Hundreds of protesters shut out of Jantar Mantar spent Saturday sheltering in Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, near the Election Commission of India (ECI) office, as police waited outside and detained those who left.
Gurdwara staff said police were not allowed inside, although some accounts described an initial entry by some policemen.
Some students said 30-40 of them would stay the night at the gurdwara and wait for the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP’s) instructions for a protest on Sunday. The CJP has since announced its plans to stay the course and attempt to reach Jantar Mantar. “Police are not allowed inside. Anyone who comes inside the gurdwara is a visitor to us. Police can come only when there is a serious criminal incident, but these are students who have come to protest, which is their right. The police cannot force them out; they are not criminals. They just want to avoid detention. “Any person who goes outside in a group is being detained. I have been here since last night, and there were many others with me. The process is the same for all; the video showing the same is attached. The video has been circulated deliberately with malicious intent, to outrage the feelings of a respectable religious community and is prejudicial to the religious harmony . Legal action is being initiated. Anuradha Mewara, a doctor from Rajasthan, was among those detained outside. “I came from Rajasthan to participate in the protest and demand the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar . I was detained outside the gurdwara.
They are peacefully sitting here, sleeping and eating,” a staff member of the gurdwara management said, asking not to be named. Some of them tried to go outside and were detained,” said Yash Sain, who came from Agra for the protest. In a post on X, Delhi Police said, “Regarding the video circulated on social media, alleging entry by police staff in Gurdwara Bangla Sahib… some police staff is shown walking in the common passage, used by all devotees to reach the point where shoes are taken off to enter the Gurdwara. They made us go around in a bus and dropped us near the Red Fort,” she said.
