Rajya Sabha MP A.A. Rahim. File
Rajya Sabha MP A.A. Rahim moved the Supreme Court on Monday (October 12, 2026) against the illegal detention, “secret transportation” in specialised compartmentalised vehicles, and custodial torture of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) office bearers, Central Committee members and activists by the police on October 11, 2026 at Connaught Place in the national capital.
Mr. Rahim, represented by advocate Subhash Chandran K.R., sought a declaration, binding guidelines, an independent inquiry and compensation from the Union government. The MP has arraigned the Home Ministry as a respondent.
He has sought an independent court-monitored inquiry into the illegal detention and custodial torture, with directions to register an FIR against the officers found responsible for the detention of the members, office bearers and Central Committee members.
Mr. Rahim said he and members of the DYFI had been holding a peaceful and unarmed protest demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar when uniformed personnel swooped and dragged DYFI members,including women, on the road and forced them into a bus.
“They were not taken to any police station. Instead, while still near Connaught Place, the bus was driven to a closed and heavily guarded space in front of the Daryaganj restaurant, away from public view, out of the reach of the media and without any CCTV cameras. There, the detainees were sorted according to gender and then forcibly shifted into a specialised police van divided into five separate cells,” the petition said.
The MP said the act of excess and detention was not a stray one, but planned and deliberately executed to mete out physical brutality.
“Inside the cells of the van, the detainees were beaten on the face, kicked on the backbone with boots and struck on the head. Several of the personnel wore no name badges. The detainees were then taken to Surajmal Stadium, which they reached at about 2 p.m. The vehicles functioned as unrecorded, mobile places of detention, wholly outside the safeguards of the Constitution and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS),” the petition said.
It said neither was an arrest memo prepared nor grounds of arrest communicated. No relative or friend was informed, and no place of detention was disclosed. No detainee was medically examined or produced before a Magistrate.
“The detainees were released only at about 7.30 p.m. on October 11 after more than seven hours in police custody, without any food or primary needs. When the injured went to Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for medico-legal examination, police officers in plain clothes remained present throughout, and the petitioner apprehends that the medico-legal certificates may not truly record the injuries,” the petition said.
The plea sought a declaration that the detention and the use of curtained, compartmentalised or otherwise sealed vehicles as places of detention as illegal and violative of fundamental rights.
The respondents [authorities] should forthwith cease and prevent all acts of custodial torture, physical assault, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and illegal detention of protesters and other persons, and to ensure strict compliance with the constitutional and statutory safeguards governing arrest, detention, interrogation and custodial treatment,” the petition said.
Published – October 12, 2026 02:12 pm IST
