Hyderabad: A protest was held in front of Sundarayya Park in Lingampally, organised by the Campaign for Release of Workers and Activists of Noida (CaRWAN) on Saturday, September 12, against the “arbitrary and vengeful arrest” of eight activists and nearly 50 workers by the Uttar Pradesh police.
The protestors demanded the immediate release of all arrested individuals and condemned the UP police’s “high-handedness”.
The protest stems from the arrests during the Noida workers’ strike and subsequent protests in early April this year. Several Noida factory workers took to the streets demanding fair wages and better working conditions and were met with the UP police’s crackdown. Hundreds of workers, including activists supporting the protests, were reportedly arrested at the time.
‘Despite HC ruling, several workers remain incarcerated’
Bhargavi, a CaRWAN activist, addressed the gathering and highlighted the severe cost-of-living crisis driving these protests. Workers in Noida earn an inadequate monthly wage of just Rs 9,000, a figure that has remained stagnant as the UP government has failed to revise minimum wage standards for over a decade, she said.
Bhargavi referenced the Allahabad High Court’s judgment regarding a Delhi University student, Aakriti, who was detained under the National Security Act (NSA) reportedly for standing in solidarity with the Noida workers. The High Court quashed her NSA detention order, characterising the police’s claims as a concocted story, Bhargavi said.
Holding that the case involved severe administrative misconduct, the court ordered Rs 5 lakh in compensation to Akriti, deducted directly from the salaries of the responsible police officials and Noida District Magistrate Medha Rupam, who is Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s daughter.
Bhargavi said despite the quashing of the NSA case, activists Satyam Verma, Akriti Chaudhary, Rupesh Rai, Aditya Anand, Manisha Chauhan, Srishti Gupta, Himanshu Thakur, and Yogesh Meena, along with dozens of workers, remain incarcerated over multiple “bogus” cases.
‘Political dissent framed as state treason’
Speaking at the protest, Mahipal from the Disha Students’ Organisation detailed the alleged harassment faced by the arrested activists and workers. He pointed out that police have filed 11 separate first information reports (FIRs) for a single incident, which he said is a direct violation of Supreme Court guidelines.
Mahipal highlighted critical lapses in the charge sheets, including unlawful detentions, custodial torture, fabricated evidence, warrantless searches, and casteist abuse. He added that a 16-year-old minor was illegally held in an adult prison facility for two months, and charge sheets explicitly cite the activists’ “Marxist ideology” as a basis for criminal charges. He said this amounted to framing political dissent as state treason.
The demonstration concluded with demands for raising the minimum wage to Rs 30,000, halting police repression, and unconditionally releasing all the arrested workers and activists.
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