Open letter on the ongoing harassment, arrests and disappearances of student and youth activists in Delhi

This is InSAF India’s statement on the escalating repression of student and youth activists in Delhi. When you have read it, please share it within your networks.

Dear Supporter,

We are writing to alert you to the escalating repression of student and youth activists in and around Delhi. In recent months, a clear and disturbing pattern has taken shape: illegal detention, custodial torture, intrusive surveillance, and the criminalisation of political activity—particularly where it challenges state violence, forced displacement, or authoritarian rule. With almost no mainstream coverage of this sustained campaign of abductions, torture, and intimidation, we urge you to share this information widely, raise urgent questions, and call out both the violence itself and the calculated effort to crush dissent.

In March 2025, InSAF India, together with several student and diaspora organisations, issued a statement titled ‘A Dangerous Trend’: Global Group of Indian Students’ Organisations Condemn Campus Violence. It documented incidents in which students who spoke out against state violence in Bastar or commemorated anti-CAA protests were detained, assaulted, and interrogated by police and intelligence agencies. It also warned that such repression is being legitimised through a dangerous state narrative portraying student activism as a threat to national peace—branded either as “urban Naxalism” or as Muslim-led disruption against a “peaceful Hindu” state.

This pattern of repression escalated sharply in July 2025. Between 9 and 18 July, seven student and youth activists—Gurkirat (20), Gaurav (23), Gaurang (24), Lakshita (21), Ehtemam (26), Rudra (19), and Samrat, a professor and social activist—were abducted by plainclothes personnel of the Delhi Police Special Cell from various locations in and around the capital. Held incommunicado in an unlisted residential building in New Friends Colony, they were stripped, beaten with leather whips, electrocuted, denied sleep, and forced to sign blank sheets of paper and dictated false confessions. Phones and digital devices were seized without record or legal process, and none were charged with any offence. Police also summoned and threatened their families, pressuring them to ensure the activists did not return to Delhi or resume political activity, under warning of severe consequences.

On 21 July 2025, in response to these illegal detentions and acts of custodial torture, 29 diasporic and international organisations issued a joint statement condemning the escalation of state violence, the unchecked impunity of the Delhi Police Special Cell, and the absence of accountability for those responsible. 

Despite the severity of the abuses and the clarity of the testimonies, the incident drew almost no attention from the Indian mainstream press or broader civil society. Apart from a handful of diaspora-run platforms and a few student organisations within India, there has been no sustained public response. This absence of outrage—especially from institutions and collectives that have previously spoken out against custodial violence—signals a troubling normalisation of repression, particularly when directed at young, politically active individuals.

The targeting of student and youth activists did not end with the July abductions. On the night of 26–27 July 2025, Priyanshu Kashyap, a young labour rights organiser and Delhi University graduate originally from Bastar, Chhattisgarh, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the so-called “Lucknow Conspiracy Case”. This case, widely described as a second Bhima Koregaon-style dragnet, has, over the past two years, enabled repeated raids and arrests across India on the basis of sweeping, unsubstantiated allegations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The NIA’s FIR relies on vague intelligence claims that CPI (Maoist) “overground workers” are seeking to expand influence in North India through student and civil society networks. No acts of violence are alleged; instead, political speech, lawful organising, and public association are recast as elements of a speculative conspiracy. Under its ambit, activists and advocates including Ajay Singhal, Vishal Singh, and Anirudh Rajan have already been arrested, and more arrests are openly anticipated. 

This wave of targeting continued into early August. On 2 August 2025, Deepak Kumar, a long-time civil rights activist affiliated with the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), was visiting a friend in Chandigarh when five to six unidentified men in plain clothes entered without warrant or identification. They confiscated phones and conducted an unauthorised search behind closed doors before leaving without explanation. Three days later, on 5 August, Deepak’s family in their hometown was summoned to the local police station by the Station House Officer. There, men in plain clothes accused him of “anti-government” activities and pressured his father to make him stop his activism, warning of severe consequences if he did not comply. No legal notice was served, and no charges were cited.

CASR has consistently raised concerns about the same illegal detentions, custodial torture, and acts of repression described above—making this harassment of Deepak a clear attempt to punish and silence those who document and challenge such abuses. The tactic of targeting families—summoning them, issuing vague threats, and compelling them to act as state proxies—has become increasingly common, calculated to isolate activists by destabilising their social and familial support systems.

The July abductions by the Delhi Police Special Cell, the ongoing arrests and raids under the “Lucknow Conspiracy Case,” and the intimidation of activists such as Deepak Kumar reveal a systematic campaign to suppress dissent through illegal detention, custodial violence, punitive legal action, and harassment of families. These are not isolated incidents but deliberate actions carried out openly in the nation’s capital, with complete disregard for law, rights, and due process. Such lawlessness demands loud and sustained outrage, and a united response from academics, journalists, civil society organisations, trade unions, and rights defenders in India and abroad. If this can happen so brazenly in Delhi, it will happen elsewhere. Silence will only embolden further abuses—the time to speak and act is now.

We encourage you to share with your journalist and media contacts.