At least 500 people were detained in New Delhi on Sunday after hundreds of civil society activists, students and youth groups marched against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and demanded the scrapping of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The protest, backed by the All India Students’ Association (AISA), was held for the third consecutive day. Demonstrators accused the Election Commission of irregularities in the revision process and called for Kumar’s removal.
Protesters began marching from Andhra Bhavan on Ashoka Road at around 4pm but were stopped by heavy police deployment and barricades at the Shangri-La intersection, about 1.5km from their starting point.
As demonstrators attempted to move forward, clashes broke out along a roughly 500-metre stretch of Ashoka Road as police began detaining protesters. Men and women were taken away in large private buses marked “on police duty”, while videos and eyewitness accounts showed protesters being dragged and manhandled.
Women police personnel were seen pulling some female protesters by their legs as they were taken towards detention vehicles, while another protester was pushed onto a bus with his head pressed down.
A woman journalist who had filed a complaint alleging sexual harassment and manhandling by a police officer while covering Saturday’s demonstration was also detained on Sunday. She had returned to the protest a day after making the complaint.
Slogans including “Delhi Police murdabad” and “Gyanesh Kumar chor hai” were heard as protesters confronted police. Hundreds of Delhi Police personnel, Central Armed Police Forces and the Rapid Action Force were deployed, while traffic in the area was temporarily restricted.
The confrontation continued into the evening, with protesters gathering at different points around the Shangri-La intersection. At one point, protesters broke the rear window and pane of a detention bus, with several managing to escape. At least 10 to 15 buses and vans were used to transport those detained.
Among those taking part was 83-year-old screenwriter and director Saeed Akhtar Mirza, who joined the demonstration from a wheelchair. He said he wanted to stand with the younger protesters and be part of what he described as a historic moment.
Aditi, a student who had complained to police a day earlier over alleged sexual harassment and manhandling during Saturday’s protest, also returned to the demonstration despite the possibility of being detained.
AISA president Neha was detained for the third consecutive day. She was taken away around 5pm from Ashoka Road near the Shangri-La hotel and Jantar Mantar in a private SUV by male police personnel who, according to AISA, were not wearing name badges.
AISA called for her immediate release and initially said her whereabouts had not been disclosed to her associates. She was later released from Narela Industrial Area police station at around 8pm.
After her release, Neha defended the protesters’ right to demonstrate and question those in power, saying repeated detention would not stop them from returning to the designated protest area.
