The Delhi Crime Branch will investigate the violence reported during a protest at Jantar Mantar on July 20, including whether the confrontation was pre-planned and who was responsible for the sequence of incidents, Live Hindustan – NCR reported on Thursday.
The violence occurred during a march by the Cockroach Janata Party, according to the report. Several protesters and police personnel were injured during the incident. The investigation will examine the causes of the violence and whether any conspiracy or prior planning was involved.
The Crime Branch has registered a case under several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, or BNS, in connection with the incident, the report said, citing information from sources. Investigators will seek to establish who was behind the violence and how one incident led to another during and after the protest.
The inquiry is also expected to focus on people accused of attacking police personnel, engaging in vandalism and damaging government property. This includes alleged damage to police vehicles and other public assets at or around the protest site. The investigation will examine the roles of people present during the protest as well as those involved in subsequent incidents.
The transfer places the case with the Crime Branch rather than leaving the investigation solely with the local police unit. Its stated task will be to reconstruct the sequence of events on July 20 and assess whether the violence began suddenly or followed a prior plan. The report did not identify the specific BNS provisions invoked or name an official who announced the transfer.
The development also follows action involving 17 first information reports, or FIRs, registered in connection with the matter. According to the report, the Delhi Police cancelled those FIRs in compliance with a Supreme Court order. The Crime Branch will now investigate people allegedly involved in the violence and examine the events covered by the case.
The Jantar Mantar investigation raises a wider administrative question about how authorities manage politically sensitive gatherings in central public spaces. Such investigations must establish not only individual responsibility for alleged attacks or property damage, but also the precise order of events, the evidence linking separate incidents and the legal status of earlier cases. Those details were not provided in the available report.
The Crime Branch’s next steps, as described, will be to connect the incidents, examine the conduct of people present at the protest and determine whether the violence was coordinated or spontaneous. The investigation will also focus on those accused of attacking police personnel, vandalising property and damaging government vehicles.
