ExploreFree Speech TrackerTrack Violations across Categories, States & Years

The Free Speech Tracker is a database that records free speech violations in India across various categories. Tracked violations can be searched across categories, states or years. Categories covered include Arrests, Attacks, Censorship, Harassment, Internet Control, Killings, Lawfare, Policies/Regulations, and Threats.

Please visit the About Us page for a guide to free speech violations tracked by FSC,

Numbers are liable to change and violations may be reclassified in case of discrepancies in reporting or updates due to developments in ongoing cases. In case of updates or corrections and to report free speech violations, please contact us.

[Note: The data included currently is for 2025 as updates for previous years is under process. For details of previous years, please go to the Reports section.]

Violations

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State: Delhi

Year: 2025

Date: May 28, 2025

Lawfare – Defamation, Others | Lawfare – Defamation, Journalists

Asian News International has filed a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against YouTuber Mohak Mangal for posting an allegedly defamatory video accusing the news agency of extortion and blackmail, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.

The suit also listed comedian Kunal Kamra and AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, among others, as defendants for sharing Mangal’s video on social media, Live Law reported.

The court is expected to hear the matter on 29 May 2025, Thursday, according to Bar and Bench.

In his video titled “Dear ANI” uploaded on May 25, Mangal had accused ANI of extortion and blackmail after the news agency initiated copyright strikes against his YouTube channel for using its footage in his material.

State: Chhattisgarh

Year: 2025

Date: May 25, 2025

Attacks – Journalists

Some journalists who were reporting on a story were assaulted by bouncers from a private security agency stationed at a government hospital. In response, the journalists strongly resisted the incident and staged a dharna in front of the Chief Minister’s residence, demanding action. The protest prompted the administration to take swift measures, assuring that action would be taken against the perpetrators.

State: Applicable Across India

Year: 2025

Date: May 24, 2025

Censorship – The Arts

The upcoming film Dhadak 2 by filmmaker Karan Johar has finally cleared the CBFC wall, but not without taking a few hits. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) approved the film with a U/A 16+ certificate, but demanded several changes in dialogues, visuals, and disclaimers.

Starring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri, the film explores caste discrimination through a hard-hitting narrative. However, the CBFC trimmed the impact by tweaking or muting multiple lines and scenes.
A Bollywood Hungama report reveals that the original line, “3,000 years of backlog will not be cleared in just 70 years,” was changed to a less direct version: “The backlog of age-old discrimination will not be cleared in just 70 years.”

CBFC also targeted another powerful line: “Nilesh, yeh kalam dekh rahe ho… Raaj kar rahe hain.” It now reads: “Yeh chota sa dhakkan puri kalam ka thoda sa hissa hai aur baki ke hai hum; phir bhi hamare sar par baithe hua hai kyon.”

The censors muted caste slurs like ‘chamar’ and ‘bhangi’, replacing them with the word ‘junglee’. They also softened a religious dialogue from “Dharam ka kaam hai” to “Punya ka kaam hai.”

One intense monologue about upper-caste oppression was entirely rewritten. The original spoke about Savarna roads burning Dalits. The revised line says, “Na sadke humari thi, na zameen humari thi, na paani humara tha; yahaan tak ki zindagi bhi humari nahi thi; marne ki naubat aayi to shaher aa gaya.”

The CBFC also axed the recitation of the poem Thakur Ka Kuan and removed a doha by Saint Tulsidas from a song.

Visuals didn’t go untouched either. A five-second scene of someone urinating on Siddhant’s character was deleted. The board also removed a shot of a blue-painted dog and trimmed a scene where Nilesh’s father faces public humiliation.

Even the disclaimer got stretched. From a short 20 seconds, it now runs for 1 minute and 51 seconds. The CBFC wants it read aloud during the film.

State: Haryana

Year: 2025

Date: May 18, 2025

Killings – Journalists

Journalist Dharmendra Singh Chauhan was shot and killed by unidentified assailants on May 18 while walking near his home in India’s northern Haryana state. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliates, Indian Journalists Union (IJU) and the National Union of Journalists India (NUJ-I), call on the authorities to commence an immediate and transparent investigation into his murder and ensure journalists can work without fear of violence and intimidation.

Chauhan, a journalist affiliated with online media outlet Fast News India, was fatally shot on the evening of May 18 near his residence in Luhari village, in Haryana’s Jhajjar district. He sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was rushed to Ganesh Ji Hospital in Gurugram, where he succumbedto his injuries later that night.

State: Applicable Across India

Year: 2025

Date: May 18, 2025

Harassment – Others

Nitasha Kaul, a UK-based Indian-origin professor, lost her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status over anti-India activities. The Kashmiri Pandit academician testified before a US Congressional Committee after the revocation of Article 370, criticising human rights violations in Kashmir.

A Britain-based academic and professor, Nitasha Kaul, shared that the Government of India cancelled her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status. The notice from the Government of India cited her “anti-India activities” as the reason for revoking her OCI status, accusing her of being motivated by malice and repeatedly attacking India’s sovereignty in international forums and on social media. The Kashmiri Pandit academician had, in fact, testified against the Indian government at the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2019 over “human rights violations” in Kashmir.

