CJP supporters flag suspicious WhatsApp ‘attendance polls’ amid allegations of police surveillance, arbitrary detentions

As protests called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) continue, participants have raised concerns over the alleged infiltration of WhatsApp groups by the police, citing suspicious “attendance polls” that they fear could be used to identify potential protesters and track their movements.

Several members of CJP-related WhatsApp groups told The Hindu that they received polls asking whether they intended to attend protests, followed by messages directing participants to specific locations where, they alleged, no protesters had assembled, but people were being detained. They feared that their identities and responses were being used to facilitate preventive detentions.

The concerns come days after The Hindu reported that Delhi Police personnel were monitoring at least 200 WhatsApp and Telegram groups ahead of the CJP’s October 10 protest call.

“We started receiving these polls. One of them asked, ‘Up for surgical strike on JM?’. I responded yes, but no protest was decided on later and nobody reached the spot,” a participant said, requesting anonymity.

Another participant, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a group administrator had posted a poll asking members whether they had attended protests. When concerns were raised about the potential security risks, the administrator dismissed them, claiming that disappearing messages would protect members and that votes in polls “don’t count as evidence”, the participant said.

The concerns centre on the visibility of responses in WhatsApp polls. By default, voters’ identities are visible to members of a group, allowing anyone in the chat to see individual responses. WhatsApp also offers a setting to hide voters’ names from participants; the votes remain tied to phone numbers on WhatsApp’s backend servers.

Participants feared that information shared in these groups could be used alongside material obtained from the phones of detained protesters. They alleged that the police had been confiscating mobile phones and examining chats and other details, increasing the risk of participants being identified for preventive action.

“People are facing preventive detentions and house arrests based on this surveillance,” another student protester, who requested not to be named, said.

Gurugram journalist alleges 48-hour house detention over CJP group membership

Ivor Soans, a technology journalist based in Gurugram, alleged that the Haryana Police placed him under house detention for 48 hours on October 10, ahead of the planned protest, solely because he was a member of a CJP WhatsApp group.

Mr. Soans told The Hindu that he had joined the CJP Gurugram group through a link sent by a friend several weeks earlier to learn about its initiatives, particularly those concerning government schools and education for underprivileged children. He said he had not actively participated in the group’s discussions and had not posted anything for more than a week before the police arrived.

Although some group members had discussed attending the October 10 protest, Mr. Soans said he had neither planned to attend nor indicated that he would do so.

At around 9.30 a.m. that day, Haryana Police personnel visited his residence while he was away. They questioned his son about his whereabouts and subsequently spoke to him over the phone, saying they were conducting a “verification”, he alleged.

After returning home, Mr. Soans said he was visited at around 12.30 p.m. by three policemen led by Assistant Sub-Inspector Trilok Chand, who questioned him about his employment, his association with the CJP and whether he intended to attend the protest in New Delhi. Mr. Soans told them he had no such plans, he said.

“The ASI informed me that I was to be placed under detention for 48 hours at home,” Mr. Soans said.

“What shocks me is that mere presence on a WhatsApp group where nothing illegal is being discussed is grounds for detention,” he said, describing the action as a violation of citizens’ rights and freedoms.