Delhi Police vs protesters: The extraordinary cat-and-mouse chase across the capital

On a day when people came out to protest and demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Delhi Police played a game of cat and mouse across Central Delhi. At Connaught Place’s inner circle, our reporters saw police and paramilitary personnel chase protesters into alleys, surround them, and drag them into buses. 

Suffice to say, there were an unusually large number of buses. There were around 20-30 of them, with mesh grills and sealed interiors, normally used to move undertrials from jail to count, according to what the police told our reporters. Newslaundry found that female protesters were violently shoved into buses. 

Protesters did not gather in one place. They assembled in small groups at Patel Chowk, Tolstoy Road, Ashoka Road, and elsewhere, where police intercepted and detained them. 

Students from Bihar called the detentions rough and the protest peaceful. Another man from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, wearing a T-shirt with Gyanesh Kumar’s picture, told Newslaundry, “I have come all the way from Raipur to demand answers regarding accountability and transparency in a democracy.”

Lawyers who marched from the Supreme Court towards Jantar Mantar were also detained. They cited Article 19 and described the situation in the nation’s capital as an “undeclared Emergency”. 

The total number of people detained by the police is not yet known. 

Watch.  

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