Activist and lawyer Shalini Gera has claimed that jail authorities prevented her from providing books to Sudha Bharadwaj, who is as accused in the Elgaar Parishad case currently lodged in Pune’s Yerawada prison.
According to Indian Express, ahead of Bharadwaj’s birthday on November 1, Gera went to meet her in jail on Thursday. Gera is an an activist from Chhattisgarh and an office-bearer of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). Bharadwaj is also an office-bearer of PUCL and used to work in Chhattisgarh.
Gera told The Indian Express that, "I do not know the name of the jail official… She said the authorities were already allowing Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen (another accused) access to two books… I had got two books for Sudha — John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Eric Hobsbawm’s Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism. The jail official took the books from me, and then returned them. She told me that I should get the court’s permission to give books to Sudha."
Bharadwaj's name cropped up after the Pune cops set out to probe the violence at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1, 2018, that had left one dead and scores injured. It was allegedly triggered by a conclave – called the Elgar Parishad – in Pune the previous day. The police said the Parishad was funded by Maoists.
Bharadwaj’s lawyer Rahul Deshmukh told Indian Express, “Recently, the court passed an order on the application that books should be provided to her as per the jail manual. So, I see there is no problem in giving books to Bharadwaj. Jail officials should have accepted the books given by the visitor and provided it to Bharadwaj after scrutiny.”