Voices From Prison: My Crime Was Standing With The Adivasis, Says Journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh

The government in power ruling our country is such that it has clearly declared a section of our people as enemies.

The list of enemies expands from Communist revolutionaries, religious minorities; especially Muslims, Adivasis who are fighting for their jal-jangal-jameen, true Ambedkarites, and to all those raising their voices for their rights―farmers, young students demanding employment, women fighting for their rights and security, progressive intellectuals, NGOs for poor people, journalists with integrity speaking up for what is a fact, authors and poets, lawyers who constantly fight for the underprivileged, cultural artists with their art awakening sentience within us, and all those who disagree with the policies and functioning of the present government.

In such a situation, the government naturally will try to oppress and crush the voices of its enemies with all its possible might. And whoever turns out to be an impediment or is protesting against the government’s oppression, are put behind bars indefinitely, so that their voices are caged and destroyed. But the government forgets that bodies can be caged, not minds or voices. They will fail to cage the ideas within the four walls of a prison. In fact, the ideas and the thoughts of prisoners proliferate beyond the four walls of the prison. This is when the government feels the requirement of more prisons to cage more people.  

The present state of our country started with a Brahmanical Hindutva fascist force i.e. the RSS-BJP government with Narendra Modi as its head that came to power in May 2014 and steadily took over and ruined all the institutions of the country. Now we can see the most dreaded and brutal iteration of the fascist regime in our country.

Increasingly, acts of dissent are being labelled as “treason” and prosecuted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), reflecting a policy approach adopted by the current government. From the defendants in the Bhima Koregaon case to those charged in the 2020 Delhi violence, including Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj, these individuals have been imprisoned for courageously exposing alleged governmental wrongdoing and have voiced the struggles of the people. Similarly, I have faced allegations for advocating the rights of Adivasi communities and documenting their struggles. Consequently, I have been kept behind bars for 42 months now.

It was immediately after the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist forces with Modi as its face came to power that I left Delhi to work closely in Jharkhand as a journalist. I began working closely with Adivasi communities in the region, writing about displacement and alleged fake encounters, and researching the historical movements in Jharkhand that have sought to protect the jal, jangal, and jameen of Adivasi people which later have been published as a book on three different topics.

Not only was I reporting it as a part of news, but also aiming at intense deep research which could have unraveled the truths of oppression. And for this research, concrete data was required, including the perspectives of the people involved in it. While I was in the field researching, I wrote for different new web portals narrating the events that were happening. Akin to the movements which were targets of the government, I too slowly became their target.

On June 4, 2019, I was travelling from Ramgarh in Jharkhand to Aurangabad in Bihar with my relative, who is also a lawyer, Mithilesh Singh, in a rented car with a driver named Md. Kalam.

When we stopped to take a break and relieve ourselves on the roadside at Padma under Hazaribagh district, the Central IB abducted us and took us from Jharkhand to Barachatti police station in Gaya district of Bihar where they kept us in the permanent camp of Kobra-205 battalion. Here, we were mentally tortured for 48 hours. We were pressured that I take up the identity of a CPI (Maoist) leader. When I didn’t accept, our car was filled with detonators, gelatin along with CPI (M) pamphlets and we were handed over to the Gaya police in Bihar on June 6, 2019. We were put in jail on June 7, 2019, and we were charged with half a dozen sections under the draconian UAPA.

As the police failed to produce a chargesheet against us within the six-month-period at the court, we were automatically out on bail on December 6, 2019.

After I was released from prison, with a firm determination I started reporting on the anti-citizen policies of the government. During the time of the COVID-19 lockdown, I wrote about the deteriorating state of the Adivasis and labourers of Jharkhand. I wrote about the experiences of the jail in “Kaidkhane ka Aiena” which was published in October 2020 by a Mumbai-based publishing house named Pralek Prakashan.

In 2021, upon learning that I was being surveilled through the Pegasus spyware covertly installed on the phones of my partner, Ipsa Shatakshi, and her sister, Ilika Priya, I approached the Supreme Court through Ipsa, who filed a criminal writ alleging a breach of privacy and seeking a fair and independent inquiry. 

