10 Elgaar Parishad accused of being the subject of political censorship by the prison authorities

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Kaustubh Kurlekar of Taloja Prison scans and records letters, they said in letter to state interior minister

Ten of the defendants in the Elgaar Parishad case wrote to the Minister of the Interior of Maharashtra, alleging that the superintendent of central prisons in Taloja, Kaustubh Kurlekar, is scanning and saving copies of the letters they wrote to their families and to their lawyers.

The letter written on Thursday was signed by Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor.

In the letter, they said, Mr. Anand, Mr. Gaichor and Mr. Ferreira were put on formal notice and accused by Superintendent Mr. Kurlekar of invoking the powers of rule 20 of Chapter 31 (Facilities for prisoners ) of the Maharashtra Prison Manual. Dr Anand for two articles, M. Gaichor for an obituary poem for a cultural activist and Ambedarkite Vira Saathidar and M. Ferreira for an essay in memory of Father Stan Swamy. They were hinted at that what they wrote was reprehensible, creating doubts about the investigation of Bhima Koregaon’s offenses and propagating Naxal ideology.

The letter, a copy of which is with The Hindu, states that Rule 20 which prohibits the prisoner from writing any subject that could be the subject of political propaganda was declared contrary to fundamental rights by the Bombay High Court in 1992.

Not true

When contacted, Mr Kurlekar refuted the allegations and said: Why should I keep the letters? What will I get out of it? He also denied having issued any formal notice against the three accused.

According to some sources, although Mr. Kurlekar has left his post and been transferred from the prison, he continues to take over all the administrative work.

However, Mr Kurlekar recently forwarded a request to the NIA court in Mumbai opposing all letters from the accused and called it misconduct on his part.

The letter goes on to say: Not satisfied with this illegal political censorship, the superintendent scans / records letters we write to family, friends and correspondence to attorneys (which amounts to a breach of privileged communication). We believe that some, if not all, are shared with the police and prosecution. All this also leads to disproportionate delays in sending letters to their destination.

The letter calls for a directive from the prison authorities in Maharashtra to stop the illegal sweeping.

They urged the minister to ensure that the prison administration immediately puts an end to the illegal practice of political censorship.

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