New Delhi: At noon Sunday, an unfamiliar lull over Connaught Place was broken by slogans of student activists marching from gate number one of Rajiv Chowk metro station towards Janpath. The protesters, members of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and other Left student outfits, demanded the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged manipulation of voter rolls.
SFI members held a tiranga rally around 7 pm in Connaught Place, following which over 22 women were detained. After being released from detention, Brittas claimed he was pinned down to the seats of a bus by CRPF personnel.
They let me go only after the DCP threatened to get them suspended,” Brittas said. In response, a police officer said the detentions were legal and that the law only prohibits women from being arrested after sunset. “A DCP called me up even as I was finding it difficult to breathe. I passed my phone to the officers surrounding me. Some of the protesters were seen opening the rear gate of a moving police van to free those inside, after which security personnel slammed the gate shut. They alleged that male officers dragged them into buses and refused to tell them where they were being taken. A video shared by a woman detainee shows them being transported inside an unlit bus.