In his first, most detailed interview, activist Sonam Wangchuk details his time in prison, media trial & NSA charge.

Sonam Wangchuk and Gitanjali Angmo discuss Wangchuk’s detention under the NSA post-Ladakh violence, the lack of legal recourse, media narratives, and the government’s revocation. They reflect on democracy, systemic flaws, and their personal resolve. Can trust in Indian institutions survive such ordeals?

“It was like being kidnapped by a gang,” said environmentalist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk, recalling the first few hours after his arrest in September 2025.

“I told them I needed to call my lawyer and my wife. And they said, ‘Yes, this is your right. We’ll ensure that you get it,’” he said.

“But once inside the jail, they said, ‘Oh! Under your article or the Act (National Security Act), no phone calls are allowed at all.’”

His wife and educator Dr Gitanjali J Angmo, who had spoken to The Quint a few months earlier while Wangchuk was still incarcerated, recalled being subjected to what she described as similar “trickery”.

“And they did the same to me. They kept telling me that once he landed in Jodhpur, he would speak to me at 7.30, 8.30, 9.30. I spent that entire night waiting for his call,” she said.

It has now been four months since the Government of India exercised its powers to revoke Wangchuk’s incarceration under the NSA following violence in Ladakh that claimed four lives during Wangchuk’s peaceful demonstration.

Asked about being “pardoned” by the government, Wangchuk quipped: “It’s difficult to say who pardoned whom.”
Both Wangchuk and Angmo said they were confident that the Supreme Court’s verdict would ultimately be in their favour, describing the government’s decision as a “retreat by a losing government to save face”.

But while Wangchuk endured the realities of prison from within, Angmo says the ordeal outside was no less harrowing. Together, they describe it as a multi-pronged battle against the “top two” in the country.

In their most detailed interview since Wangchuk’s release, the couple open up about the arrest, detention, legal battle, and the larger questions their experience raises about democracy, justice, and state power in India.