterize the small society
inside jail. You must make us understand which news from the
outside world reaches you and how it appears in the light of the
reality inside”. Varavara Rao wrote it in Telugu to be published
in Indian Express’s Telugu counterpart Andhra Prabha and
translated simultaneously.
Indian Express Group secured the necessary permissions
from the jail authorities and the government. Each letter had to
be submitted to the jail superintendent, who in turn sends it to the

state intelligence for their approval. Varavara Rao chose to write
thirteen pieces on his ‘unthirteen companions’ – trees, flowers,
waiting, periodical meetings, co-prisoners, books, writings, hope.
Except one, all the others passed through intelligence scrutiny
and the last one was rejected and sent back a couple of days before
his release and appeared in print later.
The column ran for about four months from December 1988
to April 1989 in both the papers, as English translations were
done by Vasant Kannabiran, K Balagopal, MT Khan,
K Jitendrababu, N Venugopal and Jaganmohana Chari. The
column was compiled into a volume ‘Sahacharulu’ published in
1990 and the English translation was published as Captive
Imagination by Penguin in 2010.
In his preface to the book, NgugiwaThiongo said, “the title,
Captive Imagination, is ironic. Of all the human attributes, the
imagination is the most central and most human. An architect
visualizes a building before he captures it on paper for the builder.
Without imagination, we cannot visualize the past or the future.
Religion would be impossible, for how would one visualize deities
except through imagination? How would one undertake a
purposeful journey without imagination, the capacity to picture
our destination long before we get there? The arts and the
imagination are dialectically linked. Imagination makes possible
the arts. The arts feed the imagination in the same way that food
nourishes the body and ethics the soul. The writer, the singer, the
sculptor – the artist in general, symbolizes and speaks to the power
of imagination to intimate possibilities even within apparently
impossible situations. That is why, time and again, the state tries
to imprison the artist, to hold captive the imagination. But
imagination has the capacity to break free from temporal and
spatial confinement. Imagination breaks free from captivity and
roams in time and space.”
Again he was arrested in August 2005 as the government
banned Virasam, after the talks between the government and the
Maoists failed Varavara Rao was an emissary of the Maoists during
the talks. This time round he was imprisoned for eight months

and his 18 jail poems of this period were compiled in his June
2006 collection Antassootram (under current). He also wrote
several essays on various political, social and literary issues which
were later brought out as a single volume ‘JailuRaatalu (Jail
Writings).
Thus, given this history of prison writing on the part of
Varavara Rao, one may expect that the days in Yerawada prison
will deliver more of his writings. Here it would be pertinent to
remember his comment on his prison writings, in Captive
Imagination.
“I do not need to describe the murder of writer’s literary
creations in the course of watches, searches and raids during
imprisonment, when it is inescapable even in the world outside.
It is true that beginning with October 1973, I have written
intermittently while within the embrace of prison bars, but not
sitting ‘on the hard floor’. This I wish to confess in all humility. I
always sat on a chair and wrote at a table either as a detainee or a
special class prisoner. I was always allowed to write. I never
experienced the slightest inconvenience in the matter of physical
amenities, either. It was the intellectual, emotional, cultural and
political isolation that troubled me.”
https://theleaflet.in/even-prison-walls-have-not-been-able-
to-stop-varavara-rao-from-writing/

Reports on Pune Court Proceedings
(These are my posts on my facebook wall as and when the Pune

court proceedings took place.)
1
November 27, 2018
Two days in Pune
Friends, when Varavara Rao was arrested (in fact, it was not
even a legal “arrest” as there was no warrant and the police officer
claimed he did not need any warrant! It could only be an abduction!)
and taken away on November 17, Pune police official said in an
apparent magnanimous tone, “don’t worry. We will take care of him.
You can come and meet him in custody”. In fact, by that time VV
was not in their custody. Even if they wanted police custody at that
time, there is a long process. They should make an application to the
judge, there should be arguments on that application and finally the
judge should decide whether to allow police custody – without any
single act in this process happening, the police official himself foretold
the judge’s decision! He foresaw the future scenario of VV in their
custody and allowing the family visit! Indeed, disallowing all the
powerful arguments of VV’s advocate, the judge allowed police
custody for a week. Actually, a person in police custody with the

judicial sanction has right to have his advocate with him, right to be
silent, right to refuse to answer any question as well as meeting family
members. But the police officer offered the visit as a gesture of his
kindness!
The police custody would have ended on Sunday and VV
would be brought to court on Monday and with an idea to meet him
in custody on Sunday as well in court on Monday, my sister (VV’s
companion Hemalata), Dr. Udaya (VV’s granddaughter) and I have
gone to Pune.
We met VV for over an hour in police custody on Sunday and
as much time in court on Monday. We could also meet VV,
SurendraGadling, SudhaBharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves and
ArunFerriera as they sat in the accused box for three, four hours
while arguments were going on.
VV’s health is reasonably well. On the first day in the lockup
he felt breathless as there was no ventilation and his blood pressure
rose to alarming levels. He was immediately moved to a hospital
and given treatment. From the next day that problem was resolved.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea and sleep facilities were good. However,
all the days BP was recorded high maybe because of the harassment
of interrogation, fatigue and stress. All those days VV asserted his
right to be silent and refuse to answer and was silent most of the
time.
On Monday, SurendraGadling was brought to court for arguing
in favour of his bail petition before judge KD Vadane. Really, listening
to the arguments Surendra put forth for about an hour and a half
between 12.30 and 2.00 was a feast to eyes and ears. The arguments
made by him comprising legal issues, logic, political perspective,
incisive analysis, humor and wit against the investigating officer,
reminded me brilliant arguments of KG Kannabiran. Any person with
even an iota of ability to think will have to accept that deluge of
justice and legality. His arguments were inconclusive even after the
normal lunch break, the judge adjourned it and broke for lunch.
After lunch break, public prosecutor UjjwalaPawar put forth
her arguments for an hour seeking 90-days extension to file charge

sheet against SudhaBharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, ArunFerriera and
Varavara Rao. Repeating the same lies and falsehoods being
propagated by police since Elgar Parishad, or particularly since June
6, she spoke about the hardship involved in investigation, the hard
work of the investigating officer and how vast are the data to be
investigated and sought the judge to allow them to take another 90
days to file the charge sheet.
Then, the counter arguments put forth by four lawyers were
so powerful and eloquent that I would not be able to capture them
fully. I think one should only listen to the arguments. Rohan Nahar
on behalf of Varavara Rao, Rahul Deshmukh for Vernon Gonsalves,
Ragini Ahuja for SudhaBharadwaj and ArunFerriera himself
thoroughly exposed the errors, inconsistencies, illegalities,
falsehoods, and double standards in the application of the public
prosecutor and almost demolished her arguments. The eloquent and
reasoned arguments of each of them in both English and Marathi
clearly demonstrated how the state relied on highhandedness and
slander. Their arguments showed the might of truth once again.
After three hours of such charged arguments, at 6.30 the judge
said he would deliver his verdict at 8 and left the bench. All of us,
family members of the accused requested interviews with them and
that’s how we got another hour or a little more than hour to converse.
At last, a quarter hour before the time he gave, the judge came on to
the bench to deliver the single sentence verdict: “Prosecution is
granted 90 days time to file charge sheet against the accused”!!
2
December 19, 2018
Another day in Pune…
Friends, Monday was the date for BhimaKoregaon case in

Pune Special Judge’s court. Sahaja, Anala, Pavana, three daughters
of Varavara Rao and I went to meet him.

