Listen to this article:

New Delhi: A week ago, life changed dramatically for 10 student activists who were suddenly picked up and detained by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell. After allegedly being tortured physically, verbally and mentally, the students want justice – but more immediately, they fear what the future may hold.

On the afternoon of March 12, 2026, Shiv Kumar, a labour rights activist with the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, and Ilakkiya, a student activist, said they were “abducted” from the back gate of Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi. Allegedly blindfolded, pushed and shoved into a vehicle by people dressed in civil clothes, Kumar and Ilakkiya were petrified.

The two were not alone in this ordeal. Many more followed. Eight others were picked up later during that day and the next by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell.

‘Sexualised interrogation’

After Kumar was picked up, the real trauma began. He described his ordeal as “painful”, “humiliating” and “highly sexualised”. During his interrogation, Kumar says that the officers beat him with his own belt, hitting the metal buckle on his genitals. “I was hung upside down for more than two hours and beaten on my lower body. They dragged me by my beard, and stomped on my feet with their shoes,” Kumar told The Wire.

“They forced me to sign a false statement at gunpoint and threatened me with death. During the two days that I was there, I didn’t even know that it was the special cell, only after being released I got to know their designation,” Kumar alleged.

Kumar has also alleged that he and a fellow detainee, Rudra, were stripped naked in each other’s presence and subjected to sexual humiliation and assault. They were also coerced into physically assaulting others who were detained with them, Kumar alleged.

Ilakkiya, 23, told The Wire that most of the interrogation during her detention was focused on humiliating her by using sexual language. “Their harassment was focused on highly sexualised comments,” Ilakkiya said, with officers making remarks about how “this generation” is open to........

© The Wire