‘Dear Soni’: Father’s birthday letter to DU student jailed over Noida protest

Two months ago, before Akriti’s 25th birthday, her father, Arun Chaudhary, sat at their home in West Bengal’s Durgapur and wrote her a letter. “My dear daughter Soni, Happy birthday,” he wrote. “But this time, your birthday is very difficult for us.

Everyone is at home, but our greatest joy, our Soni, is not with us. Today, I can’t even hug you and say Happy Birthday. There’s probably no greater pain for motu papa." July 18 was her birthday. It was also her 99th day in police custody.

Akriti’s friends, who visited her in jail that day, read her father’s letter aloud to her. She had been behind bars since her arrest in April in connection with the Noida workers’ protest. Akriti was named in 11 FIRs, and a month later, the National Security Act (NSA) was invoked against her.

On Wednesday, the Allahabad High Court quashed her detention, describing the invocation of the stringent NSA as “arbitrary and vague”. The ruling, however, did not mean an immediate release. While Akriti has secured bail in five FIRs, six bail pleas are yet to be heard in the High Court.

For her father, the order was nevertheless a moment of relief. He said he has always trusted the judiciary. “I know how my daughter was shaping out to be. I might have not said this to her, but when I visited her in Delhi in February, she took me to a basti where she used to teach poor children.

I felt extremely proud that my daughter has grown into someone very different from the society… but I had told her to be cautious” he said. A history graduate from Delhi University who recently enrolled in law, Akriti, her father said, felt strongly about others.

“Everyone fights for themselves, but she fought for the ones who couldn’t fight for themselves, the poor, the hungry." Chaudhary said he used to send her Rs 14,000 a month. "She would say no to even an extra rupee even though it was not possible to survive on this amount in Delhi… She used to take tuition classes to earn a little,” he said.

The family wanted her to prepare for the Union Public Service Commission Examination in Delhi so she would not have to face financial struggles, “But she chose this life and we accepted it,” Chaudhary said. College senior and friend, Naureen Sabba, 26, said Akriti is an artist who used art to teach difficult subjects.

“She used to do theatre and even produce and direct nukkad natak (street plays). On March 23, observed as Shaheed Diwas, she directed a play in Shahbad Dairy,” she told The Indian Express. Sabba said she lives in a locality where many children of domestic workers cannot afford classes for the Common University Entrance Test — a standardised exam for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

"Akriti taught them,” she said. She last met Akriti before leaving for her hometown on March 30. "Akriti had cooked mutton that day, though she is not a good chef. I still remember what she said: ‘Aap jaa rahe ho, aapko rescue karne toh nahi aana padega agar aapke mummy papa na aane de wapas Delhi (You’re going, will we have to come to rescue you in case your parents don’t allow you to come back to Delhi?)’.” On Wednesday, Chaudhary, who had been in Allahabad tracking the case, had to leave for Durgapur due to a death in the family.

His wife, and his son who lives in Chennai, were waiting anxiously as a hearing was scheduled. Around noon, his phone buzzed. It was a notification from their lawyer, Manik Gupta: “NSA has been revoked, penalty of Rs 5 lakh ordered.”