We were waiting in the court since 12 noon and around 2.30
we came to know that Varavara Rao and others were brought into
the court premises. We heard that they would be kept in a lock-up
room within the court premises till their case is called. We hoped to
see them there itself. Usually in Hyderabad or anywhere else the
under-trial prisoners would be brought in police vans to the court
premises and the vans will be stationed in the open ground. Though
the vans have meshed windows, one can stand at a distance to put in
a word, gesticulate or at least to see their near and dear. We had such
experiences with Varavara Rao hundreds of times since 1973.
However, Pune court premises had a smaller enclosure inside
with police offices. The vans from the jail are stationed inside that
enclosure, the gates of which are heavily guarded. Ragini Ahuja,
advocate for SudhaBharadwaj tried to go near the van and we tried
to follow her. But all of us, including the lawyer were shooed away.
The thick mesh on the windows did not allow us to recognize the
faces inside the vans but we saw some hands waving at us.
Finally around 2.45 all of them were brought into the court
building. Vernon Gonsalves, ArunFerriera and Varavara Rao were in
one van and they were brought first. Then came SudhaBharadwaj
from another van. SurendraGadling, SudhirDhawle, Rona Wilson
and Mahesh Raut were brought later. Thus except Shoma Sen,
everybody was there. All of them are old friends except Mahesh
whom I never met earlier. Seeing all of them together was a joy.
Seeing all of them in good health and high spirits was more joy.
Despite police admonitions and pushes, hugging each of them even
for a few seconds was actually bliss.
Since another case was going on in the court all our friends
were made to sit on a bench in the corridor. Besides us who went
from Hyderabad there were about 15 others who came from Mumbai,
Pune and Bangalore to see our friends. Though the police cordoned
off our friends sitting on the bench all of us could squeeze 10 or 15
minutes peeping in between and tiptoeing on the shoulders of the
constables standing around.
Then VV said his throat was getting dry and we offered our
water bottle to him. Even before he took in a gulp, policemen objected

and tried to snatch it. Prisoners are not supposed to eat or drink
anything from others! We protested and asked why a daughter’s water
offering to her father was objected. Then the policemen said we may
bring a sealed water bottle! I ran down from this third floor and
within five minutes back with new sealed bottles and by that time
they were brought out and made to sit in a larger porch area of stair
case and lifts as the earlier corridor was too narrow. There we could
converse for another 10 or 15 minutes.
Then they were taken into the court hall. There were arguments
for about an hour and a half on three issues. Initially SurendraGadling
continued arguments on his bail application and he was as eloquent
as I mentioned in an earlier post. This time round he made his
arguments mostly in Marathi and I could not make out much, but at
least on three occasions the entire court hall reverberated with laughter
as he cracked jokes. Even the judge, who usually presents a stoic,
unexpressive (or police-friendly) face, could not but laugh at the
jokes. Later I gathered from Marathi friends that Surendra ridiculed
the public prosecutor’s objection to him having hand gloves and
commented that she may object him wearing socks also. He also
said the PP was giving a completely different answer to any question
as if the surgeon who was supposed to operate on the left eye did
surgery on the right eye. In between he also switched on to English
and said ‘my arguments are based on law and her arguments are in
the air’.
Then arguments were made on the bail applications of Mahesh
and others as well as the prosecution not providing the relevant papers
and documents to the accused or their lawyers. The advocates brought
a glaring inconsistency to the notice of the judge: “In the charge
sheet submitted to the Supreme Court, the prosecution said the
examination of the electronic devises seized from the accused is not
yet complete. But in this court, they are reeling out many details of
the material from those devices and pleading to reject the bail. Which
one is true, whether it is the statement before the apex court or here?’
The judge has nothing to say to this exposure!
Then SudhirDhawle wanted to know why a letter he wrote to
his family was refused to be sent by the jail authorities. He asked the

judge to find out the objectionable matter in the letter. The PP asked
for a copy of the letter. Sudhir gave a copy immediately and the PP
read it at least twice from top to bottom. Maybe she could not get
anything and asked for an adjournment! The judge readily accepted
and posted it to December 20!
Strangely, the jail authorities are asking us to get a direction
from the court for any book to be given to the prisoners. Varavara
Rao asked for English-English as well as Eglish-Telugu dictionaries
and some books for reading. We took the dictionaries, Pablo Neruda’s
poetry, Jack London’s novels and short stories and Amitav Ghosh’s
novel. We had to file a petition and even on that petition, the verdict
was posted to a later hearing!
When Varavara Rao asked ‘my family members have come
all the way from Hyderabad, give me some time to spend with them,’
the judge said ‘only blood relatives’ and the PP said ‘only in the
presence of police’ in one voice! Even before five minutes, police
brought Vernon and Arun and asked us to leave. We protested and
then they said you can use the time to walk till the van to converse!
That was another five minutes. But even before that, the escorting
jamedar said, ‘bahutbaathogaya, pethnahinbhare (talked a lot, are
you not satisfied?). I retorted, ‘are you ever satisfied talking to your
family in two minutes’. But by that time we almost reached the gate
and we were stopped. When Varavara Rao left us and entered the
premises, I could not control crying and flood of tears.
Varavara Rao usually cannot bear chill and Pune is always
five-six degrees lesser than Hyderabad. At this age of 78 he is being
made to sleep on the floor in that cold Yerawada prison. But he doesn’t
have any complaint. He is as positive and courageous as ever. He
was speaking as evocatively as ever. Though every prisoner is sent
to solitary cell during night, in the day time he and Vernon are together
with a couple of Muslim prisoners who are awaiting death sentence.
He said the Muslim prisoners are very helpful and cooperative. He
said he was able to write and just finished a longish essay in Telugu
recollecting his first and last acquaintance with Bhoomaiah and
KishtaGoud in Musheerabad jail just before they were hanged on
December 1, 1975. But this essay cannot be sent out as the jail

authorities will not allow it on the pretext that they do not have a
Telugu-knowing censor.
He enquired about a number of friends and asked us to convey
his regards. He asked about various social and political developments
in which he is unable to participate and respond.
3
January 5, 2019
Another date with Bhima Koregaon accused…
Friends, I know many of you are concerned and waiting with

anxiety to know what is happening to the fabricated case of
BhimaKoregaon in which several public intellectuals and rights
activists across the country are implicated. As well, you want to know
how our friends in Yerawada jail are doing. That’s why I am making
a humble report on my visits to Pune, and shared with you earlier on
November 27 and December 18 here. This is another report.
After the December 18 adjournment, it was further adjourned
to December 20, but I could not attend the court that day. Again,
from December 20, it was posted to January 4, Friday. For this date,
Hemalata and I went from Hyderabad. Usually our friends are brought
to court from jail by noon and that’s why we reached the court by
11.30. Even the lawyers were saying the case would be heard in the
afternoon and hence our friends may be brought around that time.
As we had nothing to do, we waited in the third floor waiting place.
Suddenly, we saw Vernon, Arun and VV coming out of the lift
along with some policemen and in another lift came Surendra, Sudhir,
Rona and Mahesh. This time round Shoma and Sudha were not
brought to the court. It was such a pleasure to see them while retired
to the fate of waiting for two more hours. I just jumped and hugged
each of the seven friends. When I was hugging them I very well
knew that it was not a hug of me alone. It was a hug on behalf of all
of you who are reading this, all those who dream of a revolution,
who are concerned about their well being and all those thinking people

from the civil society. When their energy, spirit and assurance of
wellbeing were transferred in that hug, it was not only to me but to
each of you.
They were made to sit on the benches in that vernda and
policemen stood around them. But then we also stood around them
and peeping in between the standing policemen we could have a
chat with them for about ten, fifteen minutes. Akkaiah could even sit
next to VV on the bench. Maybe, coming to know of this sort of
meeting going on there, a police officer in civil dress came and
reprimanded the policemen why they brought the accused even before
the judge called for them. He directed them to take the accused back.
Then all of them were marched again into the police enclosure within
the court premises. We walked along with them and could exchange
words for about six, seven minutes. We hanged on the gates of the
police enclosure with a hope that we may be allowed inside. We
almost waited for two hours there, in vain.
Then a lawyer who met them within the lock-up came out and
told us that they were hungry and wanted something to eat. We ran
towards the canteen in the court premises. Somebody said, the police
may not allow cooked food and so we will take packed food only
like biscuits. Another said they are very hungry and asked snacks
like pavbhaji. They asked for tea, for sure. We took all that stuff and
by the time we reached the gate of the police enclosure, all of them
were being brought out to be taken to court hall. It seems the judge
called the case and more over the public prosecutor had already come
and standing for arguments. That’s why the police were asked to
bring the prisoners even without them taking food.
Again we walked along with them talking for another six, seven
minutes.
All of them were taken inside the accused enclosure. There
was an unusual crowd in the court hall. It was all din and nobody
could hear what the lawyers were saying and what were the responses
of the judge. Finally, we gathered that though arguments on the bail
petition were to take place, the judge heard miscellaneous petitions
filed by our friends on the amenities in the jail and the restrictions
being imposed by the jail authorities.

