New Delhi: From pellet guns and nail-embedded lathis, Delhi Police have allegedly turned to brute force away from the public eye as the youth have once again taken to the streets of the national capital calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
In a Newslaundry report, independent journalist M Rajshekar, who was detained himself, detailed how Delhi Police are treating protesters following their detention.
Rajshekar was detained on Sunday, October 11, and claimed to have at least three officers physically beat “almost everyone who boarded after me” in the detention buses. Immediately after being forced inside the bus, the protesters were allegedly pushed to the floor, beaten, stamped, hit in the abdomen, “elbowed hard, kicked and worse,” the journalist said.
According to him, these assaults were systematic and acted as the “prologue to the shove into the cages.”
People picked at random, told to get inside van
First, the detention bus went to Regal Cinema, which was heavily barricaded and enclosed, with officers stationed around the entire length of the building. There was no chance of escaping once inside, he said. After being instructed to get off the bus, men and women were separated and nearly an hour later, a senior police officer arrived to declare the detained individuals had nothing to be concerned about. The officer reportedly assured them that they would be let off and “the work” would proceed without hitches if everyone cooperated.
“Get into that van as we call you and we will get on our way as quickly as we can,” the cop allegedly said, without explaining exactly what the work was.
People were picked at random and taken inside the van, and among the first to be selected were those who confronted the police or those who led the march. “Some of them are trying to become netas. We will teach them a lesson,” an officer reportedly said.
‘Like Nazi detention camps’
Inside the van, a locked metal door led to a corridor which further opened into four “thickly meshed enclosures,” Rajshekhar said. These extremely cramped spaces were no more than shoulder-wide, while the longer ones appeared only a little wider.
From where he was standing, the journalist said he saw police holding men by their necks and pushing them inside.
An injured protester speaking at Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on Wednesday, October 14, compared these spaces to detention camps like those of Nazi Germany.
Another testimony from activist Arjun Unnikrishnan, who was also detained, said, “In the prison van, we were slapped, our private parts were kicked, we were thrashed.” He told Scroll.in, “We were brutally, brutally assaulted in the bus where there was no place to run.” When protesters refused to share their phone passwords, they (police) slapped him multiple times and then snatched his phones.
The Newslaundry journalist said Delhi Police were taking protesters’ phones, likely to ensure the police brutality was not being recorded, and second, to create additional harassment.
Taken 40 km away from Connaught Place
Unlike the July protests, where Delhi Police were blasted for using excessive force on protesters, the authorities seem to have changed their tactics this time around. Hidden from sight, officers allegedly continued assaulting protesters inside detention buses even as the vehicle moved further away from protest sites.
Rajshekhar said eventually their bus stopped at a community centre turned into a holding cell 40 kilometres from Connaught Place. The detainees got off the buses in queues and gave their names, addresses and phone numbers to officers who were noting them down.
While they were made to wait, some protesters began losing patience. Many were injured – one had a broken arm, another had blood on his nose and a third complained of chest pain, fearing his ribs were fractured. Others expressed concern about their confiscated phones, explaining that they could not get home without them, with no local transport available after 10 pm.
The police, however, reiterated they would receive their devices after going back to the police station that had detained them. Calling it blatant harassment, Rajshekhar said this was an impossible task as multiple stations existed in Connaught Place and it was not clear where anyone’s phones would be.
Delay in medical help
Officers were informed about the injured detainees, yet no medical help had arrived. All the while, the minors in the group were frightened. Rajshekhar questioned why Delhi Police sent the detained protesters to a place where medical aid was not easily accessible despite knowing they were being assaulted.
Later at 9 pm, lawyers within the group contacted the local Bar and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, following which negotiations began between the police and the lawyers. The journalist said the police then started behaving in an appeasing manner. Similar to what activist Arjun said, Rajshekhar said the police informed the detainees that minors could leave, that phones would be returned soon and that food was being arranged.
While Rajshekhar, along with a few people, left by 10 pm, some stayed back demanding their phones and insisting Delhi Police drop them back to Connaught Place.
“Few of us see State violence – it is too structural and too hidden. Even those of us who get to see overt State violence usually catch only its aftermath. That evening, though, the group saw it unfold and heard the justifications in sync,” the journalist said. He explained the officers were reportedly saying. “Police ki maar ka bura nahin maante (you shouldn’t get upset over this beating).”
Arbitrariness in police action
Rajshekhar said that alongside protesters, bystanders were also detained, pointing to a pattern of arbitrariness. A legal scholar described it as “an angry State lashing out.”
The crackdown was visible in other areas as well, he said. Buses remained largely absent from the roads of Delhi. A cab driver told Newslaundry that police were stopping buses 50 to 70 km outside Delhi and checking vehicles at barricades.
Employees of a Haryana-based transport company received a message asking them not to sell tickets to Delhi. Rajshekhar said anger over the long detentions and extreme measures are trumping fear. “What developed there, over the three hours we spent there, was not intimidation but solidarity. There was a collective loss of fear about the police,” he said.
Police officers themselves said they have witnessed a change. “It was never like this. Things have gotten worse under the BJP,” an officer said.
As the government tries to keep a hold on the protests, the police crackdowns are only adding to the already growing resentment, the journalist said.
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