Delhi Police detained All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora and several other political and civil society figures on October 10 as restrictions were imposed around a planned protest at Dilli Haat and Jantar Mantar. Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, political commentator Yogendra Yadav and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan were also detained, The Hindu reported.
Ms. Bora and other leaders were detained near the Safdarjung Airport flyover while they were travelling towards the protest at Dilli Haat. In a video shared on X, Ms. Bora said she was in detention but that the movement would continue. She said people were assembling at the Safdarjung flyover and urged those able to reach the area to do so.
The police action affected movement around several central Delhi locations. According to the report, Delhi Police erected barricades from Jor Bagh to prevent protesters from entering Dilli Haat. Some protesters were nevertheless seen walking towards the area through bylanes.
The planned gathering was described in the report as an anti-CEC protest. Ms. Bora had criticised the detentions and restrictions in posts on X, alleging that citizens were being detained without grounds. She also said that Dilli Haat had effectively become an alternative gathering point to Jantar Mantar.
AISA leaders separately alleged that the police had taken away the phones of Ms. Bora and Nirma, an AISA activist, at the Maidan Garhi detention centre. They said the two women were being held in an isolated room and that lawyers were not being allowed to meet them. “We demand Neha’s and Nirma’s phone be immediately returned and they be allowed to meet their lawyers,” the AISA leaders said, according to The Hindu. The allegations were attributed to the organisation in the report.
The detentions and barricading placed access to Delhi’s designated and informal public gathering spaces at the centre of the day’s developments. The report did not include a Delhi Police explanation for the detentions, the restrictions, or the allegations concerning phones and legal access. Further developments were expected as protesters continued attempting to assemble around the restricted areas.
