All India Students Association (AISA) president Neha Bora raised concerns on Saturday about the overnight detention of participants in the anti-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) agitation, stating that regulations require women to be released before sunset and that she was not given access to legal counsel for several hours.
Delhi Police stated that Bora was taken into custody on the evening of 16 October under preventive provisions of the law, then processed through the requirements of Section 65 of the Delhi Police Act before being released in the early hours of Saturday. A question was raised over the legal basis for the detention.
Questions about the legal authority under which detainees may be held through the night were not addressed. Bora stated that the law provides for detainees — women in particular — to be released before nightfall, and that the provision was not being followed in practice.
She stated that officers collected her personal information while access to legal representation was withheld for an extended period. Her lawyers subsequently stated they had spent five to six hours attempting to make contact with her. "Only after someone placed a call on her behalf did they allow her to see them," she said.
Bora further contended that movement restrictions and roadblocks across Central Delhi were contributing to disorder. The party separately questioned how police had managed the protests, with a statement from the organisation adding that the rule of law faced pressure at multiple points.
She stated that members of the public are routinely subjected to treatment she described as typically reserved for those convicted of violent offences — a pattern she characterised as deeply entrenched in the nation's institutions.
Bora called for Gyanesh Kumar to be removed from his post as Chief Election Commissioner and for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls to be suspended, arguing that both steps were needed to protect the voting rights of ordinary citizens. She also called on authorities to act so that people across the country could exercise their franchise without obstacle or anxiety.
Abhijeet Dipke, who founded the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and was taken into custody on Friday evening in connection with the planned 'Lehra Do Tiranga' demonstration, is scheduled to appear before a special executive magistrate court. Proceedings under Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita were initiated against him, according to a Delhi Police statement.
CJP had previously stated that Dipke was transported to an undisclosed location, with neither his legal representatives nor his family and fellow party members able to reach him over a period exceeding ten hours. The organisation also stated that Bora's location went unaccounted for over a stretch of hours, with its legal team eventually locating her at the RK Puram police station as midnight approached.