Beaten, Private Parts Hit, Phones Snatched, Minors Not Spared: Pandwalan Khurd Detainees Recount Evening of Horror

New Delhi: As the Delhi Police cracked down for the second consecutive day with widespread detentions of protesters demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation on Sunday (October 11), at least 50 people who were picked up from Connaught Place and Jantar Mantar, including minors, were taken to a community centre in Pandwalan Khurd about 40 kms away from central Delhi. Detainees whom The Wire spoke to narrated the use of extraordinary force on the Delhi Police's part.

Detained persons said that police personnel beat them, hit their private parts, snatched away many of their phones, and deleted photos and videos of the protests from their phone galleries. The protesters were taken first to the Chhawla police station, and then to a community centre in Pandwalan Khurd where they were cut off from access to lawyers or medical aid. Lawyers who later arrived at the Pandwalan Khurd community centre said that the security personnel were not allowing them access to the detainees despite the Supreme Court’s order earlier on Sunday that said that lawyers and journalists cannot be stopped from discharging their duties.

Arjun Unnikrishnan, a 30-year-old lawyer, who was one of the detainees, said that he was with his friends at Connaught Place when at around 4 pm, he saw a couple being dragged away by male police officers with no female personnel present. When Unnikrishnan and his friends objected, they too were put into detention buses.

"They took us to an isolated road between the LIC building near the Pind Baluchi restaurant in Connaught Place. It was fully barricaded. They did not allow us to take out our phones and request for help. They made us sit on the road, in five rows of 10 people each. It was like a firing row, it seemed that they would shoot us. This group included minors who were perhaps 16-17 years old. Then they started identifying people whom they had seen recording videos or taking photos earlier and snatched their phones. They asked us for phone passwords and when people refused, they beat them up," said Unnikrishnan.

Unnikrishnan added that several police personnel "laughed as they scrolled through the gallery" of a particular person whose phone they had seized, invading their privacy despite repeated pleadings from those detained to act otherwise.

This was just the beginning of the harassment that the detainees were subjected to.

A blue Delhi Police van then came with in-built railings and compartments into which the detainees were pushed into rows, Unnikrishnan said.

"The police stood in a line and passed us from one personnel to the other slapping us, hitting our private parts and just thrashing us left, right and centre. This included the minors who were with us. We couldn't even run or escape because of the jail-like railing compartments. There was nowhere to go. It was horrific," he said.

A 20-year-old student who did not want to be named, said he was similarly picked up from near Jantar Mantar and put in the detention bus which already had several dozens inside.

"They beat up people and took their phones. They said they would return phones at the detention centre. I did not give them my phone, I kept it in my bag," he said.

The student described the buses as prisons. He said that each person was beaten up by five officials who took turns hitting them. "I was slapped on my face, they tried to hit my head but I moved away. But I was hit all over my body," he said.

"When the bus moved after that we could not even understand where we were before we were finally taken to what we realised was the Pandwalan Khurd community centre. There was no food or water there. We demanded our phones because if our phones are with them, they can use our information in any way. But they did not give us," he added.

Journalist M. Rajshekhar, a regular writer for The Wire among other independent outlets, was also reportedly one of the detainees.

Unnikrishnan said that they were then taken to Chhawla police station in Dwarka where the bus stopped for sometime. Throughout the evening, the detainees had no information on where the vehicles carrying them were going.

"They didn't provide any information of where they were taking us or why they were even detaining us," Unnikrishnan said.

While some detainees who were able to retain their phones managed to inform friends and lawyers, the minors, Unnikrishnan said, were particularly confused and scared.

"'Where are they taking us, what will happen,' they kept asking us," Unnikrishnan said.

Unnikrishnan stressed that police took down the details of all detained persons, including minors – even checking twice to ensure they were indeed minors, indicating that they were in the know that they were detaining minors.

After the Chhawla police station, the bus was then taken to Pandwalan Khurd community centre, where they saw the other detainees who had suffered several injuries, one whose arm had been fractured. While the bus Unnikrishnan was on arrived at Pandwalan Khurd at around 7 pm, the gates to the community centre were locked after it. Thus, lawyers and medical teams who were alerted by the detainees could only reach them well after 8 pm and were allowed access to the detainees despite repeated pleas.

Fahad M. Khan and his colleague Gaurav Cyclewalla arrived at the community centre after 8pm after seeing messages on a lawyers' group that the detainees had been taken there. However, despite the Supreme Court's orders that morning that lawyers be allowed to discharge their duties, they were not allowed in. Videos shared by Khan with The Wire show both calling out to the police from the iron gates of the community centre, asking him to provide access and even citing the Supreme Court’s order.

"We then called a Police Control Room van, which arrived. We went inside with that van," said Khan to The Wire.

Khan said that it was only after their arrival that those who were injured were subsequently taken for medical examinations. Several of those whose phones have been taken are also moving to file complaints with the police. Separately, Khan said that a complaint is being sent to the Chhawla police station station house officer as well as the Dwarka DCP.

However, the detention remains illegal on several grounds not just in light of the Supreme Court’s order but also because of how the detainees were treated.

"This detention was illegal because no grounds of detention were served, women were detained and kept after sunset, juveniles were held in detention centres, phones were taken and they were beaten up. These are all illegalities," said Khan.

"More than that, where is the justification that you pick people up from Central Delhi and drop them 40 kms away where they cannot make their way back? The Supreme Court order also mentions that lawyers and journalists cannot be impeded in the discharge of their duties. But we kept on pleading with the police officials there for over 30 minutes that we are lawyers and we have the right to go and meet the detainees. But we were not given access. This is illegal. The police kept saying, 'We don't know'. We said you should have this much knowledge of the law that if you have detained them, you have to give a lawyer access."

Khan said that another bus with at least five women inside arrived at about 9 pm at the community centre but turned away to another destination as the lawyers sought to ask how many people were inside.

The complaint copy written by Khan and signed by the detainees seen by The Wire has cited illegal detention, beating, phone snatching, refusal to return phones and MLC despite injuries including a case of fracture. The complaint also lists two minors whose phones were taken.

The Wire has sent an email to the Delhi Police on the allegations made by the detainees. This report will be updated when a response is received.

Follow live updates of the crackdown against the protests here.