Who Is Sudha Bharadwaj? Lawyer-Activist Jailed In Elgar Parishad Case

Bombay High Court directed the prison authorities of Maharashtra to submit a report of the lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj's medical condition by May 17.

This came after the activist's daughter Maaysha Singh filed a petition asking for an interim medical bail for her citing the conditions of the prison. Advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhary claimed that Bharadwaj is living in a prison ward with 50 other women and the conditions of the Byculla women's prison are "unsanitary".

Many have raised concerns about the state of prisons during the ongoing pandemic and have asked the state to release political prisoners such as Bharadwaj.

Here are 10 things to know about activist Sudha Bharadwaj:

• According to her lawyer, Bharadwaj suffers from comorbidities and her family members are concerned about her contracting the virus in prison.
• Sudha Bharadwaj is a lawyer who has worked and lived in Chhattisgarh for more than two decades.
• She is also a civil rights activist with a significant contribution against the centre's land acquisition bill.
• Bharadwaj has worked as the general secretary of Chhattisgarh People's Union Civil Liberties (PUCL) and is the founder of a lawyer's collective named Janhit. She is also associated with late Shankar Guha Niyogi's Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha.
• Bharadwaj was born in the United States of America to parents Krishna and Ranganath Bharadwaj. She came back to India at the age of 11 and gave up her American citizenship at the age of 18.
• She went to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and got her graduate degree. She got her law degree from Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University affiliated college in Raipur in 2000.
• Activist Sudha Bharadwaj got arrested in October 2018 for allegations of being associated with Maoists. The police claim she was one of the people responsible for the violence of January 1, 2018. It was the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon. The activist is accused of being part of Elgar Parishad, a gathering that took place on the eve of the anniversary on December 31, 2017.
• Bharadwaj has so far denied any association with Maoists. The Elgar Parishad case was earlier probed by Pune police and was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency.
• She has been booked under sections 505,117,153a and 120 of the Indian Penal Code, In addition to that, she has also been booked under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.