After spending three years inside the prison even as no charge sheet was filed against her in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj stepped out of Byculla jail on Thursday afternoon. Her friends and family members were present to receive her from 9.30 am as she was supposed to be released at 10 am, but due to some delay in the documentation process, she was released at 12.41 pm. Amid media persons thronging her, trying to get a comment from her, she just waved her hand once before getting in the car.

Her friend addressed the media instead, saying they were happy with her release, but with a heavy heart as other people still remain behind bars in a case that is “fraudulent” and made with “inadmissible evidence”. Before her release, Bharadwaj’s friend Smita Gupta told the media that Bharadwaj and her family members will not speak as per the court’s order. So, on their behalf, Gupta said, “We, her friends and family members, are extremely happy that she will step out of jail after three years, but on the other hand we are in grief that three years of her life were spent inside the prison in a false case. Everyone knows what is happening in this case, soon it will be clear that this case was based on fraudulent and inadmissible evidence.”