Thirty-two-year-old Sita was sitting on the ground outside Noida’s Phase 2 police station with her two young children – aged three and six – when a friend of her husband spotted him through the window of a departing bus.

“It is him. I just saw,” the friend told her.

Her husband, Jitendar Kumar, 35, had stepped out to meet friends at a market while Sita was at a chemist buying medicine. He never came back. According to Sita, he was picked up by police amid a crackdown following violence that broke out during worker protests in Naya Gaon the previous day.

After protests by factory workers in Noida turned violent on Monday, April 13, the Gautam Buddh Nagar police detained hundreds of people. Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh said over 396 individuals had been arrested and seven FIRs registered, while also pointing to the possibility of a “syndicate”. But for the families of some of those detained – many of them workers from the industrial belt in Sectors 83 and 84 – the more pressing question has been a simpler one: where are their loved ones?

Newslaundry spoke to a few families outside the Phase 2 police station and in Naya Gaon, about a kilometre away. Some said they had received little to no information from police about the whereabouts or status of the detained. The police did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Cops didn’t let us inside’

Kumar works at a company called Morning Sport and earns Rs 12,000 a month. Since his alleged arrest, his wife and friend have been sitting outside the Phase 2 station waiting for answers.

“I had come at 2 pm but the police did not let us inside,” Sita claimed. “Two female police officers were standing at the gate who asked us to come back at 5 pm. When we came back, they said we should go to court, since no ‘sunwai’ will happen here.”

Bhawna, the mother of 19-year-old Indrajeet Rajput, who she said worked at a watch company, claimed her son had been sitting outside his factory with other workers when he was picked up.

“He did not participate in any violence,” she claimed. “Around 1 pm, the police were lathi charging and picking up anyone. Then my son called us saying, ‘Papa, the police are picking us up and taking us.’ His phone was then snatched away,” his father Jay Prakash told Newslaundry.

She alleged that when she went to the police station to ask about him, she was turned away. “Nobody is telling us anything clearly. He is just 19 years old. At least tell us you have him. Even that will give us some relief.”

Naya Gaon – a mixed residential and commercial area near the industrial belt – reflects the conditions in which many of these workers live. Past stretches of garbage-strewn lanes, Newslaundry met Neha Kumar, 29, whose husband she claims has been missing since Monday afternoon.

“His name is Rakesh Kumar Yadav,” she said. “We spoke last at 1:11 pm when he said he had just gotten off a shared auto in Phase 2. I told him the police are lathi-charging. He also said that there are a lot of police on the roads. After that I did not hear from him. His phone has been switched off since then.”

When Neha visited Kasna police station yesterday, she was allegedly told 450 people had been arrested and asked to return the next day. “I have two kids, aged 7 and 9. My husband carries all the IDs and our paperwork. He works as a senior mechanic.” 

Today, however, she received confirmation that her husband is in Kasna jail, and she told Newslaundry that she will meet him there tomorrow.

Just a lane away, Divya Rajput, 28, claimed her husband Kamlesh – a factory supervisor earning Rs 32,000 a month – was detained on Monday morning while trying to escort a colleague home.

“On one side, the police were lathi-charging and from the other side, police of Phase 2 station were coming. So people ran away. I was able to escape but my husband was captured,” she claimed.

She claimed that police had not informed her of his whereabouts directly. A friend who visited Surajpur police station told her Kamlesh was there. “But we don’t know why or how long he will be kept there.”

‘Assumed he must be with cops’

Vikas, 21, has assumed that his 17-year-old brother Vishal – a salon worker – was picked up near the Motherson company on Monday morning. He has not been able to confirm this with the police though.

“We don’t actually know if the police took him,” Vikas said. “But when we couldn’t find him the whole day, we assumed he must be with them.”

Vikas works as a factory helper in Sector 90 and earns Rs 11,000 a month. Their father died in 2024; their mother when they were young. Vikas has two children of his own, aged two and three. “We only survive when both brothers are earning,” he said.

At the time of publishing this report, Vishal’s whereabouts remained unclear.

Authorities, meanwhile, are announcing new measures to quell the protests. Noida District Magistrate Medha Roopam said, “If any disruptive behavior is carried out by an outsourcing agency or its employees/workers, the agency will also be held responsible. Such agencies may be blacklisted, and action may be taken to cancel their licences.”

In a report by The Indian Express, Commissioner Singh is quoted saying, “Several WhatsApp groups have been created, to which workers are being added through scanning of QR codes. This indicates that an organised and well-orchestrated syndicate is active behind these activities.

As per one of the FIRs accessed by Newslaundry, the Gautam Buddh Nagar police invoked multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including sections related to rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint, and mischief causing damage. The FIR names 12 individuals and lists 100–150 unidentified persons.

Details about the other FIRs are not known.

Newslaundry visited the Phase 2 police station but officials present could not provide any details. Calls were also made to Gautam Budh Nagar Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh, who was busy in a meeting regarding the workers’ protest. A detailed questionnaire has been sent to the police and their response will be added once received. 

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