At 65 years of age, former journalist Prashant Rahi is considering his profession choices. Cleared of all costs after combating authorized battles for round 17 years, he says he’s not but able to retire.
An IIT-BHU alumnus and engineer by coaching, Rahi has had three stints in jail between 2007 and 2024. He had been booked in two instances, spent over a decade in jail, and has now been cleared of all costs in each.
On September 1, 2013, police from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli arrested Rahi from Raipur in Chhattisgarh. He was accused of being a member of the banned CPI (Maoist) and was booked underneath Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act together with former DU trainer G N Saibaba and others.
Rahi stated he was in Raipur on the time to satisfy a lawyer relating to authorized help to a girl booked in Bilaspur.
On March 5, the Bombay Excessive Courtroom acquitted all these accused within the case. Upon launch, Rahi went again to his dwelling in Mumbai.
After his September 2013 arrest, Rahi was first lodged in Nagpur jail, the place he was stored with these dealing with trial in Naxal instances. “There have been some 40-50 individuals in that barrack… Individuals got here there searching for help with their instances, and wanting books to learn. Everybody was engaged in some constructive exercise. I helped translate books in Hindi on politics, historical past, economic system. Some organized skits,” he stated. He was later shifted to the excessive safety anda cell for 3 months.
In 2017, when he was convicted together with the opposite accused within the case, he was out on bail. He spent the subsequent six years in jail.
Despatched to Amravati Central Jail, Rahi stated there, too, he was lodged within the anda cell, which has 15 separate rooms, meant for one prisoner every.
He stated he spent the preliminary months studying books and studying Urdu from one other prisoner whereas educating him English in return. Later, he developed well being problems, struggling extreme stomach ache after consuming. He stated he survived months consuming simply biscuits and was subsequently admitted to a hospital in 2022 after his daughter Shikha approached the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay Excessive Courtroom. He remained in hospital for seven weeks, however on his return, he once more fell ailing.
“I used to be positive that I’d be cleared of all costs…however the points in jail brought on my well being to deteriorate,” he stated.
Reminiscing on his time finding out engineering in Banaras, Rahi stated he was targeted solely on lecturers on the time and had been engaged on creating a mannequin for an electrical automobile. After his commencement, he joined a college students’ motion and likewise labored with a peasants’ actions in japanese Uttar Pradesh.
He labored as an engineer at a plant for just a few years and later moved to Dehradun, and in 1994, he started working as a correspondent for The Statesman newspaper. There, he wrote on the motion for a separate state of Uttarakhand, which was taking form across the identical time. He participated within the motion as properly, and resigned from the paper in 2001, working fulltime on numerous points confronted by the individuals of the newly fashioned state.
In 2007, he was arrested in his first case, accused of being a member of a Maoist group. In 2022, he was acquitted within the case.
“It isn’t a few specific political get together, however the state’s curiosity in giving a free hand to those that have their eyes on the nation’s sources. Therefore, no criticism or dissent is tolerated,” he stated.
He stated the Elgaar Parishad case, the place 16 activists, legal professionals and professors had been booked for alleged hyperlinks to Naxals, got here into being on the again of his and the others’ conviction in 2017. “Law enforcement officials in our case threatened to show our lawyer, Surendra Gadling, a lesson. He’s now an accused within the Elgaar Parishad case,” Rahi stated.