New Delhi, Sep 25 The Delhi Police detained several protesters at Jantar Mantar on Friday who were demanding the arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the electoral process and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, organisers said.
A senior police officer said the protesters had not sought permission for the demonstration.
“No application was submitted, and no permission was obtained. They are being removed,” the officer said.
The All India Students’ Association (AISA) Delhi unit, along with civil society members, organised the protest, with demonstrators raising slogans against the Election Commission and demanding Kumar’s arrest.
CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav and AISA president Neha were among those detained, organisers said. AISA said police later took Neha to Kanjhawala police station.
In a video message from the police station, Neha alleged that police detained students for demanding accountability from the Election Commission and said the protests would continue.
“The Constitution gives us the right to democratic dissent, and we had gone to protest at Jantar Mantar. Even though we were detained today, we will come again tomorrow; we will come the day after. The streets of this country will remain active until Kumar is jailed, the SIR is halted, and all those voters whose votes have been illegally and unconstitutionally deleted have their right to vote restored through the SIR,” Neha said.
Bhattacharya, in a separate statement, alleged that police manhandled protesters during the detention and questioned why some police personnel deployed at the demonstration site were not wearing name tags.
“Gyanesh was caught red-handed indulging in vote theft. Now that there is a demand for his resignation, Modi and Shah, who appointed him as the CEC, deployed the Delhi Police to crush the protest. The government is protecting him,” he said.
The demonstration followed a recent report by The Indian Express on objections reportedly raised by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi regarding aspects of the poll panel’s functioning and electoral-roll revision.
The organisers demanded the detainees’ release and said they would continue to raise concerns about electoral accountability.
(PTI News)
