New Delhi: Protesters headed for Delhi to participate in the planned ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’ agitation are being intercepted midway and detained across different states, activists of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which is leading the protest, and other groups have alleged.
CJP co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka said in a post on X Friday that thousands of volunteers had been detained. Several similar posts have surfaced on social media, some featuring videos, amid a nearly unprecedented frenzy surrounding the planned gathering.
The protest planned for Saturday (10 October) seeks the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise to update voter rolls. It comes months after a similar agitation led by the CJP culminated in the resignation of the then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak and other grievances related to the education system.
The CJP’s ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’ protest follows days of agitation, including by political parties, in Delhi and other parts of India against Kumar. In the run-up, Delhi has been turned into a virtual fortress: police have denied permission for the Jantar Mantar gathering, and a massive deployment of the central security forces—one of their largest ever for law-and-order duties—is being mobilised. Trains scheduled to arrive at the New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations between 4 am and 2 pm on Saturday have been cancelled, and entry/exit has been barred at 57 stations of the Delhi Metro (interchange services will continue at all except New Delhi).
The allegations of detention span West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, among other states. Requests for comment sent to police in most of the states in question are yet to elicit a response. In Delhi, a police officer acknowledged they were approaching paying guest accommodations and colleges asking them to dissuade residents and students from joining the protest.
The idea is “not to intimidate but inform”, the senior police officer said.
West Bengal
In West Bengal, CJP volunteers claimed a 10-member team of the group was picked up from a hotel, assaulted, and detained for over 12 hours. One of the 10 members was Abdul Hafiz, a CJP member whose father was allegedly lynched after the former visited a local government school as part of the group’s School Thik Karo Andolan. “Abdul and the other members were supposed to board the Rajdhani Express Thursday afternoon for Delhi,” Prakriti, a CJP member, told ThePrint over a call.
Detailing the episode, she said, “Around 8.30 am (Thursday), I received a call from Amina, a member of CJP Bengal, that their team was being forcefully picked up from a hotel in New Town.” In the next 30 minutes, Prakriti said, she lost all contact with the team. “I visited the nearby New Town and Rajarhat police stations with our legal team, but the team members were nowhere. The police refused to share any information about their whereabouts,” she said.
Thirteen hours later, the 10 members were released from the Bidhannagar (north) police station. “The Eco Park police first picked us up from our hotel and then detained us in the police station. Inside, they hit us, used foul language and continued to say that we won’t be able to make it to Delhi this time,” Hafiz said over a call. The CJP members, he claimed, were then driven to the Biddhannagar (north) police station where they were detained for a few more hours and let go only around 9.30 pm.
ThePrint reached the Eco Park police station with enquiries about the allegations, but they refused to respond.
Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh
Over 1,800 kilometres away, in Pune, Maharashtra Police allegedly detained a group of 22 protesters from the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) while they were enroute Delhi. “At first a lady constable boarded our train from Jalgaon. Then, when the train reached Bhusawal station, a group of 8-10 officers boarded the train and began coercing us to deboard,” AISF member Shravni Buwa told ThePrint over a call Thursday night.
At Bhusawal, she said, they “first asked us all to step down for 10 minutes for a short conversation”. “When we sought a legal document for the request, they began to drag us from our seats and attempted to detain us,” she added. After multiple attempts, the police allegedly detained one of the members at the Bhusawal station, and left the train as it began to depart from the junction.
The remaining team, Shravni said, was detained by the Madhya Pradesh Police at the Itarsi station. In a second call, she added, “A large number of female constables boarded our coach when the train halted at Itarsi station, then they dragged us out and began putting us in a bus. We do not know where they are taking us. This is arbitrary.” Shravni later shared a video where several of her team members appeared to be sitting inside a banquet hall, with a few MP Police officers seen as well.
ThePrint reached the Madhya Pradesh Police for a comment, but has not received a response about the detention.
Uttar Pradesh
In UP’s Saharanpur, the police allegedly made two rounds at the residence of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) district convenor Arif before finally detaining him. SFI UP state secretary Abdul Wahab said Arif and several other SFI members were finalising their travel to Delhi at the time of his alleged detention.
“The police first visited Arif’s village residence on Wednesday. On learning that he was not home, they came back again Thursday morning when they picked him up without informing his parents where he was being taken,” he added.
Wahab said they subsequently visited several police stations around Arif’s residence, before being informed by local residents that he was being held at the sarpanch’s residence with “no permission” to leave the premises.
ThePrint reached police in Saharanpur for a response, but no official comment was received. A senior officer, however, denied the allegations, saying, “We have no information about any detentions.”
Rajasthan and Haryana
In Rajasthan, the CJP claimed, their state co-incharge Deepak Balyan was “picked up” from his residence in Alwar and taken to a “far-flung area almost 100 km away”.
“Deepak has been picked up from his house by Rajasthan police. Why is the government so scared?” CJP co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka wrote on X.
Later, Balyan said in a video post on X that he was dropped at his residence Thursday night, but police continued to keep vigil. “I was dropped home by the Alwar police Thursday night but since then almost 40 police officers in civil uniform have kept me under house arrest. My family members are very scared. If anything happens to them, the police will be responsible,” he said over the video, shared by the CJP’s official handle.
ThePrint reached Alwar Superintendent of Police Sudheer Chaudhary over calls and text and is yet to hear back from him. The report will be updated as and when he responds.
In Haryana, at least two persons—a student leader and activist— have allegedly been detained. Through a video on social media platform Instagram, Harikesh Dhanda, a member of the Krantikari Student Organisation (KSO), showed a Haryana Police van purportedly parked outside his house to pick him up. “Police wale agaye hai, detain kar rahe hai mujhe (police personnel have arrived; they are detaining me),” he said in the video. Speaking to ThePrint, a senior Haryana police officer said Dhanda was being detained at Hansi, Haryana.
Three others—London School of Economics (LSE) student Abitha, social activist Chandra Mohan, and teacher Sandeep Gulia—have alleged that they have been getting continuous calls from police enquiring if they will be travelling to Delhi. The trio, earlier detained on 30 September, have allegedly been threatened to not participate in the protest.
ThePrint has reached the Haryana Police for a response. The report will be updated as and when we receive a response.
Warnings and ‘intimidation’ in the Capital
In the Capital, the heart of the planned 10 October protest, police are allegedly approaching paying guest accommodations and colleges to warn students and ask teachers to dissuade the youngsters from participating in the protest. “Several officers came to our college to speak to the dean to ask her to dissuade us from participating in the 10 October protest,” said a student of Ambedkar University on the condition of anonymity.
A stone’s throw away from Delhi University’s North Campus, a first-year student said police were asking PG owners and managers to dissuade residents from joining the protest. “At our PG in Shaktinagar, close to 120 students stay. Yesterday, around dinner time, the Sadar Bazar station house officer and three other officers came and threatened us that if we go to the protests, there will be legal proceedings against us, which would make getting jobs impossible,” the student said.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior Delhi Police officer acknowledged this. “We want the children to know that the protest is illegal and that we are looking out for them, and don’t wish to jeopardise their future,” said the officer.
Edited by Sunanda Ranjan