Jantar Mantar as a designated protest venue has been de-notified, stated a Delhi Police circular on Monday, while also listing three new sites for holding demonstrations.
Based on the committee’s recommendations, Jantar Mantar as a protest venue has been de-notified, it stated, listing the three new venues. -CBD Ground, in Shahdara, have been designated as new venues for organising protest and demonstrations. Detailed and revised SOP for organising protest/demonstrations at these three venues will be issued separately, the circular mentioned. Which has sparked the current calls for protest against the CEC, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on the SIR that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation, according to the investigative report.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had constituted a committee to examine alternative proper venues for citizen’s right for organizing protest/demonstrations in place of the existing “designated site”, according to the circular. The Jantar Mantar denotification follows a weekend of mass detentions, including that of several former chief ministers, which the Delhi Police said were preventive to maintain law and order situation in view of the protest calls by several outfits, primarily the Cockroach Janta Party, against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
The site came in focus again from last month after an explosive news investigation raised questions against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged election irregularities and gave fresh momentum to Opposition’s allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft) under the garb of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
