Delhi students allege police harassment follows them behind homes in multiple states

Days after attending protests in the national capital, several students say they continue to face an extended pattern of police scrutiny that reaches beyond Delhi to their families in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Karnataka. In interviews with The Hindu, they alleged that personnel have visited their parents repeatedly, issued notices in old cases, and used labels such as “urban Naxalite” during questioning.

Gurkirat, a former president of the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch and currently a Master’s student of Sociology at Panjab University, Chandigarh, said police personnel have been visiting her parents’ home in Shivaji Enclave, New Delhi, every seven to ten days for several months. “Sometimes they come in civil dress with no ID,” she said, adding that they asked about her whereabouts and served notices connected to old cases, including defamation matters. She alleged that the personnel told her parents, “If you can’t control your daughter, then we will do it in our way,” and advised them to restrict her movements.

On August 6, 2026, while visiting her parents in Delhi, Gurkirat was arrested in connection with a case related to the February 2026 protests over the University Grants Commission’s Equity Regulations at Delhi University. She was granted bail the same day. However, she claimed that police personnel later told her that while she had secured bail in one case, “the next case will be a big Maoist case.”

Gurkirat’s account is one among several. Students who took part in different demonstrations over the past three years — including the July 20, 2026 protest at Jantar Mantar, the December 2025 demonstrations over Delhi’s air pollution, and the 2023 agitation around the screening of the documentary India: The Modi Question — told The Hindu that police scrutiny has continued long after the events concluded. They described a sustained pattern of harassment, surveillance, intimidation, and political labelling.

Students from different parts of the country said personnel have visited and contacted their families. Ilakkiya, a 24-year-old who completed her Master’s in Psychology and is preparing for a PhD in Delhi, alleged that the police reached her family in a remote village in Erode district, Tamil Nadu. “Men claiming to be from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the police visited my parents twice. They told them that I was an ‘urban Naxalite’. My father is a small-scale farmer and does not understand English or Hindi and was intimidated by the warnings and terminology,” she said. She further alleged that the police contacted relatives with whom the family rarely interacted, spoke about their bank accounts, and warned them about police cases.

Ms. Ilakkiya also claimed that people identifying themselves as IB personnel met her sister in Bengaluru, who was not involved in the protests, and warned her of serious consequences. She was among the students picked up by Delhi Police in March 2026 while preparing for a permitted programme of the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Forum, a student-labour platform that was planning a public convention at Ambedkar Bhavan on March 31, the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh.

According to Ms. Ilakkiya, men in civilian clothes took the students to an unknown location, kept them for three days, and subjected them to “continuous harassment and intimidation”. They were released after habeas corpus proceedings were initiated before the Delhi High Court. Even after the alleged detention, she said she remained fearful of being followed and monitored, and recalled encountering a police officer while appearing for the UGC-NET examination, which she said left her intimidated. She and her family continue to receive calls six months after the March incident.

In the latest account, Avinash alias Kiran, a 21-year-old MSc Mathematics student at Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, Delhi University, said his parents in Nimapada, Odisha, told him this week that police personnel had visited their residence and questioned them about how many First Information Reports (FIRs) had been registered against him. The visits have continued even though Avinash has not been named in any FIR, he said.

The students’ statements come amid broader concerns about policing of protest activity and the use of surveillance against activists. While Delhi Police has not issued a detailed response to these specific allegations, the accounts point to a coordinated reach that extends across state boundaries. The students say the pressure is designed to deter them from future activism. “The aim is to make us feel that we are being watched all the time,” one student said, requesting anonymity.

Legal experts say that even if police actions are within the letter of the law, the cumulative effect on young students and their families can be disproportionately intimidating, particularly when officers appear without identity cards or make sweeping political allegations. The students have appealed to the authorities to stop what they describe as a campaign of psychological pressure that follows them home, no matter which state they retreat to.