After her detention, Neha Bora posted a video on X describing the police bus as a vehicle with four cramped cells.
NEW DELHI: By 2.30pm on Sunday, a crowd had begun to gather near RK Ashram Marg Metro station. At 2.51pm she announced on social media that they had made it to CP.
After Saturday’s detentions, she told supporters that another part of Delhi would become Jantar Mantar the next day. Neha Bora had called for the agitation to go on, and her supporters answered. So did the police, in large numbers. Within minutes, the gathering turned into a chase. Bora broke into a run towards Connaught Place, and protesters streamed after her, past the barricades. Police caught up soon after, and by about 3pm she was in custody. Others were carried to waiting buses, struggling as they went. After her detention, Bora posted a video on X describing the police bus as a vehicle with four cramped cells and no room to breathe. She alleged that women were packed into a small compartment and that male protesters were abused and kicked. Police have not responded to these claims in the reports available. The run was the second act of a defiant weekend. She had also asked those who couldn’t reach the protest site to regroup near Dilli Haat. They gathered in the INA area, where police detained her and others.
She has lived in Delhi for nearly 12 years, but the hills remain her reference point. After 23 days without food, she was left weak, though her fever had subsided.
She says the difference has not shaken her convictions. Neha grew up in Khatima in Uttarakhand, in a family that moved from city to city with her father’s Army postings. She pushes back on the stereotype of the soft-spoken hill woman, saying that strength is what has kept her going. Her father, who is still in the Army, and the rest of the family do not share her politics and are uneasy about her activism. She was one of three JNU scholars who fasted with activist Sonam Wangchuk at Jantar Mantar.
She spoke to TOI about her life and politics on Thursday, on her way back to the protest site.