Across India, human rights defenders, journalists, and labour activists are facing an escalating pattern of arbitrary detention, torture, and judicial harassment, often under the sweeping Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Shiv Kumar, a labour rights defender from the Dalit community and member of the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan (MAS) in Haryana, has faced repeated targeting by authorities. In January 2021, during the farmers’ protests, he was abducted, detained, and tortured by Haryana police. In March 2026, he was again arrested without warrant, detained for roughly 60 hours, and subjected to torture after refusing to provide false testimony against fellow activists. A habeas corpus petition secured his release. On 16 April 2026, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) issued him a notice for questioning under the so-called « Lucknow Conspiracy Case, » placing him at imminent risk of arrest.
Khurram Parvez, a human rights defender from Jammu & Kashmir, has been held in Delhi’s Rohini Jail since November 2021, without trial. On 19 June 2026, he turned 49, marking his fifth birthday behind bars, having spent 1,670 days in detention. In June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled his detention arbitrary and called for his release. India has not responded.
Irfan Mehraj, a freelance journalist and editor-in-chief of Wande Magazine, was arrested in Srinagar in March 2023 by the NIA on charges including sedition and financing terrorism. Now in his fourth year of pretrial detention at Rohini prison in New Delhi, he faces possible life imprisonment. Four judges have presided over his case without resolution, with repeated delays and adjournments keeping him indefinitely detained.
All three cases involve the use of the UAPA, a counter-terrorism law critics say is systematically deployed to silence dissent. India is a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which strictly prohibits arbitrary detention and torture.
