Bhima Koregaon case: Gautam Navlakha moved to Anda cell of Taloja jail

While Gautam Navlakha was initially kept under house arrest, he was subsequently sent to judicial custody and lodged at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai. Pic/Yaman Navlakha

The partner of Gautam Navlakha, who is imprisoned in Taloja jail in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, has said his health is deteriorating further, after he was shifted from a barrack to the Anda cell. Navlakha, an activist and journalist, was shifted to the high security prison on October 12, and his partner Sahba Husain, who lives in Delhi, got to know of this two days later.

Navlakha was arrested in the Koregaon Bhima violence case on August 28, 2018, for his alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case. Husain, an author and women's rights activist, said, "Navlakha, nearly 70, is one of the oldest of the Bhima Koregaon arrestees, and was shifted to the anda cell (high security) from the barracks on October 12. His telephone calls to me and his lawyers, his lifeline to the outside world, have been discontinued on the pretext that physical mulaqats have resumed in jail."

Gautam Navlakha

"I last spoke to him on October 14 and he said he had been shifted to the anda cell and won't be making video or phone calls to me and his lawyer. I, his partner, am over 70, and live in Delhi. Travelling to Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai frequently to meet him for the alloted 10 minutes is difficult and Gautam's only contact with me is through the two calls he was allowed every week that enabled me to send him articles of need, including medicines, books etc.," she said.
"With the discontinuance of phone calls, all this will now depend on letters that take a minimum of two weeks to reach me. Regular access to lawyers through phone calls is an essential facility for undertrials. To deprive any undertrial prisoner of this effective and efficient mode of securing legal advice and help, or access to family, is the height of unfairness," she added.

‘Life, defence severely compromised'

Husain is worried about Navlakha's health. "Gautam's fragile health and well-being will be further jeopardised by this withdrawal of the phone call facility to his family and lawyers. Already, he is deprived of daily walks in the jail's non-concretised greener areas and fresh air, and his health has deteriorated further, making specialised medical care an absolute necessity, if he is to live to fight this unjust and false case foisted on him. Without the weekly calls to me in Delhi, and to his lawyers, his life and his defence will be severely compromised," Husain added.

Gautam has written to Husain saying due to confinement in the anda cell, he is denied fresh air as there is not a single tree or plant in the open space in the cell and when they are let out for eight hours, they are ‘confined to a corridor'.

‘Prisoners of conscience'

Husain further added, "Not long ago, Stan Swamy passed away in tragic circumstances. Stan, severely debilitated by Parkinson's Disease, had to fight for such basic needs as a straw to drink, help to move to the toilet, and medical attention. His simple desire was that in his declining state of health he be allowed to die at home in Ranchi. Even as his prayer before the court was pending, Stan Swamy passed away in a Mumbai hospital, indeed after once telling the court that he would rather be simply left to die in jail than be taken to the hospital."

"These are prisoners of conscience, who have had to face indignities and humiliation for the smallest needs, and wage court battles for basic dignities in prison," Husain said.

The counsel for Navlakha, advocate Yug Chaudhary said, "What's happening is extremely inhuman and cruel. It is inflicting needless and unnecessary punishment. There is no justification for this (shifting Navlakha to anda cell) at all. Why will somebody stop his contact with his family? It was never a security threat earlier, why now? Why has this 70-year-old man been shifted to the anda cell? You have to justify as it can have injurious effect to his decaying health."

Officials speak

A senior prison official told mid-day that even if a prisoner is shifted to the anda cell, the facilities given to him are not stopped. "He can still make video and phone calls to his relatives. The only restriction for a prisoner in the anda cell is that he cannot live in company. Shifting a prisoner to the anda cell is not a very big deal," said an IPS officer.

An officer at Taloja jail told mid-day that the prison is overcrowded. "He has been shifted to the anda cell for his safety and security purpose. The barracks are overcrowded and the prisoners often struggle to sleep properly but in anda cell, there is enough space and one can sleep peacefully. There is no chaos at all," said the prison officer. The prison officer further added, "Even the HC says that it is the responsibility of prison department to decide which prisoner will be kept where in a jail, so what's the point of stoking a controversy? Also, it is not correct to say that the inmates can't breathe properly inside the anda cell. The anda cell is not congested, we often keep inmates in odd numbers in it. There is no suffocation at all; one gets suffocated in barracks which are always overcrowded."

The Koregaon Bhima case

Violence broke out between caste groups near the War Memorial during the bicentennial anniversary of the 1818 battle of Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018. Dalit organisations commemorate the victory of the East India Company over the Peshwa of Pune in the battle because British forces included soldiers from the oppressed Mahar community. But some right-wing organisations opposed the celebration in 2018, leading to violence. Police alleged that Elgar Parishad, which was organised at Pune's Shaniwar Wada on December 31, 2017, had aggravated the violence.