New Delhi: Slogans calling for the removal and arrest of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar rang out at Jantar Mantar Friday afternoon as people gathered for a citizens’ protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and alleged irregularities in the functioning of the poll panel.
Later in the evening, a senior police officer said around 50-60 people were detained and taken to different police stations. Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav later posted a video on X, claiming that at least 30 people, including women, had been kept in a bus for nearly two hours after being detained during the protest. They were later released.
One of the outfits at the protest, Voter Adhikar Manch, said that police detained several protesters, such as AISA’s Neha Bora, RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, activist Yogendra Yadav and CPI’s Dipankar Bhattacharya. Activists Kavita Srivastava, Navsharan and Amrita Johari said that police had put up eight rows of barricades, stopped the protest and detained several protesters. They said that the detained agitators were taken to different police stations. Their whereabouts were not disclosed, the activists said. Bora said in a video that she and other protesters were taken to Kanjhawala police station after being detained. “We will come again tomorrow,” she said, while demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the SIR.
The demonstration was held amid heavy police deployment at the protest site. As the protest continued, police moved in and detained several participants. They were later taken away in police buses. Media personnel were also removed from the protest site, an action witnessed by this reporter.
Police had restricted movement towards Jantar Mantar before the gathering began, while repeated announcements were made asking people to follow instructions and remain within the designated area.