"In response to a right to information (RTI) application, I was sent a copy of the Jharkhand first information report (FIR)," notes Kobad Ghandy (pictured) in a letter from the High Risk Ward of Delhi’s Tihar Jail where he has been detained under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for the past six years. "It seems, after my arrest in 2009, my name was added to this case which says 
a mob of about 500 unknown persons attacked a police camp in Bokharo in 2007. This is the first time I have heard about this attack, let alone be a part of it. That I have never been to Bokharo/Jharkhand in my life is another matter. No FIR was put against me when the incident occurred. And now the Jharkhand police comes to arrest me nine years after the incident.
"In Andhra Pradesh the police resorted to the method of making out a fake confession (in Telugu, a language I do not know), and on that basis adding my name to about 15 cases from the 1990s to 2005. No such ‘confession’ is even pretended to by the Jharkhand police to add my name to this case. The legality of this is questionable.
"The same is true about the West Bengal case (not yet received the FIR) and the Patiala and Surat cases. In the Patiala case two persons apparently saw an unknown person giving an ‘inflammatory’ speech on the grounds of Panjab University (they don’t mention the language and I don’t know Punjabi) while on their morning walk. At that time no FIR was filed against any ‘unknown’ person. But an FIR was filed against me in February 2010, five months after I had been in Tihar. Yet, without any evidence and on mere hearsay serious charges have been levied.
"And because the Delhi Lieutenant Governor has clamped section 268 on me I cannot attend these cases until the Delhi case is over, taking away my constitutional right to speedy trials. None of these cases have even begun, despite six years in jail.
"Once the Delhi case is over, I will have to face serial trials — that too at the age of 69 with serious heart, kidney and arthritis problems. The cardiologist seriously considered I may need a pacemaker if my pulse continued to drop below 40.
"Though the Delhi trial is nearing its end, the learned judge, in September 2015, considered my health conditions so serious as to grant me three months’ interim bail. Let alone avail of this bail to get proper treatment (impossible in jail), I will now be taken from one court/jail to another all over the country, which is nothing but an attempt to kill me. (Ghandy was taken for a court appearance in Patiala on May 18 and returned to Tihar Jail. He was to go again on May 26.)
"Given that all the above ‘cases’ (except Delhi) have questionable legal norms, and given that I have been denied my constitutional right to speedy trials, and most importantly given my age and failing health, I request that an appeal be sent out urgently to the government to release me on bail on health/humanitarian grounds."