I wrote several reports until March 2022 on the fake encounters of the Adivasis of Jharkhand and Bihar, on death of people due to hunger, and on the displacement of Dalits and Adivasis in the name of Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary. On the March 30, 2022, I addressed the issue of corporatisation and militarisation in Adivasi areas with concrete data in the programme at the Press Club of India in New Delhi under the banner of ‘Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization’ and on March 31, 2022, at JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru University Student’s Union) office.  

I participated in the programme on 12th and 13th of April 2022, at the Kavivarya Suresh Bhat Auditorium at Nagpur in Maharashtra under the banner of ‘Veergatha Sathidar Smriti Samanvay Samiti, (Maharashtra region)’ and spoke on April 13 on B.R. Ambedkar and Journalism. Famous scientist Gauhar Raza was also sharing the dias with me in that event. 

When I was busy attending the event on 12th and 13th of April 2022, the police on 12th April had arrested two people―Vijay Kumar Arya and Umesh Chaudhary, from Samhuta village of Rohtas district in Bihar. The FIR No 123/2022, registered in Rohtas police station, mentioned that the arrested Vijay Kumar Arya is a member of the CPI (M) central committee and Umesh Chaudhary had given shelter to him. It was added in the FIR that Vijay Kumar Arya identified Rupesh Kumar Singh as the leader of the CPI(M) in the Bhagalpur region. Within 15 days of the filing of the FIR on April 12, 2022, on the direction of the home ministry of India, the case was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on April 26, 2022, and was filed as RC-19/22, SPL-05/22.

When I heard about this FIR, I had informed some of my journalist friends about the suspicion of my impending arrest. As I had neither visited Rohtas nor had I ever met Vijay Kumar Arya in my life, I was confidently busy with my work on reporting.  

Early in the morning on April 17, 2022, several vehicles and a police team surrounded our house in Ramgarh. The operation was conducted under the supervision of Chandan Vatsa, Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Saraikela-Kharsawan district, and included one inspector, four sub-inspectors, and around a dozen personnel from the Special Action Team (SAT). It also consisted of members from the NIA, Special Branch and IB. They produced the search warrant which they received from the Saraikela court for the case No 67/21 registered in Kandra police station in the Saraikela-Kharsawan district.

After searching the house for hours, they took away two mobile phones, two laptops, Ipsa's hard disk in which there were primarily photos of our marriage, of her childhood days, including my books and diaries and arrested me too. The team which arrested me informed me that my arrest is in connection with other arrests that have happened in the case registered at the Kandra police station with the case No 67/21 in which the politburo member of CPI(M) Prashant Bose and his wife Sheela Marandi along with four others were arrested. There were ‘evidences’ found in the hard disk of Prashant Bose against me, hence I had been arrested. I said I am a journalist and my writings, photos, videos, and audios exist in many social media platforms. Anyone can access and download them. And then in his hard disk you might have also found Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s and Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s videos too. So will you arrest them too? On this they preferred remaining silent.

On July 17, I was questioned by the DIG and SP of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of Jharkhand in Ranchi and by the DSP, SDPO and the mission SP of Saraikela-Kharsawan district throughout the night. After questioning, they produced me in the Saraikela Court and then sent me to Saraikela District Jail on July 18, 2022. After that on the August 10, 2022, I was taken to Bokaro district as an accused named in Jageshwar (Bihar) police station case No 16/22, on judicial custody. As an accused named again in the case No 15/18 registered in Toklo police station in Chaibasa district, I was taken into judicial custody on December 15, 2022. 

Then, I was taken into judicial custody on April 17, 2023 where I was taken to the Patna NIA court for the case No 19/ 22, SPL 05/22. In this way, I have been named as an accused in four different kinds of cases, three of which are registered in Kandra, Jageshwar, Bihar, and Tokla police stations.

