Delhi police files FIR against 22 people from INDIA bloc rally who went near Jantar Mantar

The Delhi police registered an FIR against the 22 protesters detained at Minto Road during the INDIA bloc rally from Ramlila Maidan towards Jantar Mantar on Sunday, police said on Tuesday.

Leaders from the INDIA bloc held a massive rally at Ramlila Maidan against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday over alleged irregularities in the functioning of the Election Commission of India and the special intensive revision.

Police did not share the exact number of people who attended the rally, but estimates suggest around 50,000 supporters turned up. Officials said while the Ramlila Maidan event had permission, students started going towards Jantar Mantar, which is no longer a protest area

Police said the rally was taken out by members of the Disha Students' Organisation and the Revolutionary Workers' Party of India (RWPI) on Sunday around 5 pm. According to the cops, local staff, along with paramilitary forces, stopped the protesters at Minto Road and took them in two buses to Dwarka Sector 23 and Jafarpur Kalan police stations.

Those taken to the two stations were released by 2 am on Monday.

The FIR was registered under Sections 223(a), 132, 221, 121(1), 3(5) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to offences including disobedience of orders, assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging their duty, obstruction of a public servant, voluntarily causing hurt, common intention and criminal conspiracy.

One of the protesters, Vishal, was taken separately to the Connaught Place police station and placed under preventive detention under Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS

He was produced before the Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) at Mandir Marg on Monday and asked to execute a peace bond. He refused and was subsequently released after furnishing sureties and signing a personal bond.

Members of the organisations alleged that the police dragged protesters, including women, into the buses and that one woman fainted during detention.

"Vishal, an artist and activist affiliated with the Revolutionary Workers' Party of India (RWPI), was taken in for 23 hours of detention, where he was even denied basic medication. Vishal was part of a peaceful march from Ramleela Maidan to Jantar Mantar, led by RWPI and Disha Students' Organisation, with slogans demanding the reclamation of Jantar Mantar as a protest site and the scrapping of SIR," Suraj Rait, a member of RWPI, said.

"As part of the new norm that the police is setting, Vishal was also being coerced into signing a peace bond, but he refused to sign any peace bond or interim peace bond, arguing that he had made no such breach of peace," Rait added