State: Maharashtra

Year: 2025

Date: May 17, 2025

Lawfare – National Security, Others

The Sitabuldi police in Nagpur on Saturday registered a case against Pushpa Sathidar, 51, social activist and widow of the late actor and human rights campaigner Vira Sathidar, for allegedly making provocative statements during a memorial programme held in central Nagpur.

The controversy stems from the performance of Hum Dekhenge, a celebrated Urdu nazm by Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and subsequent remarks made during the event. Organised by the Vira Sathidar Smriti Samanway Samiti in association with Samata Kala Manch—an Ambedkarite cultural collective advocating resistance through art—the programme took place at a hall near Jhansi Rani Square in Sitabuldi.

According to the police, the FIR was lodged following a complaint by Datta Shirke, a right-wing activist, who alleged that the performance and accompanying speeches contained inflammatory content. He cited references to “fascist times” and exhortations to “shake the throne” as potentially disruptive to public harmony, especially in the wake of recent Indo-Pak tensions and the Pahalgam terror attack. A video recording of the event was submitted as evidence.

Confirming the development, Sitabuldi police inspector Vitthalsing Rajput said an FIR has been filed under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including section 152 (endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India), section 196 (promoting enmity between groups), section 353 (statements conducive to public mischief), and section 3(5) (common intention).

State: Assam

Year: 2025

Date: May 14, 2025

Arrests – Others

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday announced that two additional individuals had been arrested from Sonitpur district, bringing the total number of arrests to 58. Taking to social media platform X, the Chief Minister wrote, “58 Pak sympathisers are behind bars. They will also receive special care for their anti-national activities.” He further asserted that the crackdown on what he termed “traitors” would persist, stating that “nobody will be spared.”

The state has been witnessing an intensified law enforcement response since the April 22 assault in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, where 26 individuals lost their lives when gunmen targeted the tourist-frequented area of Baisaran. Many of the arrested alleged that the police are taking advantage of the current situation to arrest Muslim youths. “Many of the contents shared are anti-war, some are critical of the government, and others are appeals for peace. How can these be labelled as pro-Pakistani and anti-national?” a researcher from Guwahati asked.

State: Uttar Pradesh

Year: 2025

Date: May 14, 2025

Arrests – Others, Censorship – Social Media

Following the recent India-Pakistan tensions, Uttar Pradesh Police arrested 25 individuals for posting anti-national content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Cyber Crime Headquarters blocked 40 accounts spreading misinformation related to the Indian Army’s counter-terrorism operations. The arrests followed an order from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and investigations are ongoing.

Acting on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s directive, the Cyber Crime Headquarters has taken strict action against individuals accused of spreading anti-national content online amid recent tensions between India and Pakistan. Forty social media accounts have been blocked and 25 individuals arrested for allegedly posting misleading and provocative material against the Indian Army and the nation…

List of Arrested Individuals: The arrested include Zeeshan (Kanpur), Vicky Khan (Kasganj), Ankit Kumar (Shahjahanpur), Guddu, Raees Ahmed, Shadab, Shaanu Khan (Badaun), Riyaz, Sartaj, Guddu Beg (Sambhal), Moeed Ahmed (Balrampur), Mohammad Sajid (Bareilly), Rozan Ali (Sant Kabir Nagar), Sajid and Habibullah (Kushinagar), Sajid Khan (Fatehgarh), Zaid and Dilshad (Meerut), Anees (Baghpat), Anwar, Savez Khan, Zeeshan Qureshi (Muzaffarnagar), Akil and Izral (Bulandshahr), and Afsar Ali (Kaushambi). Investigations into additional suspicious accounts are ongoing.

State: Delhi

Year: 2025

Date: May 13, 2025

Harassment – Others

Fears of profiling after DU seeks Aadhaar and address details in unofficial group; students say move feels unsafe and discriminatory.

Sitting in his modest rented room in North Delhi, 22-year-old Aamir Mohidin, a B.Com student at Delhi University, scrolled through a WhatsApp message that left him feeling exposed and anxious. The message had landed in a group chat of students from Jammu and Kashmir, just days after the deadly Pahalgam attack that killed 26 tourists. The sender? Delhi University’s Proctor’s Office, requesting Aadhaar numbers and full residential addresses—including floor numbers—of Kashmiri students living in the capital.

What disturbed Aamir most was not just the nature of the request, but the platform it was delivered on—an unofficial group with dozens of students from different areas. “We were told to share these details in that group. It was shocking. If it were only between the administration and us, it wouldn’t have been an issue,” he said. “But sharing it in an unofficial group didn’t feel right.”…

Delhi University confirmed that departments and affiliated colleges had been directed to collect Aadhaar and current residential details of students from J&K, citing a communication from the Proctor’s Office.

An email from the university described the data as “essential… to maintain accurate student records” and asked for submissions by April 29.

State: Applicable Across India

Year: 2025

Date: May 12, 2025

Harassment – Journalists

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair tweeted that his home address and phone number were leaked online by some people, and they also threatened to send pork to his address. He said, “There are already life threats against me. This isn’t the first time. The same person in 2023 had sent Pork to my address and shared the shipping address on Twitter.” He added that he had filed a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, East Bengaluru and hoped that they would take the threat seriously.

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