More than 6,000 people, including Opposition leaders, activists and YouTubers, were detained in Delhi as police moved to prevent a protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, The Indian Express reported. Many detainees were picked up before reaching the planned protest site and taken by bus or van to stadiums and other makeshift detention centres.
The action unfolded during a rally called by the Cockroach Janta Party over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The protest followed an investigation by The Indian Express that reported a rupture within the Election Commission over changes associated with Kumar. The detentions and restrictions turned central Delhi’s public-order machinery into the defining feature of the day, rather than the demonstration itself.
According to the report, Delhi Police, which comes under the Central government, deployed a large security arrangement to prevent protesters from converging on Jantar Mantar. The police response appeared designed to avoid a repeat of events in July, when nearly one lakh protesters threatened to gather near Parliament. That mobilisation produced scenes of intense confrontation in the capital and placed the government under sustained public and political pressure.
The reported scale of the latest detentions also highlights the administrative reach required to manage a major protest in central Delhi. Instead of allowing participants to reach the authorised demonstration area, authorities intercepted people at different points and transferred them to locations being used as temporary detention centres. The Indian Express reported that the action affected not only political workers but also activists and prominent online creators.
Jantar Mantar is one of the capital’s designated spaces for public demonstrations, making access to the site central to how protest regulation works in Delhi. The reported operation therefore involved more than traffic diversion or crowd management. It determined who could reach the protest venue, how people were transported after detention and where they would be held while the security operation continued.
The immediate dispute centred on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and the demand for the Election Commission chief’s resignation. The wider confrontation placed election administration, political mobilisation and policing in the same urban space. For residents and commuters, the episode also brought the capital’s recurring tension between public assembly and security control into central Delhi’s streets.
The report identified the day’s developments through a timeline, with events beginning in the late morning and continuing into the afternoon. It did not establish in the supplied material how long each detainee would remain in custody or whether all those detained would face formal charges. Further official details on the detention process, the number of people released and the next steps in the protest are expected to determine how the operation proceeds.
