The Political Prisoner Sanjoy Deepak Rao Initiates Hunger Strike

Sanjoy Deepak Rao is a political prisoner in the Cherlapally Central Prison for being an alleged member of the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist). On October 28, he started a hunger strike to demand that the old Indian State stops the “psychological murder”, as he himself states.

As many other cases in India, he has spent two years imprisoned without trial and he suffers mistreatment in jail, living in near-total isolation. “For eight months I am kept under lock for 22 hours. Earlier, it was 24 hours. The Manual says it should be open from 06:00 to 18:00 They have not given me my own copy of the Manual. My letters are not being posted. They entered my room when I was at court. I saw boot prints. They may be planning to implicate me. I am demanding that my room be checked only in my presence.”

There are more rights that are being denied to him: the jail authorities do not allow legal meetings with his lawyer. Even though the lawyer quickly made a written petition to the Telangana High Court, the court also participates in the obstruction of the law by applying “judicial abdication” – recognizing that his rights are not being met but but refusing to impose a solution – which increases the time of mistreatment and leads to physical and mental problems.

His health is also being affected, not being allowed to wear shoes, even when shoes are needed for medical reasons, and refusing that he gets dental treatment. All this reasons made Sanjoy Deepak Rao start the hunger strike, to struggle for his democratic rights as a political prisoner.

We have previously reported on the detention of the intellectual and activist Sanjoy Deepak Rao. As we denounced, with the use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the prisoners are jailed without trial for extremely long periods of time, and 97.2% of the cases are acquitted for lack of proofs, similar to his case.

Other cases where the mistreatment in Indian prisons ended in the murder of the prisoner due to health issues is the death of Dr. GN Saibaba, who spent more than a decade in prison, several years without any trial. And even after acknowledging his innocence, he still had to remain for two years in prison while the trial was repeated, to once again acquit him meanwhile his health was worsening due to the mistreatment.