Professor Sudha Bharadwaj has been in jail since August 2018. She was taken into police custody on 26 August 2018 on suspicion of being involved in Maoist terror activities after Republic TV claimed that she had allegedly written a letter to Maoists and was conspiring to create public disorder and unrest in India. The channel felt no shame in broadcasting that the elderly Professor was planning to murder the Prime-Minister of India. The police arrested her subsequently and she has been kept in jail continuously since then. Born in the United States to Indian parents she gave up her US citizenship, earned a degree in Mathematics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to become a dedicated civil rights activist and a trade union lawyer who diligently worked for the poor and marginalized. As a general secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Chhattisgarh, she often led protests against the unfair land acquisition policies of the state. In addition to this, she has campaigned to protect the lives and livelihoods of tribals including those from indigenous Adivasi communities, to secure them land and forest rights and exposing administrative corruption. She has been at the forefront in raising voice against the systematic state oppression and injustices against the downtrodden. She has also been a visiting professor at the National Law University, Delhi, and has impressed students with passionate lectures on law and poverty. The arrest and subsequent harassment of Sudha Bharadwaj do not seem to be an isolated attack on an individual but appear to be a part of a planned agenda of the right-wing with vested interests to target various civil rights activists, pro-bono lawyers, and intellectuals who have vehemently criticized the anti-people policies the government. Also, the way these individuals are being maliciously branded as urban Naxals and anti-nationals on national television debates, especially in times of shrinking democratic spaces is extremely dangerous. Many who have interacted with Sudha Bharadwaj in both professional and personal capacities have been pained to witness this odious attempt to attack a people’s advocate and a venerable professor who has been a vehement supporter of…