Akriti Chaudhary, the 25-year-old Delhi University student, expressed relief over the Allahabad High Court order quashing the National Security Act (NSA) against her. However, her struggle will continue until the release of all those jailed following the workers’ protest in April this year, she added.
“The NSA charge being quashed is a great relief but the fight will not end until the release of all workers and activists,” she told The Hindu at the prison in Greater Noida.
Ms. Chaudhary then turned to Satyam Verma, the other individual against whom the police had invoked the stringent law on May 13, and said, “Hopefully he is also freed of all the charges.”
Tears were clearly visible on her face behind an iron mesh barrier, where she stood with other activists waiting to meet friends and family.
‘Proud of daughter’
Her father, Arun Chaudhary, said, “My daughter is the Bhagat Singh of today. She always had full support from us. We never felt she had done anything wrong. I have full faith in the justice system.”
“A cheerful and sensitive person such as Akriti can never pose any kind of threat to national security. But she was declared a threat to the nation just for trying to create a better society. Even the NSA could not break her courage,” said Naureen, a history graduate and friend.
Ms. Chaudhary hails from Durgapur in West Bengal and is in her first year of LLB at DU’s Law Faculty.
Life in jail
Speaking about her experience in prison, Ms. Chaudhary said she took the initiative to cook and clean, and also taught the children of women inmates. Along with Manisha Chauhan and Srishti, who were also taken into custody by the Uttar Pradesh police in protest-related cases, she says she restarted a defunct library and encouraged others to read.
“We have been working because there is nothing wrong with maintaining and taking care of the place we live in,” said the DU student. The three also attended various vocational classes in the prison, including tailoring and cosmetics, she said.
“Our schedule involves regular work. Besides that, we teach children. We have made posters, written poems, decorated our library and common rooms, and started a culture of reading and discussion. It worked as a distraction for women arrested for participating in the protest and helped ease the sadness that followed as they were separated from their families,” she said.
Ms. Chaudhary is also a theatre practitioner and is associated with the Disha Students’ Organisation. She studied history at DU’s Daulat Ram College.
She was one of the four persons arrested by police from Botanical Garden metro station on April 11, two days before the violence.