CHENNAI: Academician and human rights activist Prof Anand Teltumbde has said that at the theoretical level he has never understood the rationale behind prisons except for the obvious fact that they are an essential part of the arsenal of the state to torment people the state does not like.
Some of the more pronounced issues in prison relate to the lack of rule of law. What the jail superintendent thinks is the law in jail.
Prison time entails unnecessary humiliation. It is embedded in each process in the jail, Teltumbde said in an interview with Live Law.
"Stripping a person every time and checking his private parts with bare hands in the name of security needs to be stopped. I saw poor inmates being made to do sit-ups in a completely naked position while the security checks at the gate. I was spared the humiliation," Teltumbde said in the interview.
"One thing I learnt in the jail was that prison is not the reform centre as it is claimed it is the centre of sadism. Every action and every decision of the jail administration is to cause maximum possible harassment to the prisoners.
On November 26, 2022, a day after Supreme Court upheld his bail, Elgaar Parishad accused Anand Teltumbde was released from Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
Soon after his release from prison, Teltumbde said, “I am happy after being released from prison after 31 months. It is obvious, but the sad thing is that this is the fakest case and it put us behind bars for years.”
Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, who also was arrested in connection with the case, passed away in July 2021 while in judicial custody.