It has been 42 months since July 18, 2022, and I have spent my time in four different jails. I was in Saraikela District Jail from July 18, 2022 till September 11, 2022. Then from September 12, 2022, till April 16, 2023, I was incarcerated in Birsa Munda Central Jail, Hotwar, Ranchi. From April 17, 2023, till January 21, 2024, I was kept in Adarsh Central Jail, Beur, Patna. And from January 22, 2024 until September 22, 2025, I was in Sahid Jubba Sahni Central Jail, Bhagalpur. 

Now from September 23, 2025, onwards I have been brought back to the Adarsh Central Jail, Beur in Patna. I have been raising my voice against the oppression of prisoners and corruption inside the prison by the prison authorities which has led to many transfers that I have been facing till now. When I was brought to Saraikela District Jail on July 18, 2022, I was kept in a cell where people suffering from leprosy, HIV AIDS and TB were also kept. When I raised my voice against this inhuman treatment and informed my partner Ipsa about it, she further spoke to media houses and even wrote to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

As a punishment, I was locked alone in a cell famed as ‘bhoot bangala’, where there was 24-hour CCTV surveillance and a warden was on duty all the time. Not even a single prisoner was allowed to talk to me. The food was not edible and I was denied basic pen and paper. Then on April 15, 2022, I sat on a hunger strike. It was then that I, along with four other prisoners, were provided with a pen and a copy. The quality of food also improved. Then I decided and declared that I will sit on a hunger strike indefinitely from September 13, which was Jatin Das’ martyr’s day demanding improvement of the conditions of the jail.

I also wrote a letter to the Honourable President of our country Smt. Droupadi Murmu. As a result, on September 12, 2022, I was transferred to the Birsa Munda Central Jail, Hotwar, Ranchi. As soon as I came here, I was locked up in one room in the general/punishment cell.

Now this general/punishment cell has 30 rooms in which I was kept all alone. The gates of my cell remained closed throughout the day. The warden brought food and I was asked to use the water running through the tap of the latrine. I sat on a hunger strike. After seven days I was shifted to a circular cell named Anda Cell. In these seven days, I was not allowed to meet anyone and even my partner Ipsa couldn’t meet me. Neither was I allowed for phone calls nor was I given newspapers or even the canteen card.  

While I was living in the circular cell, I had protested for food as per the prison manual for which eventually the prison authorities agreed. You will be surprised to know that the Model Prison Manual of 2016 has not even been enacted in Jharkhand prisons. Hence, we get Chana-gud for breakfast, rice, daal and sabji for lunch and roti, daal and sabji for dinner. Apart from this, mutton was supposed to be served once in a week. Still, mutton was served once in a month only. It was only after the protest that mutton began being served once a week.

On April 17, 2023, when I was transferred to Adarsh Central Jail from Ranchi, 70 NIA prisoners wrote to the Chief Justice of Bihar and CJI to fill the post of a judge in the NIA court. To stop the genocide in Gaza by the Israeli forces, 1,200 prisoners signed a letter asking for immediate intervention from President Murmu. On the human rights day (10th December, 2023) a programme was organised, which dealt with the topic of human rights violations inside prisons.

I inspired the prisoners to send an application to the Patna NIA judge raising the issue of brutal torture by the NIA following a person’s remand. For this reason, the SP of the Patna NIA branch sent an application to the Bihar Home Ministry seeking the transfer, for a period of six months, of CPI(M) Politbuo member Pramod Mishra, Central Committee member Mithilesh Verma, and myself, under the pretext of an administrative procedure. 

I was sent to Shahid Jubba Sahni Central Jail in Bhagalpur on January 22, 2024. Over there, I was denied my books, copies, pen, thermoflask, Oxford Dictionary, etc. When Ipsa came to meet me, I told her everything. She wrote to the NHRC regarding this denial and even got this issue published in local newspapers which led to prison authorities to give me the denied objects. There was no provision for e-mulaquat in that prison. After consistent requests in the court, e-mulaquat began.

