The second day of the Cockroach Janta Party's protest witnessed detentions of more than 700 persons, some of whom were detained for almost seven hours, with their phones snatched and taken to detention centres, which are 30-40 km away.
On Sunday evening, many lawyers and activists posted SOS messages on X and other social media platforms to seek help for the detainees.
HT spoke to two of the detainees who shared how they were detained, targeted, assaulted and whisked off in prison vans to Pandwalan Khurd.
One of the detainees, Arjun Unnikrishnan (30), is a researcher and a lawyer who was at Connaught Place around 3-3.30 pm on Sunday to protest against the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, when he was detained. He said he spent almost seven hours in detention in different parts, which was a complete nightmare for him.
“I had just reached Connaught Place when my friends and I saw a group of police personnel detaining a couple. The police personnel then approached us and started pushing us. They shoved us inside a DTC bus along with locals who were not even part of the protest. We were taken close to Palika Bazaar side. Soon, the police started acting like mad people. They first made us sit on the road in rows. They snatched our phones...many of us had tried to record them. People who refused to share their phone passwords were humiliated and abused. Nobody had a choice,” Arjun told HT.
“In front of me, a young boy was mentally tortured as they slapped him four times and then took his phone to open his phone's gallery. Almost 10 cops were looking at a young boy's phone and laughing. We were all very scared. Then, a senior officer came who pretended to be a good police officer as he scolded other officials and assured us we would be safe and released if we cooperated. By then, we had been slapped and abused and were scared, so we agreed to cooperate,” he added.
"But then, they brought in a jail van. We entered the jail van in a line. The moment we entered, we saw 3-4 police personnel. One by one, they slapped us, hit our private parts, and kicked us on the chest and back. Nobody could even run because it's a small, cage-like van. This was all in the middle of CP. There were four minors. I know this because when the police were taking our details, they revealed their names and ages. We raised our voice, but the police were not ready to listen," Arjun further said .
He alleged that the detention bus took them from CP to Chhawla, where it halted for 10-20 minutes before leaving. By then, one of the protesters, who had managed to hide his phone, had contacted a lawyer and sent his live location.
Many lawyers also posted on X about following a detention van to Chhawla, but the police left from there.
"Around 7.30, we reached a community centre in Pandwalan Khurd. There was a senior journalist with us who was recording everything. We saw how they attacked only a select few people. There were over 50 men. They were not giving us water. Two men were severely injured and had fractures, but the police were not even helping. For the next two hours, we kept shouting for water, food and medical aid. It was only after people started screaming and shouting that a senior officer came and intervened. They released us around 10 pm, but didn't give phones to a few people. When those men asked about their phones, police men said it was a different department that took them. We were shocked. I went straight to the hospital. I had injuries on my face, chest and back"
HT accessed his MLC showing a history of assault by police at 4.15 pm.
Another detainee, 23, said he works at an e-commerce automation startup. He sent photos of injuries on his hand and chest.
"I was detained at 4:18 from CP. We were near Pind Balluchi and were made to sit outside the DTC bus. That is when they were randomly asking for phones. They said they would return them, but they did not always do so. And then they took our phones when we entered the police van one by one, and then they beat us. Three policemen inside the jail van beat all of us. There were three to four minors for sure. We were taken to Pandwalan Khurd, and the help came late. At 9:30 pm, the police told us we could leave if we wanted to, but we were not sure how because we did not have our phones with us. We left almost at 10. I got injured while they were dragging me on the street during detention. Other injuries are not visible," he said.
DCP (Dwarka) Kushal Pal Singh told HT that no minors were detained and that all detainees were released before 10 pm. He didn't comment on the allegations about assault and phones being snatched.