Abhishek, 40, was at his home in Burari, a neighbourhood on the northern fringes of Delhi, when Delhi Police phoned him in the early hours of Saturday. “Just come down, we need to talk,” an officer reportedly told him.
The trade unionist’s home doubles up as the local office of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions, which is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. He staved off the police for the night by asking them to call the next morning. But at 7 am, five officers arrived at his doorstep to detain him.
“They did not tell me any reason nor gave me any kind of legal document,” Abhishek said. “They kept asking me how many people are coming for the protest at Jantar Mantar. They had a list of activists from other unions. They asked about their whereabouts.”
The activist was detained for 12 hours. He was not the only one to go through this ordeal. According to The Hindu, around 1,000 people were picked up in “preventive operations” ahead of the protest on Saturday called by the Cockroach Janta Party and Left student groups to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
This was in addition to the thousands who were...