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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11The headline refers to a February–March 2020 episode, not to a single, continuing wave of arrests. After months of near-total internet restrictions, Jammu and Kashmir police accused residents of using VPNs to reach social-media services and circulate rumours, militant propaganda and “secessionist ideology.” Scroll reported at least five arrests, including a 17-year-old student. In late 2025 and early 2026, separate district orders restricted or prohibited unauthorised VPN services, producing new reports of users being identified, booked or subjected to preventive action. Those later figures do not establish one verified statewide arrest total.
What happened in February and March 2020?
Following the August 2019 removal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status, the region endured roughly six months of an internet shutdown. In January 2020, connectivity returned only on a government-approved list of websites. Residents who wanted to reach blocked social platforms turned to VPNs and proxy services.
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On February 17, 2020, the cyber wing of Kashmir police registered an FIR alleging misuse of social media through VPNs. The Indian Express reported that the case invoked Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Section 188 and Section 505 of the Indian Penal Code, and a provision of the Information Technology Act (The Indian Express).
Scroll’s investigation recorded at least five arrests after that date (Scroll, March 1, 2020). The cyber-police FIR and the arrests were not identical proceedings: police said the people arrested were booked in separate district cases, while the cyber case concerned alleged online activity.
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The 17-year-old student
One reported case involved a Class 9 student, aged 17. Scroll described a dispute or delay over verifying his age. The account illustrates why “arrested for using a VPN” is an incomplete description: the reported allegations concerned social-media material and its alleged effects, with VPN use described as the means of reaching or concealing the activity.
What was publicly established?
The available reports primarily presented police allegations. Officials linked some suspects to rumours, alleged contacts with Pakistan-based handlers, unlawful activity or material glorifying militants. The reporting did not provide an independently published evidentiary record proving those allegations in each case. Police questioning, a phone check, detention and an arrest are separate events and should not be collapsed into one category.
What did police allege?
Police said VPN-enabled accounts made it harder to monitor communications and were used to spread rumours about the security situation, promote “secessionist ideology,” encourage unlawful activity or glorify terrorism. The stated theory was that the tool enabled access to social networks that remained blocked by the approved-site regime.
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That allegation does not mean that a VPN, by itself, satisfies the elements of a UAPA, public-order or information-technology offence. A criminal case may turn on the content allegedly posted, an alleged incitement or association, or conduct covered by a local order. The Indian Express report lists the statutory provisions police cited but does not establish that merely installing or possessing a VPN automatically breached them (source).
Using a VPN is not the same allegation as committing an offence
A VPN normally encrypts traffic between a device and a VPN server and can hide the user’s apparent IP address from some observers. It does not make a person completely anonymous, and it shifts trust toward the VPN provider. Free or ad-supported applications can also be insecure.
The legal questions are different from the technical ones:
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- Tool: a person may install a VPN without using it, or use it for work, security, research or access to a lawful service.
- Content or conduct: an allegation may concern a post, threat, incitement, assistance to a prohibited organisation or a knowingly false rumour.
- Local order: a district administration may temporarily restrict specified VPN services even though India has no general national statute banning VPN use.
Whether an order is enforceable depends on its wording, geographic jurisdiction, duration, notice, statutory authority and proportionality. A January 2026 legal analysis quoted experts who questioned the constitutional and statutory basis of blanket restrictions; that is expert analysis, not a definitive judgment on every district order (Scroll legal analysis).
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Separate chronology: the district orders of late 2025 and 2026
These measures came nearly six years after the 2020 cases and should not be presented as one uninterrupted arrest operation. District notices invoked Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), a preventive public-order provision.
| District or report | Date or period | What the record shows |
|---|---|---|
| Kathua | December 24, 2025 | A district notice restricting or prohibiting VPN use under Section 163 (official notice). |
| Kupwara | December 29, 2025–January 26, 2026 | The official listing gives this operative period (official notice). |
| Budgam | December 30, 2025 | An order titled suspension or restriction of VPN services under BNSS Section 163 (official notice). |
| Srinagar | December 31, 2025 | An official notice imposing restrictions under Section 163 (official notice). |
| Other districts | Late December 2025 onward | Reports also described orders in Kulgam, Shopian, Baramulla, Doda, Rajouri and other districts; wording and duration varied. |
| Kishtwar | April 8, 2026 | A later, separate prohibition notice shows that restrictions were not confined to the December–January episode (official notice). |
The notices are not interchangeable. Some refer to unauthorised VPN services and may preserve exceptions for government-authorised or official use. The applicable text, area and expiry must be checked for the particular district; describing every order as a “blanket ban” overstates what the primary documents establish.
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From phone checks to preventive proceedings: what the numbers mean
January 2026 reporting described roadside smartphone checks, house-to-house verification, inspection for VPN applications and technical analysis. The available material does not establish that police could automatically identify every VPN user from network traffic, nor does it specify identical methods in every district.
| Reported figure | Category and source | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| At least five | Arrests tracked in the 2020 Scroll investigation (Scroll). | Not a complete official total for 2020. |
| 24 | People identified in Budgam between December 29, 2025 and January 2, 2026; police reporting said two FIRs and preventive proceedings against 11 (Kashmir Horizon). | “Identified” or placed in preventive proceedings does not equal arrested. |
| About 800 | A January report’s police figure for people identified across Kashmir. | Not a verified arrest count. |
| About 1,100 | A separate report describing people identified through house-to-house checks and roadside inspections (The Tribune). | Not necessarily the same population as the 800 figure. |
| About 150 | A report claiming people were booked across several districts (KMS News). | “Booked” means a case was registered, not that everyone was arrested or convicted. |
Because the reports use different geographic scopes and procedural categories, they cannot be added together. The available reporting does not provide a single independently verified arrest total for the 2025–26 actions.
Why the restrictions matter beyond VPN technology
Authorities and district administrations have cited public order, cyber-security, misinformation and counterterrorism. Rights advocates and legal experts have argued that broad VPN restrictions and coercive device inspections threaten privacy and free expression, particularly after repeated internet shutdowns (The Indian Express; Scroll).
A VPN can protect a journalist’s source, a student’s connection on an unsafe network, or an ordinary user’s communications. Restricting the tool is therefore different from removing unlawful content. Phone inspections can also chill journalism, research, education and documentation of events, even where no prohibited post exists. At the same time, VPNs are not inherently evidence of lawful or unlawful conduct, and their use does not prove militant affiliation.
What remains uncertain
- The public record does not provide a district-by-district, independently verified list of arrests, prosecutions or convictions for the 2025–26 measures.
- The precise technical process used in each phone check is not established by the cited reports.
- District orders differed in wording, exceptions and expiry; a later notice does not prove that an earlier order remained continuously in force.
- Courts had not, in the cited material, issued a definitive ruling validating or invalidating every order.
The clearest reading is therefore chronological and procedural: in 2020, police tied separate arrests and a cyber FIR to alleged social-media content accessed through VPNs; in late 2025 and 2026, district administrations used preventive orders and police checks to restrict unauthorised VPN services. “Identified,” “booked,” “bound down,” “detained” and “arrested” describe different events, and the distinction is essential to understanding the scale of the crackdown.
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