Delhi Police will deploy 450-500 additional women paramilitary personnel for the October 10 ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’ Cockroach Janta Party protest in New Delhi, amid expectations of a large turnout of women demonstrators, police officers told The Indian Express.
At least five all-women companies of central armed police forces will assist Delhi Police during the protest. The deployment will be in addition to women personnel from Delhi Police who are already assigned to security and crowd-management duties in the area.
The additional deployment forms part of a larger security arrangement involving 11,000 extra central force personnel. With these reinforcements, the total strength of Central Armed Police Force personnel in the capital is expected to reach around 26,000, according to the report. Police officers said this would be the highest such deployment in Delhi since the 2020 North East Delhi riots.
Around 5,000 Delhi Police personnel are currently deployed in the New Delhi district, where Jantar Mantar is located. Officers told The Indian Express that the local deployment could be increased to as many as 15,000 personnel depending on the situation and crowd assessment.
A police officer said the decision to bring in additional women personnel was based on the participation of women in earlier protests and in demonstrations held over the past few days. “There was large female involvement in the protests last time around. Even now, in the protests in the past few days, a large number of protesters are female. So, we are assuming that there will be more on October 10,” the officer said.
The police are also engaging with Residents’ Welfare Associations and paying specific attention to paying guest accommodation in neighbourhoods with large student populations. Senior officers said PG owners were being asked to inform students about the law-and-order restrictions in the capital and the consequences of assembling in the New Delhi district.
According to a senior police officer quoted in the report, Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita is in force in the New Delhi district. Police are telling PG owners that assemblies for protests in the area would be unlawful and that students should take this restriction into account.
The security plan extends beyond central Delhi. Police will monitor the movement of large groups approaching the capital through border areas, with particular attention to the Uttar Pradesh border near East Delhi and Shahdara, the Haryana border near Dwarka, and the Rajasthan border along Southwest Delhi.
A senior officer said police would track mass movement towards the New Delhi district and install barricades on routes leading into the area to prevent large groups from assembling. The report did not specify the number of barricades or the routes that would be affected.
The final strength of the Delhi Police deployment and the central forces assigned to the protest will depend on the police assessment before October 10. Authorities are also continuing outreach to RWAs and PG owners as part of the preparations.
