Delhi on Lockdown as Banned Election-Chief Protest Sparks Hundreds of Detentions
Police sealed off central Delhi, shut metro stations and suspended internet service ahead of a banned protest by the Cockroach Janta Party demanding the election chief's resignation.
New Delhi woke up Saturday behind a wall of barricades. Steel barriers lined the boulevards, metro gates were locked shut, and mobile internet went dark across the capital's center.
The lockdown came ahead of a protest by the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, planned for Jantar Mantar. The party wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign over what it calls irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls, including mass voter deletions and problems with Form 6 registration.
Police denied the group permission to hold the demonstration. Officials said the application was filed late and cited law-and-order concerns and past violations of protest conditions.
The scale of the security response was enormous. More than 40,000 Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city. Authorities cancelled 254 trains, including 75 mail and express trains and 179 local services, arriving at New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations between 4 a.m. and 2 p.m. Entry and exit gates at 45 metro stations were shut from 9 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Saturday. Internet service was suspended within a roughly four-kilometer radius of the Janpath-Kartavya Path crossing. Police invoked prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and split the capital into 20 security zones.
Detentions began before dawn. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained after arriving at Delhi airport from Mumbai, along with party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was taken from his home in Gurugram. CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh was detained by police surrounding her home. At least 600 people were held under preventive-detention provisions across Delhi's districts.
More than 400 members of the Students' Federation of India were detained while marching toward Jantar Mantar, along with around 100 lawyers walking from the Supreme Court. Former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was detained, and student leader Neha Bora was picked up during a march from Dilli Haat. The CJP said Dipke recorded a video before his detention naming Ajinkya Shinde to lead the protest.
The Supreme Court pushed back on the scope of the crackdown. It questioned whether cancelling trains and shutting metro stations was proportionate and pressed authorities to narrow the measures, after which the metro operator reduced the closures from 57 stations to 45. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant intervened over the lawyers' detentions, and they were released hours later.
Reaction split along political lines. The Aam Aadmi Party called the security blanket a "black emergency." The BJP said opposition-linked groups were trying to destabilize the country.
The CJP says its supporters were instructed to stay non-violent, not block emergency services, and follow lawful directions. Police said unauthorized gatherings would not be permitted and set up detention facilities at stadiums and sports complexes across the capital.
