Delhi Police detains students travelling from Punjab for protest

Around 200 students travelling from Punjab to participate in a demonstration in New Delhi were detained by Delhi Police on Saturday. The protesters, mobilised by the Punjab Students Union and Naujawan Bharat Sabha, were heading towards Jantar Mantar to join a Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The demonstration targeted the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner. Having spent Friday night at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib after travelling through alternate routes and sleeper buses, the students began their march on Saturday morning.

Punjab Students Union state president Ranbir Singh Randhawa stated that police lathi-charged the group before detaining hundreds of participants. Detainees were held at makeshift open prisons established at Keshavpuram police station, Suraj Mal Stadium and Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, while others were bused to Sonipat road. Approximately 20 women students were among those detained, alongside student leaders including Karamjit Maanuke, Dheeraj Fazilka and Harveer Kaur. Randhawa added that efforts were underway to secure their release after registering a symbolic protest.

Concurrently, security crackdowns extended across neighbouring Haryana. The CJP claimed on social media that YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was taken into custody from his Gurugram residence by nearly 50 plainclothes policemen. Delhi Police has not officially confirmed the detention. Rathee, who recently returned from Germany, had been announced as associated with the party in a CJP social media video.

Haryana Police also detained or placed under house arrest several Opposition politicians and farmer leaders. Congress MLA Shishpal Kehrwala was placed under house arrest in Sirsa, while Congress workers were intercepted and held at a police station in Sonipat. Bharatiya Kisan Union state general secretary Ramkishan Mahlawat was placed under house arrest in Rewari, and Kisan Pratishtha Manch women’s wing president Monika Nain was restricted from leaving her home. Security was similarly tightened around a woman farmer leader in Rohtak.

In addition, Railways authorities cancelled several train services on the Hisar-Delhi route, including trains 54316, 54325 and 54310, for October 10 and 11 without providing specific reasons.