Neha being taken away in a police vehicle on October 4, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Lavpreet Kaur
Hundreds of civil society activists, students and youth organisation members joined an All India Students’ Association (AISA)-backed citizen march in central Delhi on Sunday (October 4, 2026) demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the scrapping of SIR. The protest, which entered its third consecutive day, ended with at least 500 people being detained as police blocked the marchers from proceeding towards Jantar Mantar.
Follow the LIVE updates of the protests demanding the removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar
The protesters began their march from Andhra Bhavan on Ashoka Road at around 4 p.m. and were stopped by heavy police deployment and barricades at the Shangri-La intersection, around 1.5 kilometres from their starting point. As protesters attempted to move forward, police began detaining them, leading to clashes on a roughly 500-metre stretch of Ashoka Road.
Men and women were taken into large private buses marked “on police duty”. Protesters were being dragged, picked up, and manhandled during the detentions. At one point, women police personnel were seen pulling women protesters by their legs as they were being taken into detention vehicles. Elsewhere, police personnel were seen pushing a male protester into a bus with his head pressed down.
The woman journalist who had alleged sexual harassment and manhandling by a police officer while covering Saturday’s protest was also among those detained on Sunday. She returned to the protest a day after filing her complaint against the officer.
Slogans of “Delhi Police murdabad” and “Gyanesh Kumar chor hai” rang out as protesters carrying banners and placards continued to confront the police. Traffic movement in the area was temporarily restricted as hundreds of Delhi Police personnel, Central Armed Police Forces and the Rapid Action Force were deployed along with buses and PCR vans.
The protest continued into the evening, with groups of students gathering at different points around the Shangri-La intersection. During one confrontation, protesters broke the rear window and pane of a detention bus and several jumped out. At least 10–15 buses and vans were used to take detained protesters away from the area.
Among those who joined the protest was 83-year-old screenwriter and director Saeed Akhtar Mirza, who participated from a wheelchair. “These children have faced so much. History is being created and I want to be a part of it,” he said. “This regime is corrupt, communal and criminal. It should go.”
Aditi, a student who had complained to the police a day earlier alleging sexual harassment and manhandling during Saturday’s protest, returned to the demonstration on Sunday.
“I am back at the protest today. I do not care if I am detained or if they try to do anything. I feel whatever is happening is not right, and we have to fight. If we will not, then who will?” she said.
AISA president detained
AISA president Neha was also detained for the third consecutive time. She was taken away around 5 p.m. from Ashoka Road, near the Shangri-La hotel and Jantar Mantar, in a private SUV by male police personnel who, according to AISA, were not wearing name badges.
AISA subsequently demanded her immediate release, saying her whereabouts had not initially been disclosed to her associates. She was later released from the Narela Industrial Area police station.
After her release around 8 p.m., Ms. Neha criticised the repeated detention of protesters and said the demonstrations were an assertion of their right to question those in power
“They think we are dogs, cockroaches or insects — that they can pick us up, throw us into vehicles, take us 50 kilometres away, beat us and push us around. But today we showed that we are citizens of this country. We have the right to question those in power and ask how the Election Commission and the ruling party are dealing with our votes. If we are repeatedly detained for protesting at a designated protest site, then returning to that place and reclaiming our right to protest is also our right,” she said.
Published – October 04, 2026 06:27 pm IST
