On Sunday, around Connaught Place, police personnel took a number of people into custody — among them Communist Party of India (Marxist) member John Brittas — as gatherings directed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar drew a fresh wave of detentions, even as a Supreme Court order stood on record holding that unarmed, peaceful protesters could not be taken into custody without lawful basis.
Roughly 100 people were loaded onto two buses and taken from the area after officers moved in to break up gatherings there. Parked along the stretch near RK Ashram Metro station, a number of buses held in reserve for transporting detained protesters stood idle as onlookers and demonstrators gathered in the surrounding area.
Officers removed a man from a fast-food restaurant after identifying him as a possible protest participant. Footage captured him telling the officers that he had not moved from the spot and did not intend to go with them. He was free to go once officers concluded their involvement.
A two-judge Supreme Court bench — Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana presiding — issued an order that morning holding that any detention of protesters who are both peaceful and unarmed must follow the procedure established by law. Petitions alleging mass detentions, blocked movement, suspended internet access, and non-compliance with the bench's October 9 order on transport restrictions ahead of Saturday's anti-Kumar protests formed the basis of an expedited hearing from which those directives flowed.
Orders handed down by the court required that Delhi's Metro and railway networks keep running without disruption, that internet access across the city remain uninterrupted, and that people be allowed to move about freely. A directive was also issued requiring the lifting of prohibitory orders placed around the Supreme Court and other judicial complexes, so that people seeking legal recourse could do so without obstruction.
Brittas raised objections to the conduct of officers at the demonstration, contending that the level of force deployed went beyond what the circumstances warranted against those gathered in protest. Organizers vowed that the demonstration would persist and expand, regardless of any measures taken to suppress it.
Police boarded an aircraft and detained Abhijit Dipke along with several others. Brittas subsequently put forward questions about the circumstances under which Dipke, who leads the Cockroach Janta Party, and a number of other individuals came to be taken into custody while on board the aircraft. Dipke described the incident as contrary to established civil aviation standards.
One of the detained protesters, who spoke without giving a name, described having been positioned near the demonstration without any aggressive conduct when law enforcement moved in, adding that the presence of others around him had likely spared him from physical harm. He stated that participation in a protest assembly falls within the boundaries of what the law permits and asked why those individuals were being held in custody and subjected to physical force.
Over 20 First Information Reports were filed by Delhi Police on Saturday in connection with attempts to arrange protests in the city, where authorities had put restrictions in place, according to senior officers. Police recorded more than 20 FIRs tied to alleged assaults on officers during the protests, with authorities citing interference with law and order and obstruction of government personnel carrying out their duties.
Ratna Singh, who heads legal affairs for the Cockroach Janta Party — the organisation behind the demonstrations — took issue with the police response and raised the question of why a Supreme Court petition had become the avenue through which protesters' rights were being upheld. Pointing to what had unfolded the day before, Singh put forward the argument that government machinery was being deployed against the exercise of basic civil liberties across several areas of public life.
Ongoing demonstrations against Kumar, combined with allegations that police had used disproportionate force, formed the backdrop to the detentions, which took place even as the Supreme Court had issued interim directions covering peaceful assembly, freedom of movement, and public transport. As of the time of publication, no statement from Delhi Police addressing the detention claims from Sunday had come through.