While this was going on, some lawyers and some of us moved
towards the accused enclosure to talk to our friends. Despite being
engaged completely in the arguments, the judge looked this side and
ordered not to allow anybody, including lawyers, converse with the
accused. The policemen, more than willing to implement the orders,
shooed us away. The judge hurriedly disposed the matter saying that
he would deliver his orders on the miscellaneous petitioners later
and posted the bail petition arguments to January 22.
The material claimed to have recovered from their electronic
devices should be given with more authentic hash values rather than
less authentic and easily tamperable clone form, Surendra brought
to the notice of the judge. The judge replied that a forensic expert
had certified the material. Surendra questioned the accountability of
the forensic expert who is also a prosecution witness. Then the judge
did not continue the argument. Even this exchange of two three
sentences was not in the proper form of arguments. Surendra was
standing in the accused cage and exchanged the words with the judge.
As this dialogue was coming to an end, the policemen started pulling
our friends to be taken to the van.
Then VV and Arun asked the judge that they may be allowed
to meet their families. The judge impatiently and inaudibly grumbled
and finally allowed five minutes. But the escort police chief forced
us to get up saying, you can talk the walk till the van, so that you get
two minutes more than the allotted five minutes! Again we had a
walk-talk for six or seven minutes.
At the gate of the police enclosure they stopped us. I gave a
big hug to VV and could not control my tears. Of course, arrests, jail
life and repression are not new for him or for our family. We took all
of them in our stride, good spirits and without anxiety. But that age
has gone. Now he is 78. Now he is made to sleep on a simple mattress
on the floor in Yerawada cold prison. I am unable to control weeping.
Indeed Pune is at least 6-7 degrees colder than Hyderabad. More
over, Pune weather is so fluctuating that in the day it will shoot up to
32-33 degree hot and in the nights it falls down to 10-11 degrees
making the body shake between these two extremes. VV’s lips are
parched with the chill and turned blackish. We offered lip balm but

he said he never used that and even if he wants to use it, the jail
authorities may not allow. He looked unshaven. The last two times I
met him were Mondays and there was no stubble on his cheeks. It
seems in jail barber comes only on Sundays and since this was a
Friday, he had five day stubble. Since the health and life of the
prisoners in judicial custody are the responsibility of the state, the
British colonial law prepared a jail manual which prohibited any
instrument that may allow the prisoner to commit suicide and that’s
how shaving razor has become a prohibitive good in Indian jails!!
Though tears rolled down my cheeks, seeing him lips dry,
parched and blackish, beard unshaven, the glow in his eyes has not
faded, mesmerizing energy and radiance in his smile has not dimmed
a bit. This time also he enquired about so many friends. Talked about
several social and political issues. Asked about repression. He told
me that immediately after knowing the death news of his class mate
and a respected literary critic NomulaSatyanarayana, he wrote an
obituary and sent me in a letter. Of course, maybe because of censor
restrictions, the letter hasn’t reached me yet.
“I am quite alright. Initially I used to think of Prof G N Saibaba.
Comparing my predicament with him, I would think my troubles are
nothing. But of late, Vernon and me are in a block near FaasiGhat
(Hanging Gallows) where about sixteen prisoners with death sentence
are our company. Some of them are Muslims. When I listen to their
troubles and travails, I burn with anger against this unjust system. I
feel empathetic with their problems. Then I do not feel any discomfort
here,” he said.
4
January 23, 2019
Fourth Time in Pune Court – Dreams and Tears
Friends, All the jailed accused in BhimaKoregaon case, except

Shoma Sen, were brought to Pune court yesterday, January 22
Tuesday. On behalf of all of you I could once again greet, speak to

and embrace the eight- SurendraGadling, SudhirDhawle, Rona
Wilson, Mahesh Raut, SudhaBharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves,
AruenFerriera and Varavara Rao. In terms of physical health, all of
them looked not so well. Particularly VV has gone down since I last
saw him. Maybe because of the severe coldness, his skin also dried
and darkened, showing on black and dried up lips. However, each
one of them was exuberant, pleasant and in very good spirits.
Like the last time, this time also we thought our friends would
be brought from jail during the afternoon session, but brought by
12.30. VV’s daughter Sahaja, granddaughter DrUdaya, Pune friend
Murty and I were sitting waiting in front of the lifts. BalasaniRajaiah
who came all the way from Peddapalli to meet (not even that, just to
see) VV was also with us. Suddenly the lift doors were opened and
lo, Vernon along with policemen was out, followed by VV. We just
jumped and by the time we reached the lifts in three hops, the six
others were also there. Sudha was brought from the other side and
already made to sit in the corridor in front of the court hall.
Three of our friends were made to sit on a bench, surrounded
by policemen, in front of the court hall. As there was no space on the
bench, Surendra, Mahesh and Sudhir also stood along with policemen.
Despite the policemen pushing and shooing us away, we stayed there
for over ten minutes moving forward and backward, playing hide
and seek and managed to share a word here and a sentence there. In
the meanwhile, Sahaja managed to stand beside VV and showed the
pamphlets on Virasam conference as well as Mahabubnagar meeting
‘A day with VV’s poetry’. She also showed Arunatara January issue.
Since material printed in Telugu cannot be taken inside the jail, VV
hurriedly looked at them and returned. Even for that fleeting glance,
the policemen raised several objections. Indeed, the police continued
their admonitions since we were talking in Telugu, a language they
do not know.
Several advocates talking to the six accused, four of us who
went for VV, a client and his daughter who came for Gadling, two
friends who came for Mahesh, a couple of other Pune friends who
came for all – this was really a crowded public meeting in that five-
six feet corridor. A police officer in mufti became restless and started

reprimanding the constables, ordering them to push us away. Really
he became so angry that fumes were coming out of his nostrils and
mouth, but he became impatient as he could not do anything. Finally
he went inside the court hall and came back with an announcement:
‘The judge would call this case at 3.30, take them back to the custody.’
There was again a procession. Among those escort constables
there was a person, a head constable or an SI. He was very angry and
arrogant. He was taking lead in shooing us away. While in the
procession, Rajaiah paced along with VV and began a conversation
and this constable raised his finger threateningly at him and shouted
something in Marathi. It sounded like threatening, we will also take
you in! Thus the procession till police campus (Nyayadhin Bandee
Kothadi) we had a walk-talk for about five six minutes. Then followed
two hours waiting in front of that enclosure till 3.15.
At 3.15 a return procession into the court building and again a
walk-talk for five six minutes.
In these three rounds of stolen talks, I conveyed my belated
birthday wishes to Sudhir. I told him that I remembered his birthday
on facebook and many friends sent their love to him. His co-accused
also came to know about his birthday then and everybody expressed
belated birthday wishes. Sudhir turned 50 that day!
When he was arrested and being taken away, VV took the
latest English translation of Gulzar’s poems, ‘Suspected Poems’. He
told us that he translated the entire book into Telugu in jail. He said
he took the help of his Muslim prison-mates waiting for their death
sentence in translating Urdu words and Gulzarsaab’s Urdu preface
published in Devnagari script in the book. He enquired what meetings
were held, who wrote what and what was happening in the last
fortnight since I met him last. When we pointed out that he has gone
down, he said, ‘in fact, everybody puts on weight in jail and take
precautions for not putting on weight. I am also walking a lot. I am
walking after breakfast, after lunch, in the evening, after dinner.”
Poha or upma or sira (a sweet) is served as breakfast. As the rice
cannot be eaten if gets cold, he has been trying to eat roti only. “My
reading and writing are going on. But having none to talk to in Telugu,
not hearing a Telugu word for days together and no chance to read

