Accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, activist Gautam Navlakha has been shifted to the ‘Anda Circle’ (high-security barracks) in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja jail, his partner Sahba Husain said on Sunday
Sabha Husain has claimed in a statement that on October 12, the activist was shifted to the Anda circle from the regular barracks and questioned as to how long will he be “persecuted for his views and to what extent will the authorities go to break his spirit”.
Claiming that the 70-year-old’s already fragile health had detoriated further due to shifting, she said the activist also had to face indignities and humiliation for the smallest and basic needs in prison.
“In the Anda circle, he is deprived of daily walks in the jail’s non-concreted 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 hoisted on him,” Husain said.
Referring to the recent incident wherein Navlakha’s spectacles went missing and it was difficult to send him a replacement, Husain said, “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.”
The statement read that Gautam has faced his unjustified incarceration with courage and spirit. “How much longer is he going to be persecuted for his views, and to what extent will the authorities go to break his spirit,” she questioned.
On 20 August 2018, Navlakha was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case. While he was initially kept under house arrest, he was subsequently sent to judicial custody and lodged at the Taloja jail.
On the pretext that inmates can now be met in jail physically, the statement said that Navlakha’s phone calls to Husain and his lawyers have been discontinued by the jail officials.
Without his weekly calls to Husain and his lawyers, Navlakha’s life and his defence will be severely compromised, it added.
The statement said, “Gautam’s fragile health and well-being will be further jeopardized by this withdrawal of phone call facility to his family and lawyers.”
Activist Sabha Husain also said what Navlakha wrote to her, “confinement in the Anda circle means denial of fresh air/oxygen as there is not a single tree or plant in the open space of the circle. We are forbidden to step outside of the Anda circle.”
“In other words, we spend 16 hours out of 24 cooped inside our cell and the 8 hours we are let out we are confined to a corridor for our daily walk on the cemented floor surrounded by high walls all around,” she stated quoting Gautam.
Husain’s statement also referred to the recent death of a co-accused in the Maoist case, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, who too had allegedly struggled in the jail to get basic facilities and died waiting for bail on the health grounds.
Since she lives in Delhi, Husain said she has to frequently travel to Mumbai to meet Navlakha in prison only for the allotted 10 minutes.
“Gautam’s only contact with me is through the two phone calls he was allowed every week to me that enabled me to send him articles of need, including medicines, books and so on. With the discontinuance of phone calls, all this will now depend on letters that take a minimum of two weeks to reach me,” the statement said.
Apart from calls to her, it added that regular access to lawyers through calls is also an essential facility for undertrial prisoners.
Husain said, “To deprive an undertrial prisoner of this effective and efficient mode of securing legal advice and help, or access to family, is the height of unfairness.”
In September, Gautam Navlakha had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, seeking to be shifted from the Taloja prison to judicial custody in the form of house arrest owing to his advanced age and medical ailments.
Meanwhile, the plea is still pending before the High court.
(Inputs from PTI)
