Jailed human rights defenders start hunger strike demanding court appearance : Valley Vision

Seven human rights defenders who are accused in the Bhima Koregaon case have gone on a hunger strike from Friday, protesting that they are not physically produced for the trial.

The accused activists in the case – Sagar Gorakhe, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Hany Babu, Rona Wilson, Ramesh Gaichor, and Mahesh Raut – said that the police is deliberately not producing them in court and launched a hunger strike.

All of them are currently lodged in Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai.

For several months, these prisoners alleged, they have consistently been denied transport to court on scheduled dates, with flimsy excuses related to the unavailability of security personnel.

On 9 October, the Bhima Koregaon prisoners were not presented in court on the day of their hearing. During that time, Advocate Surendra Gadling, who is fighting his own case, presented his arguments via video conferencing from jail. After hearing his detailed statements, the special NIA court (No. 25) in Mumbai instructed Taloja Central Jail to ensure all prisoners were brought to court on the next scheduled date, 18 October. However, despite these clear court directives, the Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner has completely disregarded them.

In this context, Advocates Surendra Gadling and Sagar Gorkhe were supposed to present this issue before the special NIA court and file the necessary documents for a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court. Yet, even on Friday, on a regular court date, not a single one of the seven prisoners was brought to court.

Particularly, even though sufficient police personnel were available to transport the prisoners to court and hospitals, the Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner is using these resources for other purposes instead, the prisoners alleged.

Some of these individuals have been incarcerated for six years, while others have been imprisoned for four years, yet the trial has not even begun.

In a press statement released by the BK-16 (refers to the 16 people who were arrested in the case), observed that the deliberate non-appearance of the prisoners on court dates is a violation of the constitutional rights of the defendants.