‘A small streak of light’: Seven Bhima Koregaon prisoners congratulate Anand Teltumbde on award

The writer, who is on bail in the same case, was honoured with the Basava Award by the Karnataka government on January 31.

Feb 4, 2024 - 19:00

‘A small streak of light’: Seven Bhima Koregaon prisoners congratulate Anand Teltumbde on award

The seven people who are still in jail in the Bhima Koregaon case have congratulated their co-accused Anand Teltumbde for having been granted the Karnataka government’s Basava Award on January 31 and pushing “forward the wheel of democratic revolution of annihilating the caste system”.

“Those who honestly want to bring about fundamental change in the extant system have taken a serious note of your analyses,” they said in a letter to the scholar-activist. “And those who wanted to run their businesses played games of besmirching your image with various stamps and labels.”

Teltumbde was granted bail in the case in November 2022.

He had been arrested for being part of an alleged conspiracy to instigate a caste riot in January 2018 in the village of Bhima Koregaon near Pune. A total of 16 people – academics, musicians, lawyers, poets and activsts – were arrested in the case. They have also been accused of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Five years later, the trial in the case is yet to begin. One person accused in the case, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, died in prison in 2021. In addition to Teltumbde, seven others have been released on bail.

When the Supreme Court last year granted bail to two people accused in...