Tanvi Sinha
Activist Sudha Bharadwaj was given green light to access books from outside her assigned prison as according to an order given by a special NIA court, subject to the contents of the book.
The single-bench judge of the court Justice DE Kothalikar allowed the plea and instructed the jail superintendent to allow Bharadwaj five books a month from outside the prison.
Last month, all three accused in the case – Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, and DU professor Hany Babu had filed separate pleas requesting books and newspapers from outside the prison.
The judge declared that the contents of the books would be carefully supervised by the superintendent, and it would be seen if they had any vulgar, violent, obscene material in them or contents that propagate the banned organisation – CPI, the Maoist organisation- on the question of whose ties, the three were arrested.
The three were arrested in 2018, 28th August with regards to the Bhima Koregaon case under the controversial Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The Bhima Koregaon battle marks an important event in Dalit Indian history where a large amount of Dalit soldiers under the British won against Peshwa Baji Rao II.
However, during the celebration of this, violence broke out and a 28-year-old man lost his life.
Almost 7 months after her arrest, Bharadwaj was actually honoured by Harvard, but even as the Mumbai government planned to sit a probe on the case and help her out, the centre transferred the case to the NIA.
Bharadwaj is not the only one suffering under the UAPA. In a related event, activist Anand Teltumbde, was one more of the many, many activists who were arrested under the act.
During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, in his bail plea on 12th January 2021, he stated that the prosecution was lying in the theory where they said he was abetting others to wage war against the government.
Teltumbde in fact spoke of coming from a poor family and still excelling, but casteist forces not being to digest, fixed in a case filled with lies to belittle him.
The court plans to hear his plea and others related to him on January 27th.