Delhi Police face allegations of assault from at least three men detained during protests in the capital, with medical records documenting injuries including bruises, abrasions, contusions and a fracture in one detainee’s right elbow. The allegations concern detentions at a police post and makeshift facilities where protesters said they were taken in buses and held.
Nihal Alam, 36, from Kishanganj in Bihar, said he was picked up near Connaught Place on Sunday evening while visiting his sister in Bawana. He told The Indian Express that police took him first in a roadways bus and later to a detention centre at a community centre in Pandwalan Khurd, Dwarka. Alam alleged that detainees were beaten with sticks inside a bus fitted with iron-barred partitions.
A medico-legal certificate from a government hospital records a radial head fracture in Alam’s right elbow following an X-ray. The doctor advised further imaging to assess the bones and joint structures. Alam said he received an injection and painkiller more than an hour after requesting first aid at the detention facility. He later told the newspaper that doctors at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital had discussed the possibility of inserting a rod, which he said could cost Rs 20,000.
Arjun Unnikrishnan, a 30-year-old law graduate and researcher who was also taken to the Pandwalan Khurd facility, alleged that personnel struck detainees across their bodies and kicked them in the chest and back. He said the cramped conditions left detainees with little room to move away. His medico-legal certificate records an allegation of assault by unknown police personnel near Rajeev Chowk at about 4.15 pm, along with injuries to his face, chest and back. He said he went directly to a hospital after his release to document the injuries.
Another detainee, Delhi-based lawyer Fidal Tom, alleged that he was assaulted at the Sanjay Colony police post under Maidangarhi police station. Tom said he was detained near INA on Saturday afternoon and taken to the post, where about 20 students were being held. He alleged that a man in civilian clothes beat detainees and that, after he questioned the man’s authority, around 10 police personnel beat him with sticks inside a bathroom.
Tom’s medico-legal certificate, prepared in the early hours of October 11 at Madan Mohan Hospital in Malviya Nagar, records swelling on the left side of his face, an abrasion above his left eye, injuries on both arms and multiple contusions and abrasions on his back. The examination noted that the injuries were most likely caused by multiple blunt-object trauma, according to the report.
The allegations raise questions about the treatment of people held during protest-related police action and the documentation of injuries after release. The Indian Express reported that a senior police official said the force had not received complaints regarding the allegations, but added that action would be taken under relevant provisions of law if a complaint was received.
