There are many ways you could begin the story of lawyer Surendra Gadling, incarcerated in Mumbai’s Taloja Jail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence. You could, for instance, leap over the events of June 6, 2018, the day he was arrested, to begin the story from June 11. Still reeling under the shock five days after the arrest of Surendra, Minal heard a police officer tell her over the phone: “Your husband has been admitted to hospital.” Minal took the first bus out of Nagpur to Pune.

At the hospital, Minal saw Surendra handcuffed to the bedpost, resting after surgery to insert a stent into one of the arteries to his heart. She gasped at the humiliation heaped on her husband, who commanded tremendous prestige as one of Nagpur’s most successful lawyers. Surendra’s opening remark was: “Had I taken their threats seriously and complained, I would not have had to see this day.”