In the days before Saturday’s protest, Delhi Police collected the home addresses, mobile numbers and social media accounts of the people organising it, tracked their movements and checked hotel registers across the city, according to officers who asked not to be named.
“The overall supervision was being done by top officials in the Union home ministry. They kept me detained inside their vehicle till 5pm. I even made a call to the police control room and filed a plea in the court, seeking an FIR against my illegal detention.
The instructions were to ensure there is no repeat of the Jantar Mantar 1.0 protest and detain protesters wherever they are seen,” one of the officers said, referring to the CJP’s month-long protest at the site in July.
The entire strategy, from the deployment of security personnel to the surveillance of organisers and the creation of temporary detention centres in stadiums, community centres and police stations across the city, was drawn up by the top brass of the police force, the officers said. Multiple police teams monitored social media and tracked the movements of CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, activists Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, and student leaders including Neha Bora, a second officer said. “The police personnel blocked our car with their vehicles and told me that I was not allowed to move towards Jantar Mantar. Thereafter, they told me to stay inside my house. The policemen had been tailing since Friday,” Singh said. The plea was filed at the Saket Courts but dismissed by the court as “defective” in form.
On Saturday, police detained political leaders, key organisers of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) , members of organisations backing the protest and even journalists at Delhi airport, at hotels and guest houses, and at their homes.
