4 min readNoidaUpdated: Apr 24, 2026 08:23 PM IST
Munni Devi’s eyes well up. But in a few seconds, she regains her composure and carries her two-year-old son as she steps out of a lawyer’s cabin at the Noida district court on Monday.
On April 17, 25-year-old Devi had frantically boarded a late night train from Bihar’s Arrah after her husband, Anand Kumar Ram (30), was arrested from his workplacefor his alleged role in the violent workers’ protest of April 13.
“When we met him the next day (April 18) at Kasna jail to hand him a change of clothes, he told us the HR called him and the police were waiting there. They took him, along with two other workers, to a nearby garden-like area and showed CCTV footage of the protest,” she claims, adding that police pointed out her husband in the video.
“Why will he go there [to protest]? We shifted to Noida for work so we could afford better treatment for our son; he struggles to urinate,” she says. Her son has undergone two surgeries so far.
Devi says the family, along with their three children (aged 12, 8 and 2) moved to Noida around two years ago. She says on April 8, she went home to Bihar for a family function.
“My husband cannot afford to lose a single day of work as he earns just Rs 11,000 a month. When I heard from his friend that he’d been arrested, I rushed here along with my mother and two children.”
The family says a lawyer told them Ram has been booked under several BNS sections including attempt to muder; rioting; voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty; assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty; act endangering life or personal safety of others; criminal conspiracy.
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On Wednesday morning, Devi’s mother, Lalita, says they’re trying to collect Rs 20,000 to pay the lawyer to move a bail application. “The sum looms in front of our eyes, from where will we get it? I have asked our relatives to help,” she says.
“I paid Rs 9,000 on Tuesday so that the application is filed; the lawyer told us Ram would be out within a week, but we need to pay the full amount. We can only hope.”
Along with Ram, the two other workers picked up are Sunil Kumar and Kunjbihari, both in their mid-20s and hailing from Bihar’s Sasaram.
“They used to live in the same room,” says Sunil’s younger brother, who did not wish to be named.
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“They had left for work when the protest broke out at 5 pm… and they returned around 6.10 pm and did not leave then,” he says, claiming those who protested already left the city. “The ones who did not do anything are facing trouble now.”
“Sunil has been working here for the last four years and used to send money back home. To get him out, I have asked our father, who does farming in the village, to send Rs 20,000,” says the brother. He had come to stay with Sunil in Noida in March.
According to police officers, “around 350-400 were detained on April 13, after which a majority were released post questioning. Now, police are analysing CCTV footage and making arrests of the people seen in it.”
