Fourteen students and youth activists from Pune were released in Madhya Pradesh after the state high court directed authorities to produce them before it, following their detention while travelling to Delhi for a protest against the Election Commission of India.
The group was stopped at Itarsi while travelling on the Goa Express, according to the activists and relatives who approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court. A bench comprising Chief Justice A P Kogje and Justice Vivek Jain directed the state to produce the detainees before it on October 13, while allowing them to be produced earlier after informing the petitioners and ensuring their safe return to their families.
The relatives of two detainees, Shravani Bua and Preeti Londhe, filed a habeas corpus petition before the court. The petition followed allegations that the students and activists had been forcibly removed from the train and held in a private resort’s banquet hall rather than a police facility. The allegations have not been independently established.
After their release, Akash Nawale, a member of the National Students’ and Youth Federation, said the group would return to Pune instead of proceeding to Delhi. “We are trying to make arrangements to return to Pune because the govt has stopped all ways to travel to Delhi. We will return to Pune and protest there,” he said. Nawale also said that he and fellow activist Niharika Bhosale had ended their hunger strike.
The activists had been travelling to participate in a Delhi protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, withdrawal of the Special Intensive Revision exercise and electoral reforms. The detention brought inter-state coordination between police authorities and the treatment of travelling protesters into focus.
Bua, a student and member of the All India Students’ Federation, alleged that the group was “brutally dragged out” of the train and denied medical treatment despite injuries. Bhosale alleged that plainclothes police personnel had followed the activists during their journey and photographed them without consent. She also claimed that some detainees were pulled from a bus and had their hands twisted while being taken into custody.
According to the students, a Maharashtra police team first stopped them at Bhusawal station before Madhya Pradesh police detained them after they reached Itarsi. The account raises questions about the legal basis, documentation and inter-state procedures used when police seek to prevent individuals from travelling to a public protest.
The incident also comes amid claims by student and youth leaders in Maharashtra that police contacted people regarding plans to attend the Delhi demonstration. Pune-based activist Mayur Malkhede alleged that Ballarpur police served him a notice under Section 168 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, seeking details about his proposed participation and advising him against travelling to Delhi.
Narmadapuram Superintendent of Police Saikrishna Thota declined to comment on the allegations, while messages sent to him remained unanswered at the time of publication. The high court’s direction to produce the detainees and the requirement to ensure their safe return to their families remain the immediate official developments in the case.