I had to write a letter to the District Magistrate for providing food as per the jail manual. It was then that the quality of the food improved. Instead of a six month transfer under administrative procedure in Bhagalpur prison, I was brought back to Adarsh Central Jail only after 20 months, on September 23, 2025. 

Here, 97 prisoners protested against the dehumanising condition of the jail on December 10, 2025, and sat for a one-day hunger strike in the jail. They have written to the DM for an investigation about the prevalent corruption and oppression of the prisoners which has led to some changes in the prison. Yet the struggle is still on! 

Based on my experience of 42 months inside Jharkhand and Bihar prisons, I can clearly state that the entire system is deeply sunk in corruption and functions with the belief that it is the prison authorities birthright to oppress and torture prisoners. Amidst this even if a single prisoner raises their voice against the dehumanising attitude of the prison authorities, they are transferred in the name of administrative procedure and when they reach the gates of the other prison, they are treated with another level of brutality.

The medical facilities for the prisoners are in a debilitating state which leads to furthering the illness of the prisoners to a dire situation where either they contract more diseases or are maimed physically or sometimes it even leads to death. I was having a constant pain in my eyes for which I visited the prison hospital several times. Every time they gave me a drop. When I wrote to the Bhagalpur DM about this issue, I was then sent to the emergency ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (JLNMCH), Bhagalpur, where I was given spectacles.

At another moment after the direction of the Patna court, I was taken to JLNMCH for my back pain, where I was diagnosed with a disk L5 slip and higher levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. Now on December 11, itself the Patna NIA court gave directions to the Adarsh Central Jail authorizes for a visit to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Patna. I have been suffering, yet I have not been taken to the hospital till now. 

On my birthday, December 3, many of my friends and well-wishers had sent their wishes via postcards in 2022, 2023 and in 2025. But I received the cards only for the year 2025 when I was in Bhagalpur Jail. The jail authorities in Beur in 2023 and in Saraikela in 2022 outrightly denied receiving any letters or postcards. When Ipsa filed an RTI at Saraikela Jail asking the whereabouts of the letters and postcards, they said all of them were handed to Rupesh. 

It’s been 42 months since I have spent my time behind prison bars, out of which I spent 30 months inside the cell and nine months in a samanya/general ward of Adarsh Central Jail from April 17, 2023 to January 21, 2024. We are living in such times when writers and journalists are being silenced and incarcerated for their words. The slip disc condition I developed in 2025 resulted directly from spending extended time inside the cell, and despite this, I have continued to be confined there for the last four months after my return to the Adarsh Central Jail. And even when the court gave the orders, I have not been taken to a doctor yet. Does this not constitute a violation of a prisoner’s basic medical needs and the right to a healthy life? If this problem persists and affects my physical capabilities in future then who will be held responsible for it? Given these circumstances, are there any measures that can support the mental well-being of prisoners while they are inside the jail?

While I am confined to the cell, one of the things that affect me the most is the complete lack of access to any form of entertainment, such as music or movies. I liked watching movies, cricket matches and listening to music. Yes, I try to sometimes fill this loss by singing along with other prisoners in the prison. When everyone is locked up in their cells at night, somebody or the other takes the help of songs to overcome the loneliness that is drowning them. I sometimes sing songs like “ham dekheng….”, “ladna hai saathi ye to lambi ladai hai…”, sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil me hai…” , “Mashale lekar chalna ki jab tak raat baki hai…”, “haathon me hogi hathkadiyan, bedi hogi paon me, phir bhi mere geet pahuch jaynge tere gaon me…”, with joy. 

When I am in jail, I deeply long to express myself and share my thoughts with someone. Even when I am able to speak to my family, the conversation is limited to just five minutes per call―only six calls in a month. This brief time passes quickly, as I speak to my sons, Agrim and Aviral, and manage to share only a few words with Ipsa.

