Eshan Kalyanikar | 8 May 2024 | Mid-day

Two of the 16 activists charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the Bhima-Koregaon case cleared their Common Entrance Test (CET) for law college admission while in jail, clinging to hope for bail and an eventual declaration of innocence by the court. For the past six years, Mahesh Raut and Sagar Gorkhe, both 36, have spent their days in Taloja jail surrounded by undertrials. Their families and friends said this experience motivated them to become lawyers, providing legal aid to those in need.

Mahesh Raut scored 99.79 percentile while Sagar Gorkhe scored 57.70 percentile. According to the NCRB's Prison Statistics India (PSI) report, of the total 5,73,220 prisoners across India, 4,34,302 were undertrials as of December 2022. Maharashtra had 41,070 people inside its 64 prisons awaiting the courts to seal their fates. “Most of them are likely innocent, but have no money for bail or any legal representation,” said a relative of Mahesh…

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