A few months back we had reported about Kabir Kala Manch, a performing arts group from Pune, consisting mainly of Dalit students and professionals who have been creating awareness about social issues through their Shahiri, protest songs and street plays. The group however found itself implicated by the State of Maharastra for alleged links to Maoists and Naxalites. Two of the group's members- Deepak Dengle and Siddharth Bhonsle were prisoned while other singer-poets and members of the group like Sheetal Sathe and Sachin Mali went underground for fear that they too might be wrongly imprisoned. But on April 1 outside Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, the couple decided to court arrest as a form of Satyagraha to clear their names.

While Deepak Dengle was granted bail sometime back, Sheetal Sathe and Sachin Mali have now been imprisoned. They have been produced in the Magistrate's court in Mazgaon. Sheetal has been remanded to judicial custody till April 17. The fear of torture is much less in her case but Sachin has been handed over to the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) till April 10. He has not been tortured so far but has already been made to spend a sleepless night. Sheetal Sathe and Sachin Mali are facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly raising funds to carry out terror activities.

The Kabir Kala Manch Defence Committee is representing the group in its fight against the State's excesses that give it undue power under draconian laws such as the UAPA. It is not the first time that artists like Sheetal and Sachin find themselves implicated for raising their voice against society's various forms of injustice.

Watch Sheetal Sathe sing a heart-rending song in a video excerpt from documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan's film 'Jai Bhim Comrade'



Click here for Kabir Kala Manch's songs and poems

To find out more about the Kabir Kala Manch Defence Committee
visit http://kabirkalamanch.wordpress.com/