Telugu is a real pain,” he said. “There are no other problems, I am
healthy,” he assured.
By the time they were again taken back into the court hall,
arguments on the bail petition of AnandTeltumbde were going on.
You know that when Anand went to Supreme Court seeking quashing
charges against him in this case, the apex court dismissed the petition.
But while dismissing the court asked him to apply for anticipatory
bail within four weeks and asked police not to arrest during these
four weeks. That’s how Anand’s petition came for hearing here. Public
Prosecutor sought time to respond to the petition. Defence advocate
said, Anand’ name did not figure in the FIR or the information
revealed till now and any way the prosecution had its say in Mumbai
High Court and Supreme Court and hence it need not be given any
further time. But the judge allowed one week time to prosecution to
make its case against the bail petition.
SurendraGadling brought to the judge’s notice about the
irregularities committed by police and prosecution in the chargesheet,
in the material to be given to the accused and in the bail arguments.
PP said all these objections can be raised during the trial and tried to
postpone the issue. Even the judge took the prosecution side and
began arguing with Gadling.
Then the advocates on behalf of VV brought to the notice of
the judge that the jail authorities are not obeying this same judge’s
orders. Then there was a brief discussion on what were the orders
and a search for the order copy followed. Finally after ten minutes
search they fished out the order and another order to summon the jail
authorities was given!!!
During the previous three occasions, from the dock itself VV
asked the judge to allow him to meet his family members who have
come all the way from Hyderabad. The judge used to bestow five
minutes permission, grudgingly and reluctantly. Somehow, this time
round VV asked Sahaja to file an application seeking permission to
meet and talk. Sahaja made an application for four of us. The judge
looked at it and mumbled something in Marathi, meaning ‘except
wife nobody would be allowed’. Then the advocate told him it is

VV’s daughter, granddaughter and other family members. The judge
asked whether the daughter has any identity proof. Sahaja took her
id proof to the judge and he granted permission to her alone! Her
daughter DrUdaya and I were standing behind her and the same
arrogant head constable pushed both of us back.
While this was going on, Susan Abraham, herself a lawyer
sought permission for her son to meet his father Vernon Gonsalves.
Sagar went near the dock in which VV and Vernon were together.
VV had seen Sagar as a kid long ago and shook hands with him,
saying, oh you have grown up. ACP ShivajiPawar who was standing
in front of the judge assisting the PP hopped to the dock and pulled
Sagar aside, asking him who was he and why was he meeting VV.
“Judge gave permission. Any way, you know these three, don’t you?”
VV asked the police officer. “I know DrUdaya, she can be there,”
the police officer responded and pointed his finger at Sagar. When
he was told that Sagar was the son of Vernon and Susan, he exclaimed,
“oh, is it, then it is okay” as if he came to know this then only. Looking
all this, Sanobar retorted the police officer, “MrPawar, do you have
children?” Te great police officer who fabricated this case as
investigating officer was visibly shocked and restlessly said, “you
cannot ask me, ask the judge”. Anyway he had the last laugh in
obstructing me from meeting VV and he was expressing this
happiness. (When he came to take away VV on November 17, he
and I had a heated exchange).
By that time all the orders to be given by the judge were
finished and the procession of the accused to the vans began. Another
five six minutes walk-talk. At the gate of the enclosure a fond
embrace. A tearful farewell.
Though I have not made any detailed study in Maharashtra or
Pune, even to the cursory glance, I am surprised to see the spread of
Hindutva Brahminical ideology and communal atmosphere. We
generally take pride in that land where Mahatma JotibaPhule –
Savitribai, and BabasahebAmbedkar were born, the land where there
were a spate of peoples movements from anti-colonial struggle to
Dalit Panthers, the land where the ideas of several democratic and
progressive thinkers in literature and theater spread. That land has

now become a highly dangerous haven of reactionary ideas. Just
look at this one example: The court hall is arranged in complete
accordance with Vastu. Unlike in any other government office, in
this court hall all the four directions are marked on the walls: Poorv,
Paschim, Uttar, Dakshin. Exactly according to Vastu, the judge sits
in the south. Just opposite to him, that is in the north, there is a
writing on the wall: AaropiBasanyaachiJaaga, the place for the
accused. But it seems according to Vastu, the accused are not eligible
to sit in the north, their dock is shifted to east and a print out with the
same marking was pasted!!
5
February 16, 2019
Fifth Time in Pune Meeting Bhima Koregaon#9
Friends, in my last post I shared with you what happened in

Bhima Koregaon case on January 22 adjournment. Now, I have to
share what happened in Pune court yesterday, February 15, Friday.
In the meanwhile, I could not attend the court for January 29
adjournment. Then there was another adjournment on February 8,
but by that time VV and SurendraGadling were implicated in a three-
year old case in Gadchiroli district and suddenly on January 30 they
were taken to Aheri from Yerawada prison. There in Aheri court,
police asked for 14 days police custody and the judge granted twelve
days. Thus they were kept in police custody in Aheri till February 12
and brought back. They were taken in a flight while going there, but
the return journey was by road in a police vehicle. The time taken
for food and tea on the road included, this 950-km travel took about
21 hours and as he was in sitting posture for that long, his chronic
problem of fissures relapsed.
All the nine accused arrested till now in this case were brought
for yesterday’s adjournment. All of them looked healthy, more so in
spirits. Shoma Sen used to have different dates earlier and I could
not meet her in the last four visits, but finally she was also brought

yesterday. However, the women police escorting Shoma and Sudha
were very rigid and I was not allowed to talk to them. Shoma is a
friend of mine for over thirty years and I just patted on her shoulder
and about to give a hug and the police pushed me aside. I could only
greet Sudha and
shook hands with her. However, there were more than half a
dozen visitors for Sudha – activists of Chattisgarh Mahila Mukti
Morcha, teachers from the school run by workers as well as friends
from Raipur, Bilaspur and Delhi.
The Special Sessions Judge trying this case, K D Vadane was
on leave yesterday and thus the accused were produced before another
judge SS Gosavi.
This time round, VV’s daughter Pavana and I went to Pune
and straight from the railway station we went to the jail. Only Pavana
was allowed for jail mulaqat. We waited for more than an hour and
finally she got ten minutes to interact with her father. Even that
interaction had a glass screen between the father and the daughter.
There is a phone on the other side as well as this side. Exactly at the
tenth minute the phone gets disconnected. Each and every syllable
pronounced would be recorded. It is impossible for the father and
the daughter to feel a gentle loving touch. Except for the restricted
flow of emotions through a metal wire, there is no scope for hearty
emotions and conversation. Except for a silhouette of a loved person
from the other side of the glass screen, there is no chance for a fond
embrace.
We finished the jail mulaqat with a heavy heart, had quick
refreshment at an acquaintance’s place and rushed to the court. By
the time we reached the court, they were already there. They were
brought five minutes earlier. Since the trial judge hasn’t come, all
the accused and the escort policemen were standing in the corridor
and talking to lawyers. We got about ten minutes to speak to VV
after hugging and greeting all our friends. We hurriedly showed
Hemalata’s interview appeared in Andhra Jyothi daily, the latest issues
of Arunatara and Mahilamargam, reprint of Sahacharulu (VV’s prison
letters published in Indian Express in 1989-90) and my ‘Bhima
Koregaon#12 and VV’. Usually the escort police would not allow us

