In Goa, Police Invoke Umar Khalid to Intimidate Protesters; Amnesty Points to Indian Role in Supply Chains Enabling Israel's Genocidal War
For subscribers: Good politics and bad politics in education - how the CJP protest got it right; Podcast | ‘If Satluj had been released two years ago, it would have come and gone without controversy’
A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Pratik Kanjilal, Sidharth Bhatia, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Seema Chishti, and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writers: Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh SK
If you like our work and want to support us, then do subscribe. Sign up with your email address by clicking on this link and choose the FREE subscription plan. Do not choose the paid options on that page because Stripe – the payment gateway for Substack, which hosts The India Cable – does not process payments for Indian nonprofits.
Our newsletter is paywalled but once a week we lift the paywall so newcomers can sample our content. To take out a fresh paid subscription or to renew your existing monthly or annual subscription, please click on the special payment page we have created – https://rzp.io/rzp/the-india-cable.
Snapshot of the day
July 30, 2026
Anirudh S.K.
Umar Khalid has not been convicted of anything – and the proceedings against him in the so-called Delhi riots ‘conspiracy’ case have been widely condemned – but that has not prevented the powers that be from invoking his name in order to vilify and harass dissidents. This time, reports Pavneet Chadha, the police in BJP-ruled Goa a few days ago picked up two activists for attending a protest supporting the agitators in Delhi, and then subjected them to a lengthy questionnaire probing their knowledge of Khalid, asking:
“Were you aware of the background relating to Umar Khalid before attending the protest?; Did you shout the slogan ‘Free Umar Khalid’? If yes, how many times did you raise the slogan?; Did others repeat the slogan after you?”
That wasn’t all. Chadha writes that the questionnaire contained at least 240 questions, including on who ‘financed’ their protest, whether they posted photos of themselves protesting on social media, if they participated in group chats related to their demonstration, and if they had deleted data related to the protest. Asked about these intimidatory tactics, North Goa police superintendent Harishchandra Madkaikar said they were administered following a complaint by a group named ‘Citizens of Mapusa’. The police did this immediately after detaining a man for carrying a placard reading ‘Free Umar Khalid’ in Panaji.
In other words, does demanding freedom for a man jailed on specious grounds for close to six years without trial require explaining your group chats, your transport, your placards, your memory, your phone and your understanding of dissent? But hey, we are after all in New India.
Speaking of Khalid, he has once again approached the Delhi high court for bail in the ‘conspiracy’ case, challenging the trial court’s decision from earlier this month denying him relief (again). He has also sought interim bail until the Supreme Court makes up its mind on the grant of bail in slow-moving UAPA cases such as his own.
Hearing a plea by two of the Rapid Action Force’s pellet gun victims seeking a ban on the use of metallic pellets against civilians, the Supreme Court today issued an interim order directing the Delhi government to treat the duo and others who suffered such injuries. The bench suggested to the petitioners – who include former IPS officer Yashovardhan Azad – that they challenge specific provisions on the use of pellet guns, but advocate Vrinda Grover submitted that the Delhi police does not seem to have any standing orders governing the issue as far as she can tell.
The petitioners, as have human rights groups, note that once fired, these pellets scatter indiscriminately and can hit their targets in the eyes (as has happened in Kashmir) apart from wounding non-targets as well. One of those whom the RAF hit with pellets during the protest march to parliament on the 20th is 19-year-old Sahil Lochab, who risks losing vision in his right eye due to a pellet injury.
If at all the RAF personnel who fired pellets are to be prosecuted for doing so,