All my four cases have dozens of sections under the draconian UAPA, out of which for the cases registered in Jageshwar Bihar police station and in Tokla Police station, I have received bail on January 16, 2023, from the Jharkhand High Court for the former, and on February 20, 2023, from the Chaibasa District Court for the latter, respectively. Whereas for the case registered in Kandra police station, the Supreme Court denied me bail on January 27, 2025. For the case to be presented at the Patna NIA court, I have requested my lawyer to file a bail application several times. Yet they fail to file it because this is a NIA case.  

Two of the witnesses for the case registered in the Kandra police station have been examined chiefly, but their cross-examination is still pending. The charges were framed on the December 5, 2025, for the case registered in the Jageshwar Bihar Police station. The discharge petition is still pending for this case in the Jharkhand High Court. For the case registered in the Tokla police station, the charges have not yet been framed. On February 5, 2024, charges were framed and presented before the Patna NIA court and in 2024, 9.5 testimonies testified, whereas in 2025 only 4.5 testimonies were produced. In this way, in two years there have been 14 testimonies, whereas in this case, there are 72 witnesses on record and if the NIA wants they can get more such relevant testimonies for this case.  

I have completed my masters in history from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and have also completed all the written exams for Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication from IGNOU while in prison. To complete the Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication, I need to complete a project work which I am unable to. Hence, this degree is incomplete for the time being.

I have read almost 250 books till now, and I have written 50 poems apart from writing my jail diary. Sometimes I think if I didn’t have the support of my partner Ipsa and my friend Ilika Priya (Lawyer and Ipsa’ younger sister), would it have been possible for me to bear with a struggling life inside the prison where even a life of dignity is denied. They have been with me in every moment of need. I have realised that struggles in jail see the day of light only when there is a commotion outside in support of the prisoners inside the jail.  

Whenever I took to protests and struggles inside the prison against any wrongdoings, Ipsa has taken it forward to other journalists via social media and phone calls and has even informed the human rights commission via email. It was only then that journalists and news platforms across the country like Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), including civil rights organisations helped in dispersing the struggles fought inside which led to positive outcomes in the prison. My advocate friend Ilika Priya has consistently raised the concerns about my health, education and needs which made it possible for me to access education, facilities and resources inside the prison. Just think, prisoners who don’t have capable people from their side, who would then raise voices for them! They might have been forced to live in dehumanising conditions inside the prisons.  

Indeed, it is true that the prison authorities oppress the poor and underprivileged prisoners. However, when it comes to prisoners who come from any form of privilege—whether wealth or status—one finds sycophancy flourishing among prison authorities. They take money from such prisoners and provide them with whatever they desire, ranging from food and drinks to mobile phones and even intoxicating substances. 

Seeing the current situation of our country, I can’t foresee my release soon from the prisons. Moreover, the courts have their own restrictions even when they release people like us on bail (just like when the Bhima Koregaon accused prisoners Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha and Hany Babu have been released with bail terms or even when we take the case of the recent 2020 Delhi violence prisoners like Gulfisha Fatima, Miran Haider, Shadab Ahmad and Shifa-ur-Rehman had their bail terms) and force us to live in another kind of jail outside the prison once out on bail with these restrictions. Is there any use of such freedom where one can’t even express their opinions, and need to visit the police station to mark the attendance. 

Swaying in the dilemma of a long-term prison life and yet hoping for a release soon, I always keep preparing myself; going back to reporting, to spending time with Adivasis and playing with my son Agrim while spending time with my partner Ipsa and hugging my friend Ilika Priya. To roar from the stage and even give time to my relatives. To savour my favourite food, movies and music. I hope to shake hands and feel my friends, rise up against repression and injustice and struggle for truth and justice to flourish. 

Rupesh Kumar Singh is an independent journalist known for reporting on Adivasi issues, including state violence and state complicity in the mistreatment of Adivasis, was arrested on July 17, 2022, in Ramgarh, Jharkhand. He is currently lodged in Patna Jail.

This article is part of the Magazine issue titled Thou Shalt Not Dissent dated February 1, 2026, on political prisoners facing long trials and the curbing of their rights under anti-terrorism laws for voicing their dissent.

(Views expressed are personal)