Badal is in Dansa jail in Ghaziabad, where he has been denied bail so far because, according to Bahl, the CBI prosecutor seeks an adjournment whenever his bail hearing comes up.
This statement from him was handed out at the meeting at the Delhi Press Club on August 10 where a number of editors spoke to protest the recent attacks on the press. Excerpts are carried below. To the Indian Media, Members of Parliament and the people of my country.
Implicated in a false case by the CBI just because I am a journalist working for Tehelka.com, I am suffering imprisonment for the past one month. During this time, I was sent to two jails and subjected to subhuman conditions. I helplessly watch CBI sleuths connive with the jail authorities to leave no stone unturned to put me under all sorts of mental and physical pressure, to say the least. On the first day in prison, they stripped me naked in front of the jailor¿s office, with at least 10 staff members (including the prison officials and CBI sleuths) sitting and laughing, and a crowd of prisoners was all the time watch the act. The reason for stripping me in front of the crowd: "He is a Tehleka.com journalist. Lets see what he is hiding. This was done after they had kept me in custody for 27 hours, and they had frisked me thoroughly many times by then. Even if they had wanted to frisk me again in prison, they could have done it in a separate room, and not in public.There was no need to strip me in front of everyone. Even as tears rolled down my face they laughed louder than ever. The CBI officials did this after physically torturing me and threatening me. Mercifully, the honorable judge at Saharanpur somehow saw through their designs and ordered that two of my lawyers will be with me throughout the period of CBI custody---albeit at a visible distance.
The CBI got a severe setback and they couldn¿t torture me further or put words in my mouth which was their real intention after arresting me.
Even after arresting me and getting nothing out of my custody---no recovery of any tape alleged to be given to me etc. they are still playing games to put me under further pressure. They make it a point that I do not talk to the media whenever I am taken to court. (That I still manage it is another story.) When they transfer me to the Ghaziabad court they keep me inside a suffocating hawaalat and not near the judge¿s room where the other accused in this case are kept---to keep me away from the media.But how long will they continue to act like this? I am already on a hunger strike since the last four days (since 5.8.2002) to protest against their barbarism. I having started having pain in my stomach, dizziness and body aches. But I will carry on with it till I get justice, I am determined to do that.I am inside a dingy barrack, along with 250 prisoners,( many of them murderers.) The barrack has a capacity of just 60 people. The fan does not run during the afternoon making it unbearable through the day. I used to tear the sides of the roti and gulp it down with watery dal to keep myself alive, but not any more as my self respect does not allow me to do that. Cockraoches and insects crawl over my body when I go to sleep at night , along with drug addicts carrying all sorts of diseases. Will the CBI cure me of any disease I get infected with in the jail environs here? (Many more things are happenng in jail which I will keep for later.)The complaint of the CBI is merely based on hearsay and that too from officials of the ruling NDA government. Where is the tape, which the Saharanpur police claimed to have recovered from the other accused (which they allege is the copy of the tape given to me?) Why didn¿t the CBI release it to the public or produce it in court? They raided my residence and my office and recovered nothing related tot the present case. And still they don¿t want me to be released on bail and be in a healthy state of mind and body to defend myself.
"Jail is an exception, bail is a rule," said the chairman of the Bar Association of the Supreme Court recently. Am I a habitual offender? Am I a hardened criminal? Do I have a criminal past? I am being falsely implicated in a case. I wasn¿t even called to a police station in my life before this case. Why shouldn¿t I get bail when I fulfil all conditions? Because the CBI prosecutor seeks adjournments deliberately when my bail hearing comes up.