giving any Telugu printed material. It is impossible to take them to
the jail. But always we hope to at least show VV what he would like
to see the most. However, this time round the escort police were a bit
liberal. In the meanwhile the police finished the procedure to transfer
the case to a new judge to get a fresh adjournment. The new judge
seems to have asked them to produce the accused before him after
3.30 pm and hence all of them were marched to the prisoners’
enclosure within the court premises. As I shared here earlier, it is
five-six minutes walk and we used every single second of the walk
talking all through.
After two hours waiting in front of the enclosure, the accused
were marched again to the new judge’s court hall. Again another
four-five minutes of walk-talk. VV has already read or browsed
through all the magazines and books we gave him. He complimented
Pavana for her article in Mahilamargam. ‘You raised very pertinent
points. Not only revolutionary movement but also Dalit movement
and women’s movement have sharpened our consciousness and
understanding and that is reflected in your article,’ he said. There
was a slight tinge of wetness in his eyes when he said his wife’s
interview in Andhra Jyothy is very good, but at the same time his
face and smile glowed with pride. He felt happy that his 30-year old
Sahacharulu is reprinted to suit the present status, but he said we
should have included a translation of NgugiwaThingo’s preface to
its English version. He also liked my ‘Bhima Koregaon#12 and VV’.
As they were taken into the already crowded small court hall,
the judge called each name and gave next date as February 22 and
signed on the files. The process completed within five minutes.
Defence advocates tried to submit a couple of petitions but the judge
said the trial judge would take them up. Then defence lawyer
Siddhartha Patil brought to the notice of the court that the prosecution
has not filed its say with regard to the complaint of SurendraGadling
for the prosecution not giving clone copies of the material supposed
to have been retrieved in the electronic devices confiscated from
him. Special Public Prosecutor tried to offer some excuse but the
judge said the prosecution has to file their say in written form. The
Special PP asked for some time to file their counter.

Then the police wanted to take the accused back and the
lawyers asked the judge to allow them and the family members to
talk to the accused. The Special PP as usual raised her objection but
the judge disallowed. Thus we got a chance to sit with VV and other
friends again for about 15-20 minutes.
VV told that in Aheri court on February 11 the police asked
further police custody for a week and both Gadling and he argued
against it. By that time VV was reading a book on Bhagat Singh
trials and got a few pages photocopied and gave it to the judge. “Our
belief is that the courts are part of state and even Bhagat Singh
believed so. But, our lawyer Kannabiran used to tell us that the courts,
judiciary and the principle of rule of law evolved out of people’s
struggles for generations and it is our duty to educate judiciary,
judicial staff and lawyers about it. That’s why for your information I
am passing on these extracts from Bhagat Singh’s trial,” VV told the
judge passing on the pages. For this reason or whatever other reason,
the judge disallowed the police application for further police custody.
As in the past, this time also VV enquired about so many
friends, their writings, books and the meetings held recently.
I would like to share three things he told me.
One, about K Muralidharan, a fine intellectual and Maoist
Central Committee member who was arrested in May 2015 in Pune
and being imprisoned in the same Yerawada jail. Muralidharan was
a class mate of P Rajan, who was killed by police during Emergency,
in Calicut Regional Engineering College. He left his studies then
and has been in revolutionary movement, most of the time
underground. He was a very articulate and insightful writer in
Malayalam and English by the time of his arrest. In the last three
years and a half in this jail he learnt Marathi and Hindi and began
writing in these two languages also. Now he is in the process of
learning Urdu.
Two, Mahesh Raut, the youngest of the BhimaKoregaon
accused, did not have any inclination towards literature by the time
of going to jail. But now, he had borrowed Suspected Poems by Gulzar
from VV and inspired so much with the poetry that he translated the
entire book into Marathi.

Three, VV is observing the happenings outside so keenly that
he talked about the recent controversy on ArunJaitley’s face book
comments on the investigation into ICICI Bank scam. In that post
Jaitley said the investigation was motivated and adventurous and
not on normal legal grounds. VV took the comment and applied it to
BhimaKoregaon case. “Yes, I do not know about ICICI case, but in
case of BhimaKoregaon, the investigation is just like that. If only
the investigation was legal and normal, it would have taken the first
FIR of January 2 and proceeded. Just because it is motivated and
adventurous investigation, it is proceeding on the basis of the second,
fabricated, January 8 FIR,” VV wrote in an unpublished and
undelivered comment. He said he expected me commenting on
Jaitley’s post and wondered why I didn’t.
6
March 12, 2019
Fresh Report on Pune – Despairs and Electrifying Hopes
Friends, Though the actual trial in BhimaKoregaon violence

case is yet to begin, a lot of adjournments are taking place on the bail
petitions and other miscellaneous petitions, even without arguments
on them. Here I shared my report on February 15 adjournment on
February 16. At that time it was adjourned to Feb 22, then to Feb 26,
then to Feb 28, then to March 8 and then to March 11. For the three
adjournments in between, Akkaiah could go to only one and none
could go to the other two.
Thus I had to go to this adjournment on March 11 and
Raghavachary from Mahbubnagar accompanied me. Our lawyer
informed me that there may be arguments on the bail petitions of VV
and Mahesh Raut this time and hence they may be brought in the
forenoon session itself.
But then, when we entered the court hall at 11.30 it was empty.
The regular judge was on leave and a new judge will take up the
case, only to give another adjournment date. The new judge was not

yet decided and somebody said the accused may be brought here to
be told about the new judge. We sat there waiting. Then somebody
else said the accused may not be brought at all with the information
on the judge’s leave. We despaired to know that they may not be
brought at all, after a twelve hour journey and two three hours waiting.
But from that despair, we heard the news of electrifying hope.
We were told SudhaBharadwaj and Shoma Sen were brought to the
police enclosure within the court premises. Within a few minutes it
was known that all the nine were brought. Oh, what electrifying vibes!
Around 1.30 it was said that a new judge was assigned and all of
them were being taken to him. We just rushed to the other building.
It seems the new judge wanted to dispose this case before lunch
break and called them immediately. We ran and waited in front of
NyayadhinBandeeKothdi. All the seven were led by police force and
we hugged every one of them on the way. It was two-three minutes
walk to the new judge’s hall and we did not miss a moment to talk
the walk.
Each one of them was called and the new adjournment date of
March 19 was informed. Thus ended today’s adjournment. Then our
lawyer requested the judge to allow lawyers and family members of
the accused to meet them and got permission for five minutes. Then
Ragahavachary and I could sit on both sides of VV and converse for
about 10-15 minutes. We could show him some new books. We could
tell some of the things VV wanted to know from us. We could listen
to some of the things he wanted to tell us. Everybody congratulated
SudhaBharadwaj for the rare honour she got from Harvard University.
I could see electrifying rays of hope on the faces of Sudha and Shoma
when I told Sudha about the wonderful interview by Maysha and
Shoma about the lovely note written by Koel on her. Mahesh informed
me the pleasant news that he finished the translation of Suspected
Poems by Gulzar.
Again a three-four minute walk-talk while they were being
taken back and another round of hugs in front of
NyayadhinBandeeKothadi.
Every time the court used to take time till evening and we
would rush back. But this time round, the court work finished by

