Members of student organisations were detained in Bengaluru on Saturday after attempting to march from Freedom Park towards the Election Commission office, where they were protesting alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The protesters had gathered at Freedom Park and raised slogans calling for the SIR process to be scrapped. Heavy police deployment was present at the site, while roads on both sides were barricaded to prevent the gathering from moving towards the EC office, according to a statement issued by AISA Karnataka and reported by PTI.
The Election Commission office is located a few hundred metres from Freedom Park. AISA Karnataka alleged that protesters were detained shortly after attempting to move past the barricades and bypass the police arrangements. The statement did not provide the number of people detained, and the report did not include a police account of the action.
The demonstration was jointly organised by several student groups, including the All India Students’ Association, the Students’ Federation of India, the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation and the All India Students’ Federation. Their protest focused on the SIR process and alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.
AISA Karnataka condemned what it described as police action against the demonstrators and said the detentions raised concerns over their legality. It characterised the action as suppression of the democratic right to protest, claims that were made by the organisation and were not independently established in the report.
The organisation called on the Karnataka government to stop the detentions, release those taken into custody, remove the barricades and allow the protest to proceed peacefully. It also asked the government to open all spaces within Freedom Park that it said had remained barricaded for the past five years, arguing that citizens should be able to use the designated protest venue without intimidation or obstruction.
The incident places renewed attention on how Bengaluru manages demonstrations at Freedom Park, a designated public space for protests, and on the balance between crowd-control arrangements and access to nearby government offices. The report did not specify whether any cases had been registered, whether those detained had been released, or whether the Election Commission or Bengaluru police had issued a response.
The organisers’ immediate demands remain the release of those detained, removal of the barricades and permission for the protest to continue peacefully. No further official action or timeline was provided in the report.
