Roughly 1,000 people — drawn from political circles, student bodies, and various civil society organisations — were detained by Delhi Police on Friday during a gathering near Jantar Mantar directed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Demonstrators assembled to call for Kumar's removal, citing what they characterised as procedural flaws in the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls and the deletion of names from those registers.

A number of those who had been detained were released at varying points afterward. Authorities stated that no authorisation had been obtained for the gathering, with movement restrictions put in place across the New Delhi district.

Roughly 5,000 Delhi Police officers and paramilitary personnel took up positions throughout the Lutyens' zone and its adjoining neighbourhoods, with the paramilitary contingent alone accounting for upwards of ten companies.

Those taken into custody included AAP figures Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi, Sanjay Singh, Kuldeep Kumar, Jarnail Singh, and Sanjeev Jha, alongside AISA national president Neha Bora, civil society representative Yogendra Yadav, RJD parliamentarian Manoj Jha, CPI's Rajya Sabha member P Sandesh, AISA national general secretary Prasenjeet Kumar, Indian Youth Congress head Uday Bhanu Chib, NSUI national president Vinod Jakhar, and DYFI national president A A Rahim.

Six of the AAP figures were distributed across two separate police stations — Atishi, Anurag Dhanda, and Kuldeep Kumar ending up at Fatehpur Beri, while Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Sanjeev Jha were held at the Dwarka Sector 23 facility. Detentions extended across the city, with a number of those held being moved to Karawal Nagar, Badarpur, and various other police stations.

By that point in the day, officers had taken upwards of 700 people into custody across Jantar Mantar and the surrounding streets. By the time the day's operation concluded, the tally had climbed to just under 1,000, police sources said.

Barricades were installed around Jantar Mantar and the roads leading to it, cutting off entry for anyone intending to assemble at the site. Drone surveillance covered areas where gatherings were heaviest, while additional officers were deployed wherever crowd numbers climbed at specific locations.

Authorities noted that advance intelligence placed the potential turnout for the area at somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 people, and deployment plans were drawn up to reflect that estimate. Officers were spread across various neighbourhoods to keep crowds from gathering.

Protesters were loaded onto buses and transported away as part of the security response. A number of the detained individuals squeezed through bus windows to rejoin the demonstration, after which authorities placed them back on board.

People spanning a range of ages — from university-age attendees through to older members of the community — took part in the rally. Compared with the Rapid Action Force, Sashastra Seema Bal officers held a noticeably stronger ground presence throughout the operation. Personnel assigned to the location moved among the crowd without visible batons, guiding demonstrators toward waiting buses through conversation rather than force.

Friction arose at several points along the route as police intervened to stop the march from continuing. A handful of officers sustained what were described as non-life-threatening injuries, with the information coming from people familiar with the matter.

Authorities noted that both the demonstration and the sites where participants assembled had been captured on video, with staff directed to retain that footage. Footage circulating on social media purportedly depicted officers from the security forces physically confronting demonstrators. Verification work was under way to confirm whether the footage was genuine, identify the personnel who appeared in it, and establish where the reported events had taken place.

A security assessment at Jantar Mantar was conducted by Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar, who was accompanied by a group of senior officers during the walkthrough. Unnamed sources indicated that a full account of the demonstration had been handed over to the commissioner.

Restrictions on unauthorised gatherings, marches, sit-in demonstrations, and the raising of slogans were put in place under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita before the planned protest took place. Rules covering the carrying of sticks, batons, swords, and spears were put in place alongside the other measures.

Officers were posted at the points where Delhi meets both Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Law enforcement halted a number of buses and private vehicles in an effort to keep demonstrators from reaching the capital, sources said.

A traffic notice posted on social media by Delhi Police the day before the demonstration urged people heading toward the Lutyens' zone to consult the advisory, watch for diversion signs, and take direction from personnel stationed along the route. Travel disruptions spread across multiple corridors in the area, with queues and detours affecting thoroughfares feeding into Barakhamba Road, Hailey Road, Patel Chowk, GPO, Tolstoy Marg, Jantar Mantar Road, Parliament Street, and Ashoka Road.

Online access was cut off across the affected zone as one component of the broader security arrangements, while gates at a number of Metro stations near Jantar Mantar were shut to passengers for a period. Authorities attributed the access limitations to concerns about both public safety and the management of large gatherings.