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We will post here details of individual BK16 members, starting with the 3 who we are supporting in each month's Letter Writing Session - which takes place on the last Saturday of the month at
La Ruca on Gloucester Road, Bristol .
If you can't join us at La Ruca, you can write a letter of support or a Solidarity card to one or all of the 3 men we are writing to this month.
The three men, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao and Vernon Gonsalves, have been released on strict bail conditions but have never been formally charged or brought to trial - even though they were first arrested with other BK16 in 2023.
The conditions in prison are far from humane.
Mahesh Raut, a BK16 prisoner (one of the three we wrote to in September) who was granted bail but incredibly has still not been released, has quite severe arthritis now, despite being only 37 years old. He has been in prison for seven years.
Varavara Rao suffered COVID-19 and other health complications but was repeatedly denied adequate medical treatment in jail.
You can read an article at this link by Arun Ferreira on prison conditions: the farce and tragedy of the pandemic in prison.
You can read an article at this link by Vernon Gonsalves on the struggle to read and write behind bars
Their brief case histories are below.
The case histories of the six BK16 activists we featured in our August & September Letter Writing sessions are also shown below.
Arun Ferreira is an Indian human rights activist who was arrested in 2007 for alleged links to the Naxalite movement and spent five years in prison before being acquitted in 2012. He began his career as a criminal lawyer, defending political prisoners. He was arrested again in August 2018 and was imprisoned in Taloja prison until 2023, when the Supreme Court ordered his release on bail. He is still under strict bail conditions as he has never been formally charged or brought to trial.
You can read a profile of Arun, who is a powerful political cartoonist at this link: Political cartoons and activism to question the skewed relations between power and justice: A profile of Arun Ferreira
You can read a profile of Arun, who is a powerful political cartoonist at this link: Political cartoons and activism to question the skewed relations between power and justice: A profile of Arun Ferreira
You can write a letter of support or a Solidarity card to Arun and we will forward it to him via a lawyer contact we have in India.
Varavara Rao is an Indian activist, poet, teacher, and writer from Telengana, India. Varavara has been arrested on many occasions. Detained in abhorrent conditions for over two years after his arrest on 28 August 2018, Rao suffered COVID-19 and other health complications but was repeatedly denied adequate medical treatment in jail until he was released on bail in February 2021, which has allowed him to receive medical treatment. However, he remains subject to strict bail conditions, which include restrictions on his movement and ability to make any public statements regarding his case.
You can write a letter of support or a Solidarity card to Varavara and we will forward it to him via a lawyer contact we have in India.
Vernon Gonsalves is a trade unionist activist and former professor in several colleges in Mumbai. His wife, lawyer Susan Abraham, is also a workers rights activist. Vernon was arrested under the Unlawful Prevention Activities Act (UAPA). Vernon was charged in around 20 cases, acquitted in 17 due to lack of evidence, discharged in one, standing trial in one and convicted in one by a Nagpur court. He was in jail in August 2007 and released in June 2013, but then arrested again on the same bogus evidence as the other BK16 in 2018. He was then released on bail in 2023 - with very severe restrictions on his movements and freedom.
You can read here a profile of Vernon, who is an advocate of the rights of marginalized communities, and is a vocal critic of India’s criminal justice system and of the State establishment
You can read here a profile of Vernon, who is an advocate of the rights of marginalized communities, and is a vocal critic of India’s criminal justice system and of the State establishment
You can write a letter of support or a Solidarity card to Vernon and we will forward it to him via a lawyer contact we have in India.
Sudha Bharadwaj is one of India’s best known ‘people’s lawyer’. She has spent more than three decades working with the most marginalised sections of people in the mineral-rich conflict-ridden central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. She was among the activists, lawyers and academics arrested on 28 August 2018 under UAPA in the contentious Bhima Koregaon case. On 8 December 2021, she was granted bail by a special NIA Court. You can write a letter of support or a Solidarity card to Sudha and we will forward it to her via a lawyer contact we have in India.
Sudhir Dhawale is an Indian poet, actor and publisher of the bi-monthly Marathi magazine Vidrohi. He is also the founder of the organisation, the Republican Panthers. On 6 June 2018, he was arrested by Pune Police in a joint operation, in which four others of the BK16 case, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut were also arrested. They were accused of having Maoist links and charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). You can write to him at: Taloja Central Prison, Kharjar, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 410210 India
Mahesh Raut is an activist working with Adivasi (indigenous people) in Gadichroli, fighting against exploitation of indigenous communities and natural resources. He is the youngest accused in the 2018 Bhima Koreagon case. He is currently imprisoned at Taloja central jail. You can write to him at: Taloja Central Prison, Kharjar, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 410210 India
The brief case histories of the three BK16 activists we featured in our August Letter Writing are shown below:
The two men, Surendra Gadling and Hany Babu, are at this address: Taloja Central Prison, Kharjar, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 410210 India
and Jyoti Jagtap is at Byculla Women’s Jail, Mirza Galib Road, New Nagpada, Byculla, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400008 India
Jyoti Jagtap, a member of an urban grass-roots performance group that works to support the most marginalized communities in India
Like some others in the BK16 case, Jyoti was arrested under a fabricated case alleging that she was “waging war against the Government of India". Jyoti’s work can be illustrated by her own words: “find ways to mobilize people to distance themselves from the politics of hatred in the name of religion”. She has been in prison without trial since 2020.
You can write to her at: Jyoti Jagtap, Byculla Women’s Jail, Mirza Galib Road, New Nagpada, Byculla, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400008 India
Surendra is a human rights lawyer working to support lower caste and other marginalised communities and is still in jail. Over the years, he defended many court cases related to illegal killings, police excesses, false cases, and atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis (lower caste people). Among those he has represented are numerous human rights defenders. He was arrested in 2018 on fabricated charges of being part of a “plot to assassinate Prime Minister Modi”.
You can write to him at: Surendra Gadling, Taloja Central Prison, Kharjar, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 410210 India
Hany Babu, an associate professor of Linguistics at Delhi University. He has been jailed since July 2020 and has been denied access to newspapers and books. He went on a symbolic hunger strike in solidarity with the Indian farmers’ protest on 23 December 2020 along with some other members of the BK16. He has been denied medical treatment despite having an acute eye infection, pain and gradual loss of vision.
You can write to him using his full name at: Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, Taloja Central Prison, Kharjar, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 410210 India
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