Delhi police accused of beating, assaulting detainees, denying them basic rights

Detainees’ accounts of beatings, assaults, and excessive force used by the Delhi police over the last few days have raised concerns about post-detention practices of law enforcement personnel.

Thousands of protesters have been detained by the police in the national capital on October 10, 11, and 12, including journalists, members of youth organisations, and minors.

There was a fresh slew of detentions on Monday (October 12, 2026) as youth organisations, including the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI), and Disha Students’ Organisation, carried out a flash mob rally at Barakhamba Road, protesting the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site. They were stopped by the police at Sansad Marg and detained.

Physical, verbal abuse

“We were put inside a prison-looking van, beaten up, and taken to a detention centre. Women protesters were abused verbally and held by the neck by the police,” said RWPI member Vishal.

Another RWPI member, Nishu, said that the police denied requests for water, even after detainees fainted inside the police van. “One of our members fainted and another was feeling dizzy after police detained us brutally from near Jantar Mantar. We shouted and screamed for water but despite having several water bottles with them, they did not give us water,” she said, also displaying the multiple bruises and marks on her hands, face, and legs.

Pattern of violence

This pattern of police violence against detainees caught the spotlight on October 10, when Disha member Aranya was held by the throat by two policewomen inside one of the buses used for detainees, swept off the streets after a rally at Raj Ghat.

The next day, on October 11, she was again detained along with other Disha members from Connaught Place. This time, however, the police isolated her and allegedly beat her up. Her fellow activists could hear her screaming from inside a moving prison-van, they said.

“They were beating us up and stealing away our phones from our pockets. Then they isolated Aranya and she was made to lie down on the ground. A police woman was sitting on her and choking her. Another police woman was hitting her with her elbow. We told her she was facing difficulty breathing but instead of listening to us, she threatened us for making videos and recording the police action on our phones,” said Naureen, a Disha member.

Aggression in an isolated police camp

Another group of detainees taken to Pandwalan Khurd alleged that they were made to sit down in rows inside the van and hand over their phones before they were thrashed by the police.

Arjun Unnikrishan said he, along with fellow protesters, had been transported by bus to an “isolated, enclosed police camp near the LIC building to cut off contact with the public and media.”

“At the camp, we were forced to sit in execution-style rows while police officers aggressively confiscated mobile phones and deleted video footage without regard for privacy. Despite an officer claiming to be an ASI or DCP, offering deceptive reassurances to secure cooperation, officers, including one identified as Mr. Arvind Kumar, severely assaulted us,” he said.

The prison-van was described by detainees as a vehicle with seven to eight compartments each holding about ten people. The detainees also included four minors. “The police mercilessly slapped, punched, and struck the first few batches of people on their faces and private parts in the cramped space,” Mr. Unnikrishnan said.

Systematic beatings

One of the detainees was environment journalist and author M. Rajshekhar, who witnessed the assaults on other detainees though he himself was not beaten. He said the group was taken to a community centre at Pandwalan Khurd, adding that while detainees were released late on Sunday (October 11) night, many did not get their phones back.

“The manner in which these beatings took place inside the ‘convict-van’ was pretty systematic,” he explained. “Each person who went inside was beaten up by three cops, each cop taking his turn for about 30 seconds and beating up each detainee ruthlessly. The leaders were cherry-picked from the group. Their phones were snatched away, which created problems for many later as they were dependant on their phones to go back home after their release,” Mr. Rajshekhar said. 

“I was saved because I told them I was not a protester, only a photographer merely covering the protest,” he added.