New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested hundreds of individuals and has consistently described the workers’ protest that took place in Noida in April as the result of a meticulously planned “conspiracy”. However, the charge sheets submitted in four first information reports (FIRs) expose several discrepancies over arrest dates, the presence of accused persons at the protest site, mobile location data, witness statements and alleged inflammatory speeches, raising questions about the investigation.

The police have also cited the ideological affiliations and reading material of some of the accused, including books on Bhagat Singh, Marxism and revolutionary politics, as part of their case.

One of the most striking contradictions concerns senior journalist and activist Satyam Verma, named as a prime accused. The UP Police says in one part of the charge sheet that “he was not in the city but was involved in the conspiracy.” Yet, in the same charge-sheet, a witness statement claims that Verma was seen engaging in scuffles with police, pelting stones and raising slogans alongside other protesters.

Verma’s family, meanwhile, has confirmed that he had not visited Noida in nearly a decade.

The charge sheets filed in July, in FIR numbers 163/2026, 164/2026, 165/2026 and 169/2026, contain several points that contradict other documents in the case, including remand papers, mobile location records, dates of arrests, alleged inflammatory speeches and witness statements.

The workers’ protest in Noida, which demanded minimum wages, overtime pay and improved working conditions, began approximately four months ago in April. The agitation turned violent in some areas. Workers and activists have alleged that this followed the police’s unprovoked use of force, while the police have maintained that such measures were necessary after the crowd became unruly.

Subsequently, the police described the agitation as a “conspiracy” and began arresting numerous workers and student activists. A total of 14 FIRs were registered, leading to hundreds of arrests in connection with the matter. Charge sheets have now been filed in four of these 14 cases.

In the charge sheets, police claimed that the protest was not a spontaneous assembly of workers but the result of a “pre-planned conspiracy”. The police alleged that certain social activists and student leaders incited workers to engage in violence, orchestrated the destruction of public property and attempted to challenge law and order.

The charge sheets also state that activists mobilised the crowd for the agitation through WhatsApp groups and well-planned meetings, and that the mobilisation was based on ideological grounds.

The Wire Hindi has perused these charge sheets and found several apparent contradictions. The ‘Campaign for Release of Workers and Activists of Noida’ (CARWAN), an organisation working for the release of the arrested workers and activists, has accused the police of distorting facts in the charge sheets.

Discrepancies in arrest dates

In the charge sheets for FIRs 164 and 165, the arrest date for Akriti Chaudhary, Srishti Gupta and Manisha Chauhan is recorded as April 27, while Rupesh Rai’s arrest is noted as May 7.

However, the remand documents for the same accused individuals state that they were arrested on April 17. Similarly, the charge sheet filed in connection with FIR 163 records April 22 as the date of Akriti’s arrest. For Srishti and Manisha, the documented date is April 24. The remand sheet, however, lists April 15 as the arrest date for all three.

Srishti had started a live video on Facebook at the time of her arrest along with Akriti, Manisha and Rupesh, which, according to people associated with the movement, indicates that the arrests actually took place on April 11.

In Satyam’s case, the charge sheet claims that he was arrested at the Phase-2 police station on April 19. However, those associated with the protest contend that CCTV footage shows that he was picked up from his home in Lucknow at night on April 17.

One part of the case diary mentions that he was arrested in Shalimar Bagh on April 18, while another states that the arrest took place on April 19 at the Phase-3 police station.

If they were already in jail, how were they committing the alleged violence?

Another important claim in the charge sheet filed in FIR 164/26 is that on April 13, Akriti, Srishti, Manisha, Rupesh, Aditya and Himanshu Thakur were present at the location, where they allegedly delivered inflammatory speeches and contributed to the violence.

People associated with the movement have raised substantial doubts about this assertion.

According to them, Akriti, Srishti, Manisha and Rupesh were taken into custody near Botanical Garden metro station in Noida on the evening of April 11 and sent to jail the following day. How can the police claim that the four were present at the scene on April 13, they ask.

Likewise, they point to the mobile location records submitted by the police, which they say show Himanshu at a different location.

The charge sheet in FIR 169 states that Himanshu Thakur was in Noida on April 10, 2026. However, the location data from his mobile phone, as documented in case diary-21 of the same charge sheet, indicates that he was at his residence in Delhi.

Factory workers protesting peacefully demanding salary hike in Noida on April 13. Photo:........

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