At least two journalists covering a protest against the Election Commission of India at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Friday alleged that they were forcibly detained and manhandled by Delhi Police personnel.

One reporter said his microphone was snatched and broken and another alleged that a policeman dragged him away from the protest site and asked him to delete photographs.

Civil society groups and activists organised the protest, and the All India Students’ Association joined it. It followed a series of controversies surrounding the Election Commission’s handling of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and revelations in an Indian Express investigation published on September 23.

Popular YouTuber Mohammad Irfan, who was covering the protest for The Wire, told Newslaundry that he was trying to record soundbites from activist Yogendra Yadav and CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya when police personnel attempted to detain him.

According to Irfan, four or five police personnel dragged him onto a bus despite him carrying a press identification card. He said the police personnel appeared to have mistaken him for a protester.

“There were four or five police personnel. They dragged me onto the bus. I kept shouting, ‘My mic, my mic.’ During the scuffle, my microphone broke. I don’t remember the faces of the police personnel, but the incident might have been recorded on camera,” he said.

Irfan said a fellow journalist later picked up his press ID and handed it back to him. He said his phone was with his brother, who was at The Wire office.

In a post on X, The Wire said: “While reporting for The Wire at Jantar Mantar, Irfan was taken into custody by the Delhi Police. The microphone bearing The Wire’s logo was snatched and thrown away.”

Irfan said the bus also contained Yadav, Bhattacharya and several protesters associated with student organisations, including DISHA, SFI and AISA. He said they were subsequently taken to Jafarpur Kalan police station.

Newslaundry witnessed at least four buses carrying protesters and activists being driven away from the Jantar Mantar area. The alleged detention of journalists came as Delhi Police, assisted by the Rapid Action Force, moved to disperse a gathering of activists and protesters who had assembled to demand accountability from the Election Commission and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Another journalist, Vedaant Lakhera, a senior reporter with Frontline magazine, told Newslaundry that a Delhi Police official who was not wearing a name tag also pushed him away from the protest site. 

“A Delhi Police personnel was shoving me and pushing me away from the protest. This policeman was not wearing their name tag. I asked him to tell me his name and badge number, which they are supposed to tell whenever asked according to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. When this policeman refused to tell me his name, I tried to take his picture,” Lakhera said.

He alleged that the officer then forcibly removed him and other people from the protest site and dragged him towards Parliament Street.

“He went berserk after this, and started forcefully removing us from the protest site. He and other personnel dragged me until Parliament Street, when they asked me to delete the picture I had taken. I denied and then they clicked a picture of me. By then many independent journalists had surrounded me and Delhi Police had to let go of me,” he said.

Atika Sayeed, a reporter for The Patriot, said, “While I was recording, the Delhi Police were attempting to detain some individuals. A scuffle broke out with the police during the detention process, resulting in injuries to my hands and legs.”

Sayeed alleged that the police were also trying to detain independent journalists who did not possess ID cards.

Prominent activists including Yogendra Yadav, Dipankar Bhattacharya and Anjali Bharadwaj, along with AISA national president Neha Bora and several students and activists, were detained, according to organisers. Police told reporters that the protesters had not sought permission for the demonstration.

The Indian Express investigation reported that two Election Commissioners had, on multiple occasions, raised objections to decisions and administrative instructions linked to the electoral roll revision process. One of the reports said the commissioners had objected to changes made to Form 6, the application used by new voters, including the introduction of questions related to earlier SIR exercises.

The Election Commission subsequently said that decisions taken over the preceding year had been unanimous decisions of the full Commission, while maintaining that differing views and observations were part of the institutional deliberative process.

Protesters raised slogans demanding the arrest and resignation of Gyanesh Kumar. As the gathering grew, Delhi Police attempted to disperse the protesters. When the crowd did not immediately disperse, police personnel began pushing and dragging protesters into buses.

“It is a clear attack on the people’s rights to protest. We wanted to protest peacefully. People had gathered to demand the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar. The police have refused to let anyone stand here. This is a broad daylight murder of democracy,” Bharadwaj said before she was detained. 

Bora also questioned the police's contention that the protest lacked permission.

“Delhi Police is saying that they will detain us as we have no permission to protest. Today, we ask – did you take permission from us before deleting voters? When they don't have permission before compromising our democracy, we will take permission from our Constitution,” Bora said before her detention.

Professor Nandita Narain, who was present at the protest, criticised the SIR exercise and the centralisation of electoral-roll data through the ECI's ECINet platform.

“The attempt to control the data is extremely dangerous. The EROs whose powers are being taken away, which was visible in Goa, wrote so many emails,” Narain said. She added that elections should be conducted by an independent body that is not controlled “in this manner”.

The police action at Jantar Mantar also comes against the backdrop of criticism over its handling of another large gathering at the same site on July 20. During the CJP protest that month, Delhi Police deployed a large security presence and lathicharged and used tear gas against protestors, leading to several being injured. 

Delhi Police sources told Newslaundry that no permission had been sought for the protest and denied allegations of manhandling any journalists during the demonstration.

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