Naureen was among hundreds of protesters detained in central Delhi on Sunday afternoon while peacefully protesting against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
But what happened after she was taken away from public view, inside a police prison van, left her shocked.
Naureen, a member of the Revolutionary Workers Party of India, was among 17 protesters packed into the van on the second day of protests over allegations of systemic vote rigging. Fifteen of those detained were women.
“They took us in and started hitting us individually,” Naureen told Scroll.
She said she watched female Delhi Police personnel brutally assault Aranya, a member of the Disha Students’ Organisation. “They laid Aranya down at the entry of the van, and one female constable started choking her,” Naureen said. “Another was hitting her with her elbows.” A police official later took Aranya away, saying she needed medical attention.
The constables then assaulted other women in the van, Naureen alleged, hitting them “on their breasts, and targeting their private parts”.
Scroll spoke to protesters detained in two prison vans who described being driven around Delhi for hours before being taken to a detention centre in Pandwalan Khurd, in Najafgarh, south-west Delhi, about 40km from the protest site. Several detainees have also shared accounts of their experiences on social media.
Hours before the detentions, the Supreme Court had directed the Delhi Police not to carry out “illegal detentions” of peaceful protesters while hearing a petition challenging the excessive use of force.
Lawyers criticised the police for arbitrarily detaining protesters and taking them to locations outside the city. Soutik Banerjee, an advocate-on-record at the Supreme Court, said such actions bypassed legal safeguards.
“This ad hoc arbitrary police action is an easy substitute for legal procedures which would require the police to meet the high threshold stipulated by law for preventive detention or arrest,” he said. “It is a way to avoid accountability while acting as a political force and not a neutral one.”
Scroll contacted the Delhi Police for a response to the allegations. The report said it would be updated if the police responded.
Several protesters said police took their phones as soon as they were forced into the prison vans.
Saranya, a member of the Disha Students’ Organisation who was detained in Connaught Place, told Scroll that a female police officer took her phone from her pocket when her kurta had ridden up.
Another protester, Bakita, said a male police officer pushed her during the detention before police began forcing protesters into the van.
“Then they began stuffing us into the prison van and stole our phones,” she said. “They were quietly opening our bags and taking the phones away.”
Arjun Unnikrishnan, an activist and lawyer detained in a second van, described the incident in a detailed post on X. He said police pressured one detainee to disclose his phone password. When the man refused, officers slapped him repeatedly and snatched the phone, Unnikrishnan alleged.
“They also scrolled through their gallery on the pretext that they wanted to delete the photos and videos from the day. They clearly breached his privacy,” he said.
Navikiran Natt, who was detained in the same van as Naureen, said in a video posted on X that police had changed their tactics after footage of police brutality circulated the previous day.
Natt alleged that police had cordoned off parts of Connaught Place on Sunday, preventing civilians and journalists from entering. She said she saw officers assaulting several detainees inside the vans, particularly men, while preventing people from recording the incidents.
“In front of me, they hit several people in these buses, especially men,” she said. “They made sure that no cameras were on. If there was someone taking videos, they did not allow it, and made sure that the video was deleted.”
Unnikrishnan described a frightening moment when detainees were made to sit in rows, leaving them unsure what would happen next.
“In the prison van, we were slapped, our private parts were kicked, we were thrashed,” he said. “We were brutally, brutally assaulted in the bus where there was no place to run.”
The protesters said police did not tell them where they were being taken. At around 7pm, Unnikrishnan recalled, they looked outside and saw fields in the darkness, leaving them uncertain of their location. Four minors were also in the van with him, he said.
The vehicle eventually entered a community centre in Pandwalan Khurd.
After getting down, Unnikrishnan said, the detainees sought medical assistance for an injured protester whose hand appeared to be fractured. “One person’s hand was fractured and we kept asking the police for first aid,” he said. No help arrived, he alleged.
As news of the detentions spread on social media, several lawyers reached the centre but police refused to let them enter.
A video posted on X showed a lawyer at the gates demanding access from the station house officer. He said he was obliged to provide the principal magistrate with the names of juveniles allegedly detained unlawfully and warned that obstructing judicial proceedings could lead to punishment.
“Being a public officer you should know that obstructing a judicial procedure will attract punishment. You can also be punished, your uniform will not save you. Let us come in, we are advocates,” he said.
The protesters were released at around 11.30pm, but their phones were not returned, they said.
“They asked us to go home without money or phone,” Bakita said.
Banerjee said the police action lacked legal authority. While police could disperse a crowd, he said, they could not simply detain people and transport them to distant locations without following the required procedures for preventive detention or arrest.
He added that preventive detention required specific documentation setting out why it was necessary and how each individual posed a threat to law and order.
After their release, Naureen and other protesters returned to Connaught Place police station in central Delhi to find Aranya, the woman Naureen said she had seen being assaulted inside the van.
“We finally got to know that the police have slapped an FIR on her,” Naureen said.
Aranya said police informed her that a first information report had been filed against her but did not provide her with a copy. She alleged that officers repeatedly stomped on her during the detention, describing the incident as “custodial torture”.
She told Scroll that she planned to challenge the police action in court.