Noting that the protesters demanding wage hike are not terrorists, the Supreme Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to produce before it on May 18 Aditya Anand and Rupesh Roy arrested during the Noida workers’ protest last month.
“They are not terrorists; they are merely demanding basic rights like minimum wages,” a Bench led by Justice BV Nagarathna said, adding subscribing to the “leftist ideology” didn’t make someone a criminal.
The top court’s comments came during hearing of a petition filed by Aditya’s brother Keshaw Anand accusing the Uttar Pradesh Police of subjected the arrested accused to custodial torture.
As the petitioners’ counsel expressed the apprehension that they might be sent to police remand, the Bench ordered that they should continue to be in judicial custody.
After hearing the lawyers representing the petitioner and the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Bench said, “We direct respondent no.1/State to produce the brother of the petitioner Aditya Anand and Rupesh Roy before this court on 18.05.2026 at 2 PM. In the meantime, judicial custody of the aforesaid two persons to continue…”
The Bench – which also included Justice Ujjal Bhuyan—issued notice to the State of Uttar Pradesh and directed the production of the two persons. It posted the matter for further hearing on May 18 at 2 PM.
Aditya Anand—a software engineer and a social worker—and Rupesh Roy—an auto driver—participated in the protest demanding a hike in minimum wages and decent working hours for the workers, the petitioner submitted.
Aditya was arrested on April 17 at the Tiruchirappalli Railway Station in Tamil Nadu without disclosing the grounds of arrest and without providing an arrest memo, Keshaw Anand alleged.
He was not even allowed to inform his family or legal counsel about the arrest despite several representations made to the multiple authorities in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh regarding his detention, the petitioner alleged.
Aditya was brought to Uttar Pradesh, where he was arrested under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, it was alleged.
Rupesh was picked up by the police from the Botanical Garden Metro Station and subjected to severe torture and the police made a fake disclosure and recovery to implicate him, the petitioner alleged.
