Delhi protests: Dipke, Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar, others detained in Mumbai; CJP condemns

Mumbai Police detained Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and president of Hum Bharat Ke Log, along with his associates, as they headed to August Kranti Maidan for the protest in support of the Cockroach Janata Party’s (CJP) demonstration at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Gandhi was picked up from Bandra and taken to the DN Nagar police station, a police official said. On X, Gandhi claimed he had been arrested and taken to an unknown location. The police denied arresting him and said he had only been detained.

Guddi S L, the organisation’s vice-president, was picked up from Andheri and taken to the MIDC police station, police confirmed.

In a long post on X, former Union minister and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that he has "rarely seen anything like what Delhi is witnessing now, with checkpoints every few hundred metres, concrete barriers and spike strips laid across our roads, a war-like deployment of 22,000 police and paramilitary across the city, 250 trains cancelled and 45 metro stations closed, and reports of young people being detained from their own homes and the streets in and around Delhi -- all to prevent citizens from peacefully raising questions about the integrity of our elections. Most regressive (as well as repressive) is the suspension of the internet in the heart of the national capital."

He added, "Barricades will do nothing to restore faith in the Election Commission, and the sooner it answers the public's questions, the sooner calm will be restored. The strength of a democracy is measured by how it treats those who question its working, and by that measure, what we have seen today is utterly shameful and unconscionable."

Over 60 detained from Bangla Sahib Gurdwara

Police have also detained more than 60 people from Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, where the protesters had taken shelter overnight. Police personnel waited outside the gurdwara and detained them when they came out in the morning.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said in a statement that it “strongly condemns” the “authoritarian detention” of Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka straight from their flight upon landing in Delhi today.

“This pre-planned interception by the Delhi Police aims to cripple the leadership of today's peaceful demonstrations before they even reach the protest site. The CJP denounces this blatant violation of freedom of movement and demands the immediate, unconditional release of Dipke, Das, and Ranka,” it said.