Months after being released by the central government agency, Sonam Wangchuk has given a detailed interview in which he recounts the horror of facing jail time under the NSA provision.

Wangchuk recalled that when the authorities came to arrest him, he wasn’t aware of being taken out of Leh, let alone to a faraway place like the Jodhpur jail. After coming to know that he is going to be taken somewhere through a special aircraft, Wangchuk repeatedly requested the authorities to allow him to contact his lawyer and wife.

“Then they said, we’ll land in Chandigarh and from there you will be able to call from there. And once we landed in Chandigarh, they said we’ll land in Jodhpur.
We’ll definitely connect you to your lawyer and your family from there.
And in Jodhpur, they said now we are just about to reach the jail and jail authorities will connect you to. And in the jail they said that in your act, no phone calls are allowed at all. And the ones who were taking me from Leh, they disappeared. So, yeah it was like cheap dirty trick to put me without any connectivity to even a lawyer to tell them that I am being taken.”
— Sonam Wangchuk recounting his detention experience

The Background

It was in September 2025 that Sonam Wangchuk was arrested after violent protests occurred in Leh, Ladakh, during an agitation demanding greater constitutional protections and statehood-like safeguards for Ladakh. In the charges filed by the Central Government, it was observed that Wangchuk tried to provoke and instigate, which Sonam repeatedly denied and opined that his demand and protests were peaceful.

In March 2026, Wanchuk was eventually released by the Union Government, and sources indicate that Wangchuk had given an unofficial promise not to cause the same protest again against the Union government.

Why was Wangchuk’s NSA detention controversial?

While it was obvious that the Union Government and Sonam Wangchuk, representing the Leh Ladakh activists, were at loggerheads over resolving long-standing demands, arresting Wangchuk under the NSA act controversial felt like misuse of law as the law is generally meant for serious threats related to national security and public order, whereas Wangchuk has been known as outspoken environmental activist who has done peaceful protests throughout the years so that the Union Territory gets its deserving rights.