Jantar Mantar protests in Delhi came under renewed focus on Thursday after activists, student leaders and lawyers demanded Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, the release of two Cockroach Janta Party members in judicial custody and restoration of access to the designated protest site.
The demands were raised at a press conference at the Press Club of India by CJP founder and convener Abhijeet Dipke, AISA’s Neha Bora, SFI’s Aishe Ghosh, AISF’s Viraaj Devang, actor-activist Prakash Raj and senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Prashant Bhushan, among others. The speakers linked the restrictions to protests over alleged voter deletions and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, exercise.
Dipke alleged that CJP members Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka had been placed in judicial custody after attempting to unfurl the national flag at Jantar Mantar. He questioned how the act could threaten law and order and called for both men to be released. The report did not include a response from police or the court regarding the custody proceedings.
The speakers also alleged that access to Jantar Mantar had been restricted and that students and opposition leaders had been detained during demonstrations. Dipke said transport services had been limited to prevent protests and called for the restoration of access to the site. He asked people to gather at Central Park in Connaught Place at 5pm on October 16, saying the group wanted to demonstrate that hoisting the national flag was not a crime.
Bora said the protests extended beyond political and student organisations, describing them as a movement supported by ordinary households. She alleged that protesters had been dragged through Delhi’s streets and that journalists covering the demonstrations had faced detention, seizure of cameras and warnings. She also referred to an alleged sexual harassment complaint by a woman journalist, saying a counter-FIR had been registered after she approached the police. The report did not provide the police version of these allegations.
Prakash Raj alleged that Form 6 was being used to delete Muslim voters’ names in 23 Karnataka districts and described the process as a “silent erasure”. He also claimed that SIR was being used to erase evidence connected to elections held in 2022, 2023 and 2024. These claims were made at the press conference and were not independently established in the report.
Bhushan questioned the implications of SIR for people who frequently change residences. He referred to declarations under Form 6 and raised concerns about possible imprisonment for incorrect declarations. He also alleged that Delhi had been shut down to prevent an October 10 protest, arguing that the right to protest and traffic movement should be regulated together rather than treated as mutually exclusive.
Sibal described the alleged revisions and mass voter deletions as a threat to electoral integrity and criticised what he called the subversion of constitutional institutions. Ghosh said the detentions created an “Emergency-like situation”, while Devang alleged that students had been injured after being dragged through the streets. Eshna Gupta of ASAP questioned the scale of police and paramilitary deployment in the city.
The press conference itself was briefly disrupted by an altercation over questions raised by journalists. Organisers paused the event and asked those involved in the disruption to leave. The speakers’ immediate demands were the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner, release of the detained CJP members, an end to SIR and restoration of protest access at Jantar Mantar.
