The petition says that accused Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Mahesh Raut along with one more person, were kept in isolation in a room of size 15*8. Once kept there, they were completely ignored.

Taloja jailProtests outside Taloja jail aft4er death of Stan Swamy. (File Pic)  |  Photo Credit: IANS

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

  • The case is being investigated by NIA
  • Total 16 people have arrested so far
  • Fr Stan Swamy, one of the accused in the case passed away in a Mumbai hospital

Mumbai: The relatives of the Elgar Parishad case accused Anand Teltumbde, Surendra Gadling and Sudhir Dhawale have challenged the order of the NIA court allowing the jail authorities to transfer the accused of the Elgar Parishad case from Taloja jail to other places in Maharashtra. They have filed a plea in Bombay High Court.

The kins have claimed that if separated via transfers, the accused won’t have the benefit of discussing their defence, going through the chargesheet etc. The petition claims that because they are in the same prison, they also nurse each other when required.

The petition has accused the former superintendent of Taloja jail of making false allegations against the accused only because they fought for their rights. The petition says that the act of former superintendent of Taloja jail giving multiple applications for the transfer is an ‘act of victimisation’ for demanding their rights.

The petition says, “That recently, Surendra Gadling for no apparent reason came to be placed in quarantine ward, with 40 other prisoners. All of them were squeezed into a small space. The situation was such that the water used to drip through the ceiling, wetting the floor.* Additionally the toilet and washrooms therein were unused and extremely dirty, using which created extremely unhygienic situation added with strong nauseating odor spread in the complete ward. Mr Surendra and many other similarly placed people, could not even sleep properly for days together and had to spend nights in standing position. That it was only after he informed his wife and the issue became public, that he hurriedly came to be removed from the quarantine ward. After his removal, a plastic sheet came to be placed on the terrace, by public works department and cleaning came to be done.”

The petition seeks quashing of transfer orders and putting a stay on transfer orders till the order on the plea comes. coutesy MM