2.15 and we had time till evening. Then Ragahavachary and I wanted
to look around Pune.
We heard there is a Mahatma PhuleSangrahalay and thought
it would be on his life. But it is only a regular museum and from
there we went to PhuleSmarak – Samata Bhumi. It was the house in
which Phule lived. As Monday is a holiday for the exhibition in the
house, we could not go in, but in the compound there are many murals
and Phule’s memorial. We spent some time in that land on which
Phule walked and taught once, we inhaled the wind Phule inhaled
once and we trod in the shade of the tree which also gave shade to
him. We had a couple of pictures with busts of Phule and Savitribai.
Hearing us speak in Telugu, a sweeper woman there came to us asking
whether we were Telugu. She is a migrant labourer from Gopalpet in
old Mahbaubnagar district. Laxmi and her husband are working in
Samata Bhumi. Ragahavachary, who has been working on Palamuru
migrant labourers for a long time felt at home seeing her. This is
another memorable element in Pune’s experiences this time.
7
March 20, 2019
A Show of Solidarity, A Despair and An Inspiration
Friends, This time Pune trip spanning over two nights and a
day has been a great show of solidarity that left a little despair and
much more inspiration.
I have been posting my reports on Pune trips ever since VV
was arrested on November 17 and taken into police custody and we
first met him in police custody on November 25 and in court on 27
and most of the court adjournments subsequently and each time many
people said they would like to come to Pune to meet VV, to show
solidarity and to register their protest against this false case. In the
last months some friends have gone on their own to meet VV in
court.

These ideas of VV’s friends, admirers and activists of different
mass organizations to meet him, to express their solidarity and to
register their protest against state repression came to a concrete shape
at a meeting in Mahbubnagar on February 3. That day
PalamuruAdhyayanaVedika conducted a day-long seminar titled ‘A
Day with VV’s Poetry’ and there senior poet Devipriya made a
suggestion: “There are so many poets, writers and artists who love
and admire VV and we all condemn the repression against him. Why
don’t some of us book a bus and go to Pune collectively to express
our solidarity and register our protest.”
This expression of solidarity is not only for VV, but also to all
those public intellectuals and activists now undergoing the state
repression. The protest is not against the repression on VV alone,
but a wider protest against the entire fabricated BhimaKoregaon
violence case, Saibaba case before that and the overall state repression
on Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, women and all struggling masses across
the country.
That suggestion took much more concrete shape on March 18
when about poets, writers, intellectuals, leaders of mass organizations
and VV’s family members (15 from Mahbubnagar and 10 from
Hyderabad) took a bus and travelled to Pune to meet VV in court on
March 19 adjournment.
The composition of this group diverse. They included all age
groups from 11-year old Ala and Vennela in her teens to Bicha Reddy,
Ampaiah and Yadagiri in their seventies. There were many others
like Raghavachary, DudduPrabhakar, Koti, Narayan Rao, Ujwal,
Uday, Chandrasekhar, Swarupa, Yogi, Srinivasachari, Ramki. Some
of them led many people’s struggles. Some of them faced severe
state repression. Many have a lot of life experience. All of them well
read and have great communicative skills. They are activists of
various organizations like Kula NirmulanaPorataSamiti, Civil
Liberties Committee, ViplavaRachayitalaSangham, Praja Kala
Mandali and PalamuruAdhyayanaVedika. The only thing that brought
them together was a stiff opposition to the ongoing state onslaught
on people’s movements as well as love and admiration towards the
public intellectuals, and particularly VV, who are being harassed by
the state.

As the court begins its work not before noon, the team wanted
to better utilize their time in the morning and planned to visit Vijay
Stambh at BhimaKoregaon. They also planned to visit Mahatma
JotibaPhule’s house in Pune if time permits in the evening after court
proceedings.
Shourya Divas celebrations on the occasion of 200 years to
the BhimaKoregaon war and the defeat of Hindu Brahminical
Peshwas’ regime, the slogan of ‘Nayee Peshwahinah inchalegee’
raised at that time, the violence unleashed by the SanghParivar forces
on Shourya Divas celebrations, the repression against Dalit and
revolutionary forces using that violence as a pretext, cooking up a
fabricated case to implicate public intellectuals all over the country
– all these issues are on the minds of each of the team members for
the last 14 months. Each member of this 25-strong team has read
and heard and thought about BhimaKoregaon, but none of them ever
visited the actual place or even Pune. Thus the visit to Vijay Stambh
was a highly emotional event.
The team reached BhimaKoregaon around 8 from Pune and
there was a police camp. Vigilance of armed police force all around.
Though there is no good upkeep of Vijay Stambh premises, there are
a couple of police tents within the premises. The compound gate
holds a name plate – Defence Land! Two police vehicles are parked
in front of the gate and there is another tent at the entrance along
with a high watch tower. Inside the premises there is a register with
an armed guard to write down the names of the visitors. After all it is
a historical place and that too a symbol of the defeat of a brutal
Hindu Brahminical regime and the security arrangements around it
show the nature of the present regime. For many years the place has
occupied an important place in Maharashtra Dalit Bahujan tourist
itinerary (indeed, in one hour we were there, we saw three bus loads
of tourists coming to pay their homage!) and thus the security
personnel there seem to be aware of the visits. We were apprehensive
of the security arrangements and about to ask whether we would be
allowed in, they said we can go in but not to climb up the pedestal.
Under the shade of Vijay Stambh we took photos individually
and in groups. We asked a jawan to click for the entire group.

We returned to Pune and navigating in the horrible traffic we
reached the shelter organized by Pune friends and refreshed hurriedly
before hitting the road again to go to court. We just passed through
many places which need days or hours to visit at least once in life
including the house DR Gadgil, the famous economist who wrote
The Industrial Evolution of India in 1924, the house of his daughter
SulabhaBrahme, another renowned economist who wrote Planning
for Millions, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in which
RS Rao worked in the early 1970s and formed a small Marxist Study
Group in Pune, world renowned Bhandarkar Oriental Research
Institute, Film and Television Institute of India and National Film
Archives.
While we were waiting in the court premises from 12 noon,
around 1.30 we saw SudhaBharadwaj and Shoma Sen being escorted
by police. “Our escort police are saying VV and others may not be
brought today. We will be presented at 3.30 in the court,” said Sudha
as both of them were being taken into NyayadhinBandeeKothadee.
We were in a dilemma whether to take the word of the escort police
as true or whether they were just bluffing. We were feeling
disappointed at the possibility of it becoming true. We were hoping
that it would not be true. We still waited there in front of the custody
for two hours.
Finally around 3.30 only Sudha and Sushma were brought
outside to be taken to the court hall. It is known that VV and the
other accused were not brought. We accompanied Sudha Goparaju
and Shoma having a word or two on the way.
The Special PP informed the court that they were unable to
provide escort to the accused due to election bandobust compulsions.
But that was an utter lie. When escort could be arranged for Sudha
and Shoma, and we with our own eyes saw dozens of other prisoners
being brought with escort, the ostensible escort problems to VV and
the other six accused is only a deliberate falsehood. Probably, the
police might have known that a large group of people were turning
up to show solidarity and wanted to break the hearts of the visitors
and the prisoners. This is another form of planned harassment.
But actually according to schedule today the judge had to listen

