More than three dozen journalists were temporarily detained, and in some cases assaulted, while covering protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of voter-list manipulation in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune on October 10, 2026, and October 11, 2026, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The non-profit organisation said at least 39 journalists were detained in New Delhi, where the main protests broke out, over the course of two days, based on its review of news reports, direct interviews, and verified social media posts by editors, journalists and their newsrooms.
“Four more journalists were detained while covering solidarity protests in other cities, including Alt News correspondent Kinjal in Ahmedabad and Scroll’s Divya Aslesha in Pune on October 10. In Mumbai, police detained The Quint’s Swati Chopra and Mohit Manwani at Shivaji Park on October 11, while they covered a solidarity protest,” it said.
The CPJ said the police continued detaining journalists “even after Supreme Court justices won assurances from Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta on October 11 that lawyers, journalists, and other professionals would not be impeded in their professional duties.”
“Authorities also seized at least five phones, pressured at least one journalist to delete footage, and drove some to holding sites up to 65 kilometres (40 miles) away,” the report said. It said at least five journalists were struck by the police, according to their own accounts or their outlets’.
On October 10, 2026, journalist Rana Ayyub posted on X that the police threatened to detain her when she asked whether they were facilitating a man who was shouting abuse at protesters in their presence. She told CPJ that, despite knowing she was a journalist, the police “beat her with a lathi (baton), resulting in injuries that are still causing her pain.”
As per the report, the Delhi Police, on October 10, 2026, temporarily detained Scroll’s Ayush Tiwari and Shoaib Daniyal; Business Standard’s Anushka Bhardwaj; Newslaundry reporters Ashwine Kumar Singh, Astha Savyasachi and Anmol Pritam and intern Anshu; Reuters’ Saurabh Sharma; Navbharat Times’ Hritik Joshi and Rahul Charas; BOOM’s Jagriti Trisha; Shivang Shukla of Mo, India Today’s digital video platform; Molitics’ Amaan Rastogi; The Quint’s Sarthak Jaiswal; Reporter TV’s Roshni Rajan and Farza TM; independent journalists Shrishti Khanna and Prashant Pundir; No Noise Stories’ Vivek Gupta; and Alt News intern Agniva Ray. Most of them were carrying press cards, it said, adding that Bengali-language newspaper Ei Samay’s Shaptadeep Saha was also detained.
“Police surrounded Siasat Daily reporters Mohammed Aslam Hussain and Sheikh Abdul Mukarram early on October 10... snatched their phones, and broke their microphone,” the outlet reported and confirmed to CPJ. They were held in a room and then taken to Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Bawana until around 5 p.m.; when their phones were returned, all data had been erased, the report said.
That same day, the police stopped the vehicle of current-affairs YouTuber Kavya Karnatac, “pulled her and her crew out, and put them in a bus without saying why or where they were being taken,” she said in a video.
On October 11, 2026, the report said, the police detained Indian Express Hindi reporters Shashwat, Siya and Vijay; Hindustan’s Ashish Singh; Nayab World’s Nitin Katiyar; Ulta Chasma founder Pragya Mishra; and independent journalists Nidhi Suresh and M. Rajshekhar.
“Despite wearing press cards, Peek TV journalists Vedanta Agarwal and Sara Khan were filming police detaining protesters when officers dragged them away and detained them,” the report said.
Ms. Khan said a male police officer grabbed her by the neck and pushed her towards a female officer. Police detained independent journalist Shyam Meera Singh after he was heckled and abused by Hindu right-wing activists, the report said, adding that Mr. Singh’s X account was subsequently withheld in India.
The report said at least three journalists from Malayalam-language news channels were also detained on October 11, 2026, and released hours later. Asianet News reporter Sajin A. was detained and released after about half an hour, the outlet’s Delhi head, Prashanth Raghuvamsam, confirmed to CPJ.
The police “grabbed 24 News reporter Suhail Mohammed by the neck and forced him into a police vehicle while he was filming.” The outlet reported that its video journalist V.S. Rahul was also detained, his camera snatched, and microphone thrown away.
“That evening, police dragged The Caravan’s assistant multimedia producer Ryan Thomas into a detention bus on Janpath Road as he filmed a detention with his press card visible, hit him repeatedly on the head when he refused to delete his footage, slapped him, and prodded him in the stomach with a gun butt in a police car before letting him go at Connaught Place,” the CPJ said.
The CPJ said it emailed the Delhi Police for comment but did not immediately receive a response.