Noida: Lawyers representing three labour activists taken into custody by Noida police for allegedly inciting violence during the April 13 industrial workers’ protest in the city said on Wednesday they were unable to move bail applications in court as they had neither received copies of the arrest memo nor the remand application filed by police.Kabir and Manik Gupta, counsel for Aditya Anand — who police have identified as the main conspirator — Satyam Verma and Himanshu Thakur, said they had also strongly objected to the arrests, citing violation of procedure. “The arrests are illegal because they were carried out without following due procedure under law. Unless the grounds (of arrest) are disclosed and our client is served with an arrest memo, the arrests cannot be called legal,” Kabir said.The accused are currently in judicial custody, with a police request for remand set to be heard on Thursday.Only two persons among 43 individuals named in one of the FIRs registered at Phase 2 police station, the area that witnessed largescale vandalism, linked to the April 13 protest have applied for bail so far. Aakriti and Srishti, both Delhi University students, were arrested along with fellow accused Rupesh Roy and Manisha on April 11 after a preceding protest by a section of industrial workers on April 10.So far, nine FIRs linked to the protests have been registered at five police stations in the city, naming 203 people. Sector 63 and Phase 2 police stations have registered three FIRs each. The cases have been filed under various BNS sections, Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act and Section 3/4 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.Four persons not named in the FIRs, Ankesh Rawal, Rudra Pratap, Prabal Pratap and Shobhit, have, meanwhile, filed bail applications. The FIRs have also been filed against ‘unknown’, which leaves scope for police to include more names as the investigation progresses.Rajnish Yadav, the lawyer representing Aakriti, said her bail application would be heard on Thursday by the special judge, SC/ST court. “Police may file for their remand as the gadgets confiscated from them are in the police station,” he said.Yadav agreed with other defence counsel that putting together a legal fight was proving to be a challenge in the absence of basic documents. “We ran from pillar to post to get a copy of the remand application and many people arrested are from other states who do not have a bailer here. They have not got an arrest memo,” he said.Advocate Kabir added, “Under the IT Act, once any gadget or digital device is seized by police, they must generate a hash value, which is an algorithm for authenticating electronic records. It creates a unique, immutable ‘digital fingerprint’ of data, ensuring data integrity and allowing verification of electronic signatures, but in this case, police have not followed that as well.”One of the prosecutors told TOI they had objected to defence interventions in applications for police remand. “It is in the interest of proper investigation that police get a chance to interrogate them and take into its custody evidence that may prove important in the due course,” a prosecutor said. Noida Police commissioner Laxmi Singh told TOI all legal documents had been shared with the defence as well as with court.Verma (62) is the Hindi editor of a book titled ‘Documents of Bhagat Singh and his comrades’. He also wrote for Mazdoor Bigul, a monthly newspaper for workers. He completed his schooling from Gorakhpur and his postgraduation from BHU. Mazdoor Bigul, after which the organisation Mazdoor Bigul Dasta that police claim is behind the April 13 violence is named, is distributed from Janchetna bookshop in Lucknow.Katyayini, a friend of Satyam and a poet-author, told TOI on Wednesday, “Satyam has been a journalist for 20 years with UNI Lucknow and Delhi, and specialises in translating complex texts, including medical, IT, legal, literature and philosophical works, from English to Hindi. His work includes translations of The Peasant by Honore de Balzac, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and short stories by Jack London and Mark Twain.” His father Lal Bahadur Verma was a historian, author and academic who taught at Gorakhpur and Allahabad universities.Talking about the day when Satyam was arrested from the bookshop in Lucknow, Katyayini said, “The policemen who arrived on April 17 accused us of orchestrating violence during the Noida workers’ movement, though we were neither in the vicinity of Noida during this period nor did we have any contact with the people accused by police. They seized computers, hard disks, pen drives, mobile phones and some documents from Janchetna. They also seized some books.”She said she was concerned about Verma’s health as he is diabetic.Aditya Anand’s brother Akash told TOI, “The last time I spoke to Aditya was 10 days back when he inquired about our mother’s health. It was a normal conversation between two brothers regarding household issues and the next thing I got to know was that he was arrested on April 18,” said Akash, who is a research scholar at Patna University. Aditya Anand works with an MNC in Gurgaon and lives in Noida’s Arun Vihar.The second of four brothers, he is the sole earning member of the family. “Our parents were both teachers at private schools in Vaishali. Since 2020, our father’s health deteriorated (he passed away in 2024) after he was diagnosed with kidney disease, following which our mother also quit her job to take care of him. Treatment for the disease, which went on for four years, was emotionally and financially draining and put the family under debt,” said Akash.“Aditya is a kind soul, who used to teach underprivileged children. Our father was inspired by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and Aditya has taken after him. After college, he got associated with Mazdoor Bigul and would write for their newspaper as well. He cannot tolerate exploitation of the marginalised,” said Akash. “Police have portrayed my brother as some kind of mastermind, whereas all he was doing was raising voice against injustice to workers. There is clear video proof where he is appealing to workers for peace. A false narrative is being built by the police,” he added.Thakur has a masters in history from Hansraj College in DU and is currently preparing for a PhD. He completed his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Lansdowne, where his father Ram Thakur was postmaster. The family is originally from Balia, UP.Neha, his elder sister and a PhD scholar, said, “He has always been concerned about poverty and class divide. In college too, Himanshu was active about labour rights and got associated with Mazdoor Bigul in 2022. He has often raised voice for democratic rights of labourers and taken part in protests, but never been arrested before.”Ram Thakur, who is hearing impaired, told TOI he was worried after meeting Himanshu at Luksar jail in Greater Noida. “There were marks on his hand. He was picked by police from his rented accommodation in Shalimar Bagh on April 18 and produced before the magistrate late evening on April 19, which is after more than 24 hours,” he said.Akriti (25) whose father Arun Chaudhary is a retired steel factory worker from Durgapur in West Bengal, is a Delhi University alumna from Daulat Ram College, with a masters in history. “Akriti recently qualified her NET exam. She lives in a rented accommodation in Model Town Delhi and has been active in social work, like teaching underprivileged children around her residence,” said her lawyer Rajnish Yadav.She taught children in Noida slums, where she met with Rupesh Roy. “Akriti got to know about the Noida protests from Rupesh and had come to support them on April 11,” said Yadav.Srishti is from Lucknow and lives in Model Town in Delhi. “She is often part of street plays held in labour-intensive sites to create awareness about the rights of labourers,” said Yadav.
