The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday quashed the detention of 25-year-old Delhi University student Aakriti Chaudhary in connection with the Noida workers’ protest in April 2026. She had been taken into custody under the National Security Act.
The two-judge bench also declined to give the state counsel additional time to produce video evidence allegedly showing that Chaudhary had instigated protesters to pelt stones or set vehicles on fire. 2025, on charges of instigating the mob to resort to arson and stone-pelting, the judges said that a proper notice under Section 126 of the BNSS had not been served on the petitioner before her arrest While the state counsel told the judges that Chaudhary was arrested on the morning of April 12.
The state counsel said the notice had been issued as per law. However, the judges said that the General Diary entry appeared to show that Chaudhary had already been arrested before the notice was prepared. The court had directed the state on Tuesday to produce the evidence the next day.
Chaudhary had filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her arrest, and a bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev directed her immediate release if her arrest was not warranted in any other case.
The court stated that it found the detention was based on a story “concocted” by the state, according to a report by news agency PTI.
