India – RSF Strongly Condemns the Illegal Arrest of Comrade Shouryadipta Sengupta
We hereby share a statement issued by the Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF).
We, the Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) strongly condemn the illegal, arbitrary, and undemocratic detention of Comrade Shouryadipta Sengupta, a political activist, by the Baruipur Police.
Yesterday (19/01/2026) he was picked up without any warrant, notice, or due legal procedure, physically assaulted, and subjected to intense mental harassment. This was not an act of law enforcement but a clear case of political intimidation aimed at suppressing dissent and terrorising those involved in mass movements. During his detention, Comrade Shouryadipta was repeatedly questioned about RSF and the ongoing statewide protests against SIR [Editor’s note: Special Intensive Revision , is a large-scale verification exercise to carry out a larger control of the Indian population]. The sole basis for this harassment was a Facebook post made by him supporting the call for a strike against the SIR hearings in Murshidabad. Expressing political opinion and supporting democratic protest is not a crime; criminalising it exposes the fascist nature of Trinamool Congress (TMC) government. It is important to note that, as is known till now, no case has been filed against Comrade Shouryadipta. This alone proves that his detention was completely illegal. After hours of harassment, he was dropped back home, and in an extremely coercive act, his ailing mother was forced to sign a paper stating that he was returned safely. This was nothing but an attempt by the police to manufacture consent and shield themselves from accountability.
The police have become mere uniform-wearing goons of the TMC. While the ruling party remains verbally opposed to SIR-NRC [Editor’s note: National Register of Citizens, a census portrayed by the old Indian State that could leave social and religious groups without rights and citizenship] to maintain a democratic mask, in practice its police machinery actively works to safeguard and facilitate the same project by suppressing resistance. It has also given land for two detention camps in Bongaon and Rajarhat. The targeting of Comrade Shouryadipta is a part of the larger attempt to silence political critique against SIR-NRC and intimidate organisations that refuse to compromise. SIR is actually a tool to snatch away the rights of the people, make them dependent on the government, and convert them into cheap laborers for the cause of imperialism. These attacks expose the importance of this greater fascistic conspiracy for the ruling classes of the Indian state.
The Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) unequivocally condemns this illegal detention, custodial violence, and harassment and holds the Baruipur Police and the state government fully responsible. We express complete solidarity with the call for a strike against the SIR hearings in Murshidabad and reaffirm our full support to the ongoing mass resistance against SIR-NRC across the country.
