Sana Kauser, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: It was around 7:40 a.m. when Rudra, a 20-year-old student of Zakir Hussain College, Delhi University, sent his last message to a friend, informing that he had just reached New Delhi railway station from Kolkata in West Bengal. What unfolded next was a silence that left his friends and family anxious and alarmed.
He never made it out of the station. He was allegedly picked up by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police “without any warrant, legal notice and any trace of where he was being taken”.
Rudra was not alone.
Between July 9 and July 19, seven students and activists, including Rudra and Ehtemamul Haque, a law graduate from Jamia Millia Islamia, were detained from different locations across Delhi. The others included Gurkirat, Gaurav and Gaurang from the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch (bsCEM), as well as Baadal and Ehtemam from the Forum Against Corporatisation and Militarisation (FACM) and Samrat Singh, a psychologist from Haryana.
None of them were allegedly shown warrants. None had access to legal help. For days, their whereabouts were unknown.
Their only crime, according to them, was participating in protests, raising their voices and questioning power.
According to the detainees, they were subjected to “brutal custodial torture” while in detention. Right group Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) alleged that the detainees were “stripped naked, beaten, electrocuted and even forced face-first into toilet bowls”. Female activists were not allegedly spared either. They were allegedly threatened with rape. One of them alleged that an iron rod would be used.
These acts, CASR stated, amount to sexual torture, a gross violation of human dignity and constitutional protections under Article 21, which guarantees the right to life and liberty.
Gurkirat and Gaurav were released on July 16 and 18, while Baadal and Ehtemam were freed on July 17. Samrat was also released on July 18.
But their release came with conditions. According to them, they were allegedly warned not to speak publicly. One of them was even allegedly pressured to sign an undertaking promising not to return to Delhi.
Jyoti, a PhD student at Jamia Millia Islamia and a friend of the group, has been trying to reach them. All have gone offline. Phones are switched off. Social media accounts are silent. She says they are too shaken to talk.
She herself is not unfamiliar with police action. During a “peaceful” student protest on her campus months ago, she was picked up and taken in by the police. “I was beaten and verbally abused by the police. It has been months, and they still summon me for questioning wherever I go,” she said.
She continued, “Students’ voices are being silenced, and we are treated as if we are infiltrators. Despite no FIR against us, the police forcibly took our photographs and fingerprints as though we were criminals. They call us “Urban Naxals”. This is not the first time. It has become a pattern. This time, they have crossed all limits. We are not going to tolerate this.”
She added, “We want the media to hear our side. If no one speaks about this, it will keep happening to others and to anyone.”
In a public statement, the CASR described the police action as “blatant violations of constitutional rights, especially Articles 21 and 22”. The latter protects an individual’s right to be informed of the reason for arrest and to access legal counsel.
The group stated that the Delhi Police ignored Supreme Court directives, particularly the D.K. Basu guidelines, which mandate procedures for arrests such as preparing arrest memos, informing families and allowing lawyers to meet detainees.
“The Supreme Court has consistently held that custodial torture is illegal and an assault on the rule of law,” the CASR said.
The torture, they emphasised, was not just physical but psychological. Female detainees were not only allegedly abused verbally, but were subjected to threats that deeply scar the mind. One was reportedly told she would be raped with a rod, an alleged intimidation tactic that directly constitutes sexual torture under both domestic and international law.
Jyoti offered another grim reminder of what state action looks like when misused.
“Samrat Singh was not even part of any student wing or group. Still, he was detained in 2009 under the stringent UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act). It took five years for him to secure bail. Though the charges were false, he lost those five years and endured physical and mental torture. Now, they are doing the same to us. They are misusing laws like UAPA to trap us,” she said.
Efforts to contact the recently released detainees have failed. Their phones remain switched off and social media accounts lie dormant. Their silence speaks loudly.