Incarcerated for over nine months, writer Mushtaq Ahmed and cartoonist Ahmed Kishore were brought into the courtroom 11 days ago and produced before a judge. Nobody knew they would suddenly be brought to court -- not even their families, who have not seen them face-to-face since their arrests, because of Covid-19 regulations about visitors at the country's prisons. Their families say this was their first trip out of prison, since they were both produced before a courthouse last year on May 6 and arrested under the Digital Security Act (DSA). This newspaper's court reporter, present in the courtroom, described them as looking gaunt and haggard, their clothes hanging loose off their frames, as they shuffled in. They were, however, not in handcuffs like many of the other prisoners.