to the defence lawyers’ arguments on the bail petitions of VV and
Mahesh Raut. The lawyer defending VV registered his objection and
said, “to make my arguments on the bail application I need to have
my client here. During the arguments I need to take instructions and
suggestions from him.” He protested his client not being produced
on a day of compulsory presence. Then the judge directed the police
and jail authorities to bring VV without fail for the next date of March
25.
Then some reporters from Marathi, Hindi and English
newspapers spoke to the team from Hyderabad and took some
pictures.
Though the team returned with a feeling of disappointment
and despair, they also realized how much the state was afraid of their
meeting, at least a glimpse, a gesture to VV and felt this itself is a
victory. “We have seen, met and talked to VV several times in the
past. We were inspired by his speeches many times. Even if it is a
disappointment that we could not meet him today, the greater
realization is about the state’s timidity in not allowing this to happen,”
they said.
In a way their visit to and the next two hours they spent at
Mahatma JotibaPhhule’s house erased that disappointment. They
relaxed for two hours and talked about Jotiba and Savitri under the
shade of a great tree, in that house in which Jotiba and Savitri lived
a hundred and fifty years ago, at a place where each and every inch
spoke of the social revolutionary spirit of Jotiba and Savitri. They
have taken pictures with the busts of the great social revolutionaries.
They got excited to look at the huge murals that spoke about Jotiba-
Savitri’s great works. They felt very inspired to walk on the floor in
those rooms Jotiba-Savitri trod and taught, touched the well used by
Jotiba-Savitri.
The return journey was another great experience. Leaving a
brief tea break and a dinner break, the twenty five visitors held a
four hour meeting in the bus itself with Koti presiding over it. It was
a wonderful meeting where each of them expressed his/her thoughts
and feelings. They spelt out their feelings about the state offensive,
people’s resistance and other related issues openly without any

hesitations, prejudices and one-upmanship. They reviewed all that
happened and laid out plans for what to do in future.
For me it was a wonderful, glowing and inspiriting experience.
April 9, 2019
A Report on April 4 in Pune Court
Friends, I am sorry that I could not share the happenings on

April 4 in Pune Court due to several pressing preoccupations. I could
post a Telugu report yesterday only and here is an English version.
However, as I know that at least some of you will be expecting this
report, I immediately posted a couple of lines of update that evening
itself, shared Koel Sen’s post that night and a Times of India, Pune
report the next day. Here is a full report:
This time round, I was along with five other friends who went
to Pune to see VV and other friends. Usually we get at least four
hours time between getting down from the train and the time our
friends are brought from the jail to the court. If we have a traveling
facility we could go to BhimaKoregaon and come back to catch them
in court. If we don’t have that facility, we can go to Samata Bhumi
(residence of JotibaPhule and Savitri Bai) in the city and reach the
court in time. This time, our time was not sufficient to go to
BhimaKoregaon and we went to Samata Bhumi. This is fourth time
for me to go there (and I almost became a guide!!) and everybody
else felt so excited and inspired as it was first time for them.
From there we went to court by 12 and started waiting. We
came to know that the van that brought our friends from jail came
around 1.30 – 2.00. From then onwards we waited in front of
NyayadhinBandeeKothadi. It was scorching heat. While it was 36
degrees in Hyderabad at that time, Pune recorded 39 degrees. We
felt sad wondering how our friends were spending their time inside
the stone walls that draw in all this heat and exhale whole day and

night and that too without fans. After waiting there for an hour, around
3.00, after the court resumed after its lunch break, we saw Shoma
Sen and SudhaBharadwaj coming out with escort police to be taken
to the court hall. All the others also came out after five or ten minutes.
VV felt happy seeing all of us waiting at the gate. It seems he
did not expect some of us and expressed his pleasant surprise.
Particularly he felt happy and concerned at seeing B S Raju, who
took all the trouble to come to Pune at the age of 71 and not keeping
good health. There, in front of the gate, under the blazing sun, he
hugged everybody. We conveyed our own as well as all your solidarity
to each of our friends by shaking their hands and giving hugs.
As per schedule, special public prosecutor UjjwalaPawar had
to make her counter arguments on the bail petitions on that day. But
as all our friends were led into the dock and the court began, the PP
said the Investigation Officer ACP ShivajiPawar could not come due
to election security arrangements and she will not be able to argue
without his help. She sought another date, not only one date, but two
dates as she has so much to argue. The judge posted the hearing to
April 8 and 10.
With that order, the court proceedings for the day should have
come to an end. But there was another petition with regard to the
denial of permission by the jail authorities to Mahesh Raut for joining
a diploma course on human rights from Indira Gandhi National Open
University. The judge took up the petition and summoned the jail
authorities. The jail representative had not come by that time and the
PP sought some time. Thus our friends had to sit in the dock for
about 30-40 minutes just waiting for the jail representative and the
PP. We used that time to go and put in a word with our friends. Each
of us went and stood at the dock for a minute or two and had a word
with VV and others. We gave books, papers and pamphlets to be
seen by VV and he glanced through them there itself. Shoma Sen’s
daughter Koel Sen had come. Three of Mahesh’s friends also came.
While these conversations were going on the judge appeared
uncomfortable and the bench clerk shouted to the police to push us
aside.
After some time, an official from Yerawada jail came along

with the PP. The jailer started defending their decision of not
permitting Mahesh to join a course of IGNOU and PP began
supporting him. As Open University will have contact classes and it
would be difficult to take and bring back the prisoner, the permission
is denied, he said. However, our lawyer fished out an old letter written
by the jail authorities to IGNOU saying that they are opening a centre
within the jail premises to allow prisoners to pursue higher studies.
“Since it is an open university, one can study even without classes,
isn’t it” questioned the judge. Finally the judge directed the jail
authorities to permit Mahesh to pursue the diploma course.
The court proceedings for the day were finished with that and
the police began taking our friends back. The VV asked the judge, as
usual, ‘my relatives have come, please permit us to have a chat’. The
judge asked who were the relatives and added, ‘only blood relatives
are permitted.’ ‘Yes, my blood relative. My sister’s son, my nephew’,
said VV. ‘How can he be a blood relative? No, not permitted,” ruled
the judge. It seems he accepts only wife and children as blood
relatives. In fact, even wife cannot be a blood relative. Strictly
speaking, only children are blood relatives. As well siblings and
offspring of siblings also can become blood relatives. Indeed, in VV’s
case as he married his sister’s daughter, she is also a blood relative,
in addition to being wife. But, who will listen to this common sense,
this logic, and this principles of natural justice…?
Really, since he was an accused in Secunderabad Conspiracy
Case in 1974, for the last 45 years, I met him in jail (not even one
jail, jails – Warangal, Musheerabad, Chenchalguda) and several courts
hundreds of times. As a nephew, I met him with the permission of
judges and jail authorities. It seems now the world is upside down. It
seems values, humanity and law are subverted and power, barbarity,
aggression, illegality and inhumanity are becoming the order of the
day.
We returned with that despair. But also with a satisfaction of
seeing them for an hour or two, speaking for about ten-fifteen minutes
while walking up and down from the Kothadi to the court as well as
a couple of minutes in the dock.

