From manning the counter and tackling sales to dishing out mouth-watering South Indian fare, a diverse set of employees will be in charge of a new cafe opening at the Delhi High Court next week.
The cafe, called Sagar Express, will have six persons with different types of neurodiversity – including autism among others – working on rotation. “The main motive of opening this cafe is to empower such persons financially,” said Senior Advocate Ravi Gupta, also chairman of NGO Shaurya Foundation Trust (SFT), who is behind this initiative.
Donning the manager’s hat will be Arunima (36), who is neurodiverse. Hailing from Kolkata and a resident of Noida, she has two master’s degrees in History and Travel and Tourism.
Prerna (34), a digital designer from Delhi, will be the salesperson. Her employers describe her as a “charismatic individual with a fantastic sense of humor”.
Vikhayat and Hardik, aged 24 from Delhi-NCR, will be sales associates. They are non-verbal and experts at reading social cues.
They will communicate with customers via an application, Avaz, which is a picture-based communication and learning app for people with special needs.
Sabhya (22), known to swiftly adapt to new tasks, will be the cashier.
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Reha (22), who excels in making both cookies and presentations, will also be working as a salesperson.
A trained baker working with SFT, Sumer (25) will be found pouring chutneys and making dahi bhalla for the advocates who visit the cafe.
An artist with a keen eye for detail, Varun (23), who is on the neurodiverse spectrum, will be working on the Bain Marie counter where advocates can enjoy chutneys and dahi bhallas. He will be joined by Rijul (24), who is very excited about serving customers South Indian food as it is “lighter” on the stomach.
A master salesman, Princey (45) will be managing the sales counter.
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Located a few 100 metres away from the Starbucks outlet inside the premises, which opened in March, the cafe is a collaboration with Sagar Ratna.
The project is a culmination of two years of training. “The majority of persons that will run the cafe will be those with neurodiversity… they’ll be given managerial positions,” senior advocate Gupta told The Indian Express.
It was after 2002 that Gupta decided to help neurodivergent adults. That year, he and his wife Rani decided to adopt a boy, who they named Shaurya. Right before he turned two, doctors informed his parents that he was autistic. Since 2011, STF has been working with neurodivergent adults.
“Sagar Ratna at the High Court is like a dream come true for our skilled colleagues where they will now be able to showcase their abilities at the ordering counter, drink serving, and hosting with a focus on customer feedback,” SFT told The Indian Express.
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All of Sagar Ratna’s South Indian fare will be served at the cafe, Rubina Mohan, director of STF, told The Indian Express.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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