The second day of the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest witnessed detentions of more than 700 persons, some of whom were detained for almost seven hours, with their phones snatched and taken to detention centres, which are 30-40 km away.
Then, a senior officer came who pretended to be a good police officer as he scolded other officials and assured us we would be safe and released if we cooperated. “I had just reached Connaught Place when my friends and I saw a group of police personnel detaining a couple. The police personnel then approached us and started pushing us. They shoved us inside a DTC bus along with locals who were not even part of the protest. We were taken close to Palika Bazaar side. Soon, the police started acting like mad people. They first made us sit on the road in rows. They snatched our phones…many of us had tried to record them. People who refused to share their phone passwords were humiliated and abused. “In front of me, a young boy was mentally tortured as they slapped him four times and then took his phone to open his phone’s gallery. We were all very scared. By then, we had been slapped and abused and were scared, so we agreed to cooperate,” he added. “But then, they brought in a jail van. We entered the jail van in a line. One by one, they slapped us, hit our private parts, and kicked us on the chest and back. This was all in the middle of CP. There were four minors. Many lawyers also posted on X about following a detention van to Chhawla, but the police left from there. There was a senior journalist with us who was recording everything. We saw how they attacked only a select few people. They were not giving us water. Two men were severely injured and had fractures, but the police were not even helping. For the next two hours, we kept shouting for water, food and medical aid. It was only after people started screaming and shouting that a senior officer came and intervened. We were shocked. I went straight to the hospital.
Because it’s a small, cage-like van, nobody could even run. Because when the police were taking our details, they revealed their names and ages, i know this. One of the detainees, Arjun Unnikrishnan (30), is a researcher and a lawyer who was at Connaught Place around 3-3.30 pm on Sunday to protest against the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, when he was detained. Almost 10 cops were looking at a young boy’s phone and laughing. The moment we entered, we saw 3-4 police personnel. “Around 7.30, we reached a community centre in Pandwalan Khurd. There were over 50 men. They released us around 10 pm, but didn’t give phones to a few people. I had injuries on my face, chest and back” HT accessed his MLC showing a history of assault by police at 4.15 pm.
He said he spent almost seven hours in detention in different parts, which was a complete nightmare for him. Nobody had a choice,” Arjun told HT. We raised our voice, but the police were not ready to listen,” Arjun further said . When those men asked about their phones, police men said it was a different department that took them.
