Detained activists say they were stripped, beaten and sexually assaulted by Delhi Police
New Delhi: The ten activists, who were kidnapped by the Delhi Police from various locations in the city have said that they were tortured, beaten, stripped, and sexually assaulted by the authorities.
According to Kashmir Media Service, on March 12, a rights group said that one student activist and two labour activists were abducted by some police officers in civilian clothes. Kumar was one of them.
“We were waiting for a meeting near Dyal Singh College when a few people came asking our names. When I told mine, they pushed me into a car and covered my eyes with a cloth,” Kumar told the media after he was released.
Kumar said that he was not aware of where he was being taken. After their arrests, seven more activists, including students, were picked up and allegedly abducted in the same way. All of them have alleged that there was no warrant.
Kumar said that as soon as they reached a location, he started getting abused and beaten up. He said that the Delhi Special Cell, along with other agencies, kept asking him about Vallika.
Vallika Varshri is an activist who went “underground” after she alleged—in a letter—that she was being hounded by her mother Archana Verma, an IAS officer at the Joint Secretary level.
The mother-daughter duo had fights over ideologies, due to which the young woman, who was also the founder of the magazine Nazariya—an English-language journal that follows Marxism–Leninism–Maoism ideas—ran away from her home.
Soon after she left home in 2025, her mother filed a missing complaint and named a few other activists, who were then abducted and tortured for days. They were later released and asked not to enter Delhi.
Shiv Kumar, who is especially abled—wherein he has issues seeing from his left eye—said that despite telling them this, he was brutally tortured.
“I don’t know this woman and when I told them that, they beat me and said they know I am lying,” Kumar said.
He also said that they were asked about a video showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Benjamin Netanyahu, and US President Donald Trump in a comical manner. “They asked who made this and called me a terrorist,” Kumar alleged.
Kumar is a member of Mazdoor Aadhikar Sangathan (MAS), who has been involved with labour unions in Haryana’s Kundli.
“I kept telling them that my work focused on labour rights, but they did not listen. They kept making up these allegations and abused me non-stop,” he added.
Rudra Vikram, a student activist, was abducted by the authorities on March 14.
Speaking to the media, Rudra, who is also the sole editor of Nazariya Magazine, said that on March 13, two more people who had gone to the police station to file a missing complaint were picked up by the authorities.
The same day, Rudra said that as he and a few others gathered to discuss things, a police official entered their property. “They pointed towards me and said you are Rudra, you were arrested last time as well. You come with me,” he said.
Rudra said that he was subjected to sexual assault—wherein he was forced to strip naked and “grab his private parts.”
“They asked me about Vallika and when I said I do not know anything about her whereabouts, they started cooking up stories. They then started beating me with a rubber-like material on my hand. They also kicked me on the chest and legs,” he alleged.
Rudra said that he was forced to slap Kumar, after which they started beating him as well. “I was hit on the head. They had tied my hands with a dupatta and tried to choke me using that same dupatta,” he added.
Both Kumar and Rudra have alleged that officers from various agencies were part of the torture.
Rudra said, “I was stripped naked, wherein I was beaten on my private parts and chest. The whole time they kept asking me about Vallika,” he added.
“Both of us were naked, they abused Gaurav and his father with casteist slurs. They forced both of us to do obscene things and took videos of it as well,” Rudra alleged.
Gaurav was also physically assaulted, including being beaten with a metal chain on his genitals. He was coerced into recording a false statement and, upon refusal, his head was repeatedly slammed against a wall.
Avinash was abducted on March 13 along with others. He was slapped, kicked, and humiliated, including being mocked and feminised. He and Gaurav were forced into degrading acts under threat of violence, and further abuse was inflicted on all detainees.
Meanwhile, Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) has said that all detainees were subjected to continuous physical assault, sexual violence, humiliation, and coercion.