9
May 17, 2019
12 hours Journey, 7 hours Waiting

for a Glance and Two Words…
Friends, Today it is six months since VV was arrested and

incarcerated in Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison, after being kept in
house arrest for two months and a half. Though Indian jurisprudence
as well as principles of natural justice say that facing court trial is
not conviction and for an under-trial prisoner ‘bail is rule and jail is
exception’, the Pune court has delayed the arguments on bail petitions
for five months and half. Now an uncertain situation prevails about
when the verdict on bail will be pronounced.
I shared with you what happened in the court on April 4 and
after that there were eight dates on April 8, 10, 1, 15, 18, 25, May 7
and 8, but our friends were not brought to the court at least on five
occasions under the pretext of non availability of escort police.
Yesterday was another date. While the verdict on bail is postponed
for a future date, the yesterday’s date was for hearing the arguments
on an application filed by accused-advocates SurendraGadling and
ArunFerriera. They were asking the court to direct the prosecution
to supply the clone copies of electronic devices allegedly seized from
them. It is the right of an accused to go through the “evidence” relying
on which the prosecution is making some criminal allegation against
him. Unless the accused has access to the material, based on which
the other side is making an allegation, the accused will not be able to
counter the allegations and defend. This is a common, unquestionable
principle of natural justice. But strangely, even as the accused were
asking for the material, yesterday the special public prosecutor
UjwalaPawar filed another application saying that they will not supply
the material. She said the material is very sensitive and if the accused
is given access to it, they will immediately share it with underground
naxalites and the yet-to-be-arrested accused and it will lead to danger
to security and integrity of the country. However, five months ago

she as well as investigation officer ShivajiPawar, in a written
submission to the same court, promised that they would supply the
material soon. Now they changed their word. Yesterday the court
heard arguments and counter arguments on the issue. There is a lot
to share on this and I will postpone that to a future date.
Yesterday the escort police were unprecedentedly harsh, cruel
and inhuman in now allowing us to meet, to have a word, to give a
hug, at least to shake hands with our friends. They did not allow
even to walk along with our friends from the van/police custody in
the court premises to the court hall (which takes about five six minutes
and earlier I reported that it was the time to talk to our friends).
Earlier, our lawyers informed that this time round the hearing
may take place in the forenoon session and our friends may be brought
by 11. That’s why Koti from Praja Kala Mandali and I reached the
court premises by 10.30 and started waiting in front of the custody
gate. Finally the van that brought them came at 12.30 and while
going inside the custody room they gestured that it would be 3 pm.
Then we continued to hang on there for two hours more.
The distance between us was not even fifty yards. That is so
far, or so near that if you raise your voice you can be heard. But in
between, there is a gate, behind that a police ground where no ordinary
person can tread, at the end of it another gate guarded by armed
policemen, in the room after that gate will be all those who are very
close to your heart. So near yet so far. We waited in that sad state for
two hours and a half more and then saw they were being led out.
The scorching summer heat of Pune was showing on each of
them and all of them looked tired. (After prodding so many times,
the authorities fixed ceiling fans in the solitary cells of our friends
only three weeks ago. However the switches for fans were kept
outside their cells and it is up to the policeman’s whims and fancies
when to switch on or switch off!!!). Koti and I felt VV was looking
more dull and tired.
Just as regular practice, we paced forward to give a hug to get
strength and to pass on solidarity. But from other side of the gate
itself, VV cautioned us “today they are very strict.” They walked out

of the gate, both of us putting our foot forward towards VV, police
pushing us aside and pulling him to the other side… all that happened
within seconds. Then all through the next six-seven minutes walk
till the court hall, all our friends were cordoned off and we were
shooed aside. The policemen effectively prevented flowing of even
a single word from this side to them and backwards. Unlike regular
practice, they were not stopped in the corridor even for a few seconds
and taken into the dock in the court hall directly. The dock was fully
guarded without allowing anybody go near it or putting in a word.
Two hours of arguments and counter arguments followed and all
through we could only glance at our friends, but could not go nearer
to them or throw a word.
When the court business was finished again our friends were
covered in a circle of policemen and taken back. On the way there is
a barricade like arrangement where only one person can walk through
at a time. There police sent all our seven friends one by one and after
the last person crossed it, two policemen obstructed the way. I shouted
at the policeman: “This is a public place. How can you stop us”. In
cold-blooded composed voice he said, “I know”!!! Only after our
friends walked some fifty sixty yards and just turning into the police
custody compound we were allowed to cross the barricade.
As I shared with you so many times previously, I have been
meeting and talking to VV in jails since 1973 October and in courts
since 1974 May and I might have done so hundreds of times but
never (or very few times) I experienced such a harsh, cruel and
inhuman behaviour of police.
10
June 5, 2019
Pune Court Update - Inhuman Procrastination
Friends, I could not go to today’s court date but here is a

report on Bhima Koregaon violence – Elgaar Parishad case, I am
filing with utmost anger and sadness.

Except Sudha Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen, none of the others
were brought today. In between the previous court date of May 18, a
lot of strange developments have taken place. The Special Sessions
Judge K D Vadane, who has been hearing this case since June 2018
has gone on leave from May 20 till June 2. He heard all the arguments
of defence and counter arguments of prosecution on the bail petitions
and was supposed to deliver his judgment sometime in the last week
of May. But he went on leave and everybody was expecting that he
would pronounce it after he comes back. But in the meanwhile he is
transferred and in his place a new judge R M Pande has taken over.
It seems the bail arguments have to be made all over again before
this new judge. Earlier the arguments went on for over four months
and now everything has to begin afresh!!
Earlier, our friends were asking for the clone copies of the
material shown as seized from their electronic devices and the
arguments went on for some time. Indeed, it the right of an accused
to get the material based on which he/she is charged. The prosecution
initially said they would supply the material and later changed its
stand and said they won’t give as it would hamper the security and
integrity of the country! Finally the previous judge, on May 18, gave
an order directing the prosecution to provide the material. He directed
the Nazir (Assistant Superintendent of the court) to issue notices to
the Investigating Officer, the accused and their lawyers to be present
before a Forensic Sciences Laboratory expert to receive the cloned
copies of the material. He posted that to May 27 but since he was on
leave it was again posted to today, June 4. Today the Nazir asked
more time and the new judge gave three weeks! The next date is
June 27. If everything goes well, the material may be given on that
day and the bail arguments have to go on some time after that…
By then Sudhir Dhawle, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson,
Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut will be in jail for 12 months and 21
days.
Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferriera will
be in jail for 8 months 2 days.
Varavara Rao will be in jail for 7 months 10 days.

WITHOUT TRIAL.
WITHOUT BAIL.
ON FAKE CHARGES.
DUE TO ILLEGAL, CRUEL, INHUMAN PROCRASTINATION…
Whither rule of law?
Whither ‘bail is rule and jail, the exception’, the famed
principle of natural justice as well as Indian jurisprudence?

Shouldn’t this Inhumanity Prick Our Conscience?
Friends, It is exactly one year - yes, 12 months or 52 weeks

or 365 days or 8760 hours or over five lakh twenty five
thousand minutes of ILLEGAL and INHUMAN INCARCERA-
TION of my friends Sudhir Dhawle, Surendra Gadling, Rona
Wilson, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut in Pune Yerawada
Central Prison. They had to spend most of this unbearable
lengthy time in solitary confinement in locked cells with no
social relations except a watching guard, in all pervasive
silence except Sab Theek Hai shouts of guards, occasional
reading and writing, dreams and thoughts that soar high but
constricted within four walls under barbed, electrified wires,
periodic court hearings that go nowhere..
After all, what was their crime?
Nothing. Indeed, NOTHING. They committed no crime.
They just had dissenting voices. They expressed their own views
on society, culture and governance. They contemplated. They
sang. They wrote. They spoke. They argued. They communi-
cated their views to people at large. That was their crime.
They have been imprisoned for the crime of having their
own conscience and giving expression to it.
That means, each of them is like you, me or any of us.
Like anybody who thinks, reads, writes, and works on
concerned people’s issues.
Since when that has become a crime in India?
Since when the work of a thinker has become a reason
for putting him/her behind bars for months together without
trial and without bail?
Shouldn’t that prick our conscience?
June 06, 2019

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Acknowledgements

These essays and reports where published earlier by the

2 Fake Charges and Real Torment

In a series of several illegal acts based on a concocted letter,

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At least 48 years before being branded as ‘Urban Naxal’,

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Since arresting Varavara Rao and four other human rights

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In the last 45 years since his first arrest in October 1973

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S.No. Arrested on Released on Duration

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In its life of about ten months, the Bhima-Koregaon case

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Starting from 1.40 in the afternoon of Friday, when the High

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I mprisonment basically consists of restrictions on

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(These are my posts on my facebook wall as and when the Pune

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Friends, Monday was the date for BhimaKoregaon case in

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