Madhya Pradesh Police removed 15 Pune university students from a train at Itarsi railway station while they were travelling to Delhi for a protest, but authorities have not officially explained the order or legal basis under which they were stopped.
The students, including three women, were travelling to participate in a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on October 10. The Times of India reported that they were allegedly travelling in support of the Cockroach Janata Party, or CJP, and were taken off the train on Thursday.
The students said they were travelling to raise election-related issues, including a demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. They also alleged that police intimidated them before they could reach the protest venue and that some officers manhandled them.
Police denied the allegation of manhandling. One officer, according to the report, said the students were being accommodated at a resort in Itarsi and would be allowed to leave after arrangements were made. “They are non-cooperative, not even telling their names. But yes, they are happy with the hospitality here. All of them would be allowed to go in some time,” the officer said.
The students were examined by a medical team from the government-run Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital on Friday morning and were served breakfast at the resort. Separate police accounts said arrangements were being made to book railway tickets for their return on Friday evening.
However, the authorities had not clarified why the students were prevented from continuing their journey to Delhi, whether a formal detention order had been issued or what legal provision was being applied. The absence of an official explanation leaves the central question around the railway-station action unresolved.
The students also alleged that no woman police officer was present during the action involving the three women in the group. The report did not include an official response specifically addressing that allegation.
At Itarsi railway station, the students reportedly raised slogans demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and shouted slogans against the Prime Minister. Their removal from a train turned an otherwise routine inter-city journey into a police and civil-rights issue at one of Madhya Pradesh’s important railway junctions.
The episode also places attention on the responsibilities of authorities when police action occurs in a public transport facility. While the students’ stated destination was Delhi and the protest was to be held outside Madhya Pradesh, the intervention took place during their rail journey at Itarsi. The available account does not establish whether the action was initiated by local police, another state authority or any other agency.
The immediate next step reported by police was to return the students by train on Friday evening. No further official clarification on the order, grounds for stopping them or the handling of their complaints had been issued in the supplied report.
