After four years and eight months in prison, much of that in solitary confinement, Arun Ferreira walked out with a book full of cartoon sketches.
In May 2007, he was picked up on charges of being a ‘Maoist’ and lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail.
By the time he walked out in 2012, all the trumped up charges against him had fallen apart in court.
“The State thought it would break me, but it couldn’t,” says Ferreira, with half a smile. The angst of the unjust confinement and the torture are nowhere to be seen on his face. In the past three years, he has completed his studies in law and has also been actively supporting those still languishing in Indian jails. He spoke to The Hindu ahead of the Kovalam Literary Fest on Saturday.
He says that many a time the establishment knows that there is no case against the person, but still arrests him or her, as the period of confinement itself is the punishment.
“I had 11 cases against me and I was acquitted in all of them. The agencies clearly know that you will be released when they arrest you. But the chances of bail from lower courts are slim when you are charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The process itself will break you,” he says.
According to him, the higher courts have in recent times come up with verdicts against such arrests. “The logic of ‘guilty by association’ is bad in law. Even if you are a passive member of an organisation, you can be arrested. In my case, they looked at what books I read. They found books by Mao, Marx and others. They then connect this to belief in the Maoist ideology and make you responsible for their acts. They law clearly says that you have the right to read anything, be it literature from ISIS or Osama. You cannot be charged unless you commit a crime or instigate someone else,” he says.
He points at the recent judgments of the higher courts, especially the Kerala High Court judgment, which said that no one can be arrested for being a Maoist.
His sketches of the life inside prison ‘Colours of the cage’ were recently published.
“The outside world only knows the sanitised world of a prison. Inside, it is much different. Political prisoners especially are kept in a special cell, away from all others, because of their potential to influence others. Then there is the torture and the other unknown dark sides of the life there,” he says.
S.R. Praveen
