India: Academic Hany Babu’s bail hearing to take place after five years in jail without trial
Hany Babu ©Jenny Rowena
“Hany Babu’s ongoing arbitrary detention, now at over five years before a trial has even begun, is a travesty and a dark illustration of the Indian government’s hostility towards those who speak up for the rights of marginalised communities. We urge the High Court to grant his bail request, and for all charges against him to be dropped.” Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee
Update (12 August 2025): PEN International understands that Hany Babu’s bail hearing has been delayed without prior notice until 8 September.
11 August 2025: In advance of Hany Babu’s upcoming bail hearing with the Bombay High Court, PEN International renews its call for his immediate release and that all charges against him and fellow BK-16 activists are dropped immediately. His five years in pre-trial detention are a gross injustice and a stark example of how India’s primary counterterrorism legislation has been weaponised to silence dissenting voices.
On 12 August 2025, academic and anti-caste activist Hany Babu is due to appear before the Bombay High Court seeking regular (indefinite) bail after his request was approved by the Supreme Court on 16 July 2025. Previously, Hany Babu withdrew his bail request from the Supreme Court in order to move to the High Court following that court’s granting of bail to several of his co-accused, including two in January this year. Earlier this month, over 900 academics from around the world signed a joint letter calling for his release.
Hany Babu, who has been held in pre-trial detention since his formal arrest on 28 July 2020, has applied for bail on at least five separate occasions, including medical bail, but has yet to be approved. He is one of 16 writers, scholars and activists, including poet Varavara Rao, referred to as the BK-16, who have been targeted under India’s counterterrorism law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), due to their alleged association with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) organisation. There have been numerous procedural failings and irregularities impacting the BK-16 cases, including accusations of evidence tampering and more recent reports of the discovery of Pegasus spyware on at least one of the accused’s devices prior to his arrest.
None of the BK-16 have been found guilty or have even gone on trial, denying their ability to establish their innocence before the court. Of Babu’s 15 co-accused, nine have since been released on bail, and one of the accused, Jesuit priest and social justice activist Father Stam Swamy, died in prison just one day before his bail hearing was due to take place.
Throughout Hany Babu’s over five years in pre-trial detention, he has been subjected to grossly inadequate conditions in Taloja Central Jail. Examples include his temporary hospitalisation under judicial custody in May 2021 after he was repeatedly denied adequate medical treatment after contracting a severe eye infection, before being forced to return to prison. In December 2022, Hany Babu was belatedly permitted to undergo an operation at a private hospital at his own expense following loss of vision in his left eye.
Hany Babu has continued to write to his family from jail. In excerpts published by The Wire, Babu reflected on the conditions he and his fellow inmates were subjected to, noting the struggle to secure access to reading materials and stating that prisons ‘[don’t] treat the inmates as humans or individuals, let alone as being capable of reading or writing’.
PEN International has continually campaigned for the release of Hany Babu and other BK-16 detainees, including the organisation’s submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee last year. To learn more about Hany Babu’s case, please click here.
Note to editors:
For further information please contact Ross Holder, Head of the Asia/ Pacific Region at PEN International, email: [email protected]
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