‘Reading kept me going’: Noida defies NET hacker accused

In the past five months since he was arrested and sent to Gautam Buddha Nagar District Jail, 24-year-old Himanshu Thakur has spent most of his time reading. The passion for books paid off when the results of the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) were announced: he scored 99.3 percentile in History, the subject in which he did his postgraduate studies at Delhi University.

“I spent most of my time in jail reading books. Initially, I concentrated on preparing for NET. Study material was brought by friends from outside the jail. Apart from NET material, I read novels, poems and stories,” he told The Hindu at a jail in Greater Noida.

On April 18, the Uttar Pradesh police picked up Mr. Himansha from his apartment in north Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh for “helping to incite and coordinate violence” during the April agitations.

The police also accused him of being in touch with Aditya Anand, whom the police described as a “key figure” in the commotion. Mr. Himanshu was booked in 11 FIRs, of which he secured bail in eight.

His sister Neha Thakur said he was preparing for a doctoral interview at Jamia Millia Islamia when he was picked up, adding that he intended to pursue a PhD in environmental history.

‘Never give up on your dreams’

“He did not give up his dreams of research and continued his preparation in jail. Since then I visit him every week and give him books to read, I know he has read at least 15 books. He is currently working on a research paper,” Ms Neha said.

His success has strengthened his parents’ faith in him, although he has yet to come to terms with being in prison.

“If my son was a ‘conspirator’, would he have spent his time in jail studying? He has been the brightest student all his life. We are extremely proud parents of a talented son,” said his mother Manisha Thakur.

The family, which hails from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, is currently based in Uttarakhand, from where the three travel regularly to see Mr. Himansha. During their meeting in the prison’s conference room on September 2, their father couldn’t take his eyes off his son as his mother kept calling his name.

Since their arrest, their father, a retired postmaster, has been suffering from panic attacks and trouble sleeping, Ms. Neha said.

“Our father could never believe that Himanshu could end up in jail. He wakes up at night with anxiety and keeps muttering that Himanshu is innocent,” she added.

Ms. Neha said their mother supported his son unconditionally. “She even participated in the Noida protests in support of the workers,” she said.

Speaking from behind an iron-mesh barrier, Mr. Himanshu said other activists lodged in jail on similar charges are also spending as much time with books as they can.

Translation of Brecht

“While Satyam (Satjam Verma, a journalist who was booked under the National Security Act) translated the works of Bertolt Brecht into Hindi, Aditya wrote several articles,” said Mr. Himanshu.

He added: “We decided to clean and repair the prison library and were given access to it once a week.”

Mr. Himanshu was a presidential candidate in the 2023 Delhi University Students’ Union polls by students’ organization Disha. He is also a member of the Revolutionary Workers Party (India).

Published – 12 Sep 2026 0:42 IST