Pune police detained 88 protesters near Lal Mahal and Shaniwar Wada on Saturday after a rally demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision was held without permission, while 14 activists detained earlier by Madhya Pradesh Police were released in the city the same evening.
The 14 activists, including five women and two people who were not participating in the protest, had been travelling from Pune to Delhi to attend a protest called by the CJP at Jantar Mantar on October 10. They were detained at Itarsi railway station by Madhya Pradesh Police before they could continue their journey.
A senior Madhya Pradesh police officer told The Indian Express that the activists were counselled to return to their home states. AISF leader Shrawani Buwa, one of those detained, said the group was taken to a resort-like location instead of a police station and that their mobile phones were taken. She said activists traced the group after she shared her live location.
Buwa and activist Preeti Londhe subsequently filed a habeas corpus petition before the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The court directed the police to either produce the activists before it on October 13 or return them safely to their families. Following the order, police arranged a bus from Itarsi. The bus left at around 9 am on Saturday and reached Pune by evening.
Buwa said five Madhya Pradesh police personnel accompanied the group. The activists were released at her home in Model Colony, Shivajinagar, at around 6 pm after being taken to Kharadi police station for approximately an hour. She said she would return to Madhya Pradesh for the habeas corpus hearing and attend a press conference organised jointly by the Communist Party of India, AISF and CJP after the hearing.
Separately, hundreds of protesters gathered under the banner of the Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra for a proposed march from Lal Mahal to the Pune District Collectorate. Police said organisations had sought permission for the rally, but permission was not granted because of law-and-order concerns.
Despite the refusal, protesters assembled in the Shaniwar Wada area during the afternoon. Police said the gathering obstructed traffic and detained approximately 88 people as a preventive action under the law. The protesters were taken in police vehicles to Lashkar police station.
Other protesters later gathered outside the police station and raised slogans against the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Police handed some detainees to parents who arrived at the station, while the process of releasing the remaining protesters was under way after completion of legal procedures. The police response and the court proceedings in Madhya Pradesh are the next formal developments in the matter.
