HYDERABAD: The Committee for Release of Political Prisoners has appealed to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments to immediately release the political prisoners who have completed their term or allow them to get bail.
Making this demand on Monday on the occasion of the 84th anniversary of the martyrdom of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, the CRPP said the three freedom fighters were the pioneers of fight for the rights of political prisoners and announced week-long celebrations of the martyrdom day across AP and Telangana to commemorate their martyrdom and sacrifice.
“The fight of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru for the rights of political prisoners still inspires us,” said senior advocate and president of CRPP Bojja Tarakam.
“The government is citing stay orders as an excuse to delay bail for political prisoners. Hundreds of political prisoners have been illegally kept in jails despite completion of their term. The Constitution is largely being violated by the government when it comes to the rights of prisoners. This is worse than the British rule,” Tarakam said. Revolutionary poet Varavara Rao and filmmaker R Narayana Murthy lent support to the committee’s fight for release of political prisoners.
Varavara Rao said the government was targeting academicians who supported the cause of Dalits, minorities and tribals. Condemning the arrest of Sai Baba of Delhi University by the Maharashtra police for his alleged connections with Maoists, Rao said that denying bail to the professor despite his poor health condition and physical disability was inhuman.
“The CRPP was also betrayed by political parties which had promised their support at the time of Assembly elections. The parties promised to include our demands in their manifestos when we met them before elections but none of them is now backing our fight,” said Varavara Rao.
Narayana Murthy said the governments of AP and TS were deliberately delaying the release of hundreds of prisoners who had completed their jail term long ago. “The Supreme Court had said state governments can release the prisoners who show good conduct in jail but the AP and Telangana governments are not responding to our appeals,” he alleged.