They hid in public washrooms, took shelter overnight in a gurdwara and slipped in and out of its gates as police closed in, turning the crackdown during the CJP protest in Delhi into a elaborate game of hide-and-seek.
During an inspection, police found the protesters inside the washroom. Some had allegedly forced open the door to get in. The protesters were rounded up and bundled into detention vehicles. Most had their faces covered. Even after being detained, they continued raising slogans and banging against interiors of the police vehicles, their voices carrying through the netted windows that shielded those inside from public view. The episode at Connaught Place was one of several scenes across central Delhi in which protesters tried to stay out of police custody, only to return to the streets as soon as they saw an opportunity. Yet, despite the barricades, checks and heavy deployment, protesters continued to find ways to assemble, disappear into places of refuge and emerge again to join the demonstrations — turning a day of tight security into a running contest between those trying to exercise their right to protest and the police attempting to detain them.
As thousands of police and paramilitary personnel fanned out across the capital on Saturday (October 10, 2026), protesters demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the rollback of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) scrambled to evade detention, using public spaces and places of worship to lie low. Keep track | Anti-CEC protest LIVE updates: CJP to address press meet as protesters detained across Delhi, Mumbai The group had gradually gathered through the night after restrictions were announced across the city on Friday (October 9). The washrooms, which are locked at 10 p.m. and reopened at 6 a.m., offered a temporary hiding place until the morning police checks thwarted their plan.
