Roughly 1,000 people — among them politicians, students, and civil society members — were taken into custody by police at Jantar Mantar on Friday during a gathering directed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. A number of those detained had attended the demonstration calling for Kumar's removal from office, with the protest centred on contested irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and the reported removal of voters from registration lists. Organisers had not obtained authorisation to hold the demonstration.
Movement restrictions were put into effect across the New Delhi district. Security forces numbering roughly 5,000 — drawn from Delhi Police and paramilitary units — took up positions throughout the Lutyens' zone and its neighbouring areas. Over ten paramilitary units were deployed as part of the security operation.
Authorities in the capital took a number of individuals into custody from neighbourhoods near Kerala House and the Ashoka Road roundabout, dispersing them among various police stations throughout the city. Among those detained were 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 MP Manoj Jha, CPI Rajya Sabha MP P Sandesh, AISA national general secretary Prasenjeet Kumar, Indian Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib, NSUI national president Vinod Jakhar, and DYFI national president A A Rahim.
Six AAP figures were distributed across two separate police stations: Atishi, Anurag Dhanda, and Kuldeep Kumar were held at Fatehpur Beri, while Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Sanjeev Jha were held at the Dwarka Sector 23 facility. A number of those detained were distributed across facilities including Karawal Nagar, Badarpur, and additional stations throughout the area.
A number of those held were released at varying intervals. Sanjay Singh posted footage on X showing himself leaving a police station alongside Saurabh Bharadwaj and Jarnail Singh. By a point in the day, officers had taken roughly 700 people into custody from Jantar Mantar and the streets nearby, according to police statements. By the time that day's events concluded, the tally had climbed to just under 1,000, police sources told reporters.
Forces from Delhi Police and paramilitary units were positioned across the Lutyens' zone ahead of the planned protest. Crowd-control barriers went up along Jantar Mantar and a number of nearby streets ahead of the planned demonstration. Aerial surveillance via drones covered gatherings and high-footfall areas, while officer numbers at any given location were scaled up in response to crowd growth among those attending the protests.
Authorities had been briefed that anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000 people might converge on the location, and deployment plans were drawn up to reflect that estimate. Arrests were made across multiple neighbourhoods as officers moved to break up gatherings before they grew larger. Authorities transported protesters gathered in larger clusters onto buses, while those present individually or in pairs faced no immediate dispersal.
A number of the detained individuals squeezed through bus windows to rejoin the demonstration, at which point authorities placed them back on board. Those drawn to the demonstration spanned generations, from university students to older participants. Sashastra Seema Bal personnel were deployed in noticeably greater numbers than their Rapid Action Force counterparts throughout the operation.
Security personnel stationed at the location moved through the crowd without visible batons, engaging directly with demonstrators and guiding them toward waiting buses. At certain locations, officers intervening to halt demonstrators encountered physical altercations, leaving a number of them with light injuries, unnamed sources said. Authorities noted that video documentation was gathered across all assembly points and gathering areas throughout the demonstration, with staff directed to retain that recorded material.
Footage attributed to the incidents — depicting officers using force against demonstrators — circulated across multiple online platforms. Verification work was under way to establish whether the footage was genuine, who the personnel depicted in it actually were, and where each of the recorded incidents had occurred. A security review at Jantar Mantar brought together Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar and a number of senior officers to assess the arrangements in place. Investigators forwarded a full account of the demonstration to the commissioner, according to people familiar with the matter.
Restrictions on unauthorised gatherings, marches, sit-in demonstrations, and public sloganeering were put in place under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita before the planned protest got under way. Rules covering the transport of sticks, batons, swords, and spears were put in place alongside the other measures.
Police deployed to border crossings connecting Delhi with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana turned back a number of buses and privately owned vehicles, as part of measures put in place to limit the entry of protesters into the capital, according to unnamed sources. Ahead of the demonstration, Delhi Police circulated a social media advisory urging people travelling toward the Lutyens' zone to review the notice beforehand and heed posted diversion signs along with guidance from officers on the ground.
Backed-up traffic and rerouted journeys affected a string of thoroughfares — among them Barakhamba Road, Hailey Road, Patel Chowk, GPO, Tolstoy Marg, Jantar Mantar Road, Parliament Street, and Ashoka Road. Online access was cut off across the locality as part of the broader security arrangement, and gates at a number of Metro stations near Jantar Mantar were shut to passengers for a period. Crowd-management and security grounds were cited by officers as the basis for putting the restrictions in place.
