Eight students arrested during the pollution protest at Delhi’s India Gate on Sunday were sent to judicial custody after their bail applications were rejected by a Delhi Court on Saturday.
After the protest on Sunday, 23 students were detained at India Gate and Kartavya Path, and later outside the Parliament Street police station.
Two first information reports were registered, one against six persons at the Kartavya Path police station and another against 17 persons at the Parliament Street police station.
The cases were initially filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to assault, obstruction of public servants, and outraging the modesty of women. On Tuesday, the police also added charges pertaining to making assertions prejudicial to national integration to the FIR registered at the Kartavya Path police station.
On Friday, Judicial Magistrate First Class Sahil Monga granted bail to nine of the protesters booked in the FIR registered at the Parliament Street police station. However, eight of them were later re-arrested.
The Delhi Police, in its remand application, has alleged that some of the protesters had allegedly used pepper spray on police personnel while being removed from the site, while some had allegedly displayed posters and shouted slogans hailing Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, who was recently killed in a gunfight with security forces.
In the remand application accessed by Maktoob, the Delhi Police has alleged that the protesters had planned to injure police personnel.
“During the investigation, some videos have been found that… accused persons have attended other programs of Radical Students Union (RSU), which is a banned Naxalite organization. Complete details of these programs are to be obtained, and the accused persons have to be interrogated regarding details of the organizers, fund arrangements, and other persons who attended these programs,” police said.
The students denied the pepper-spray allegation and said the police were using it to frame a peaceful environmental protest as extremist activity.
The Radical Students Union (RSU) was a frontal organization of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Founded in 1974, it became defunct after 2005. However, in 2011, there were indications of plans to revive the organization.
After the hearing, the court sent the eight arrested students for extended judicial custody, denying police remand.
After hearing the submissions, the court asked Delhi Police to file a fresh reply and listed the matter for hearing on Monday.
The students were accused of using criminal force against police personnel and shouting pro-Maoist slogans at the protest at India Gate on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Scientists for Society (SFS), one of the organisers of the protest under the banner of Delhi Against Clean Air, issued a statement dissociating itself from the slogans raised for Hidma.
“We firmly believe that this protest was solely against air pollution. Our objective was to educate and organize people around the severe pollution crisis, exposing the government and this profit-centric system,” it said in a statement.
They further stated that organisations like Himkhand and bsCEM began raising slogans about the extra-judicial encounter of Hidma. “While we strongly believe that there should be a high-level inquiry into the extra-judicial encounters of Hidma and his associates and we unequivocally condemn these encounters, we also believe that this was not the appropriate platform to raise this issue. Ordinary students and citizens had joined this protest specifically to address the issue of pollution,” it further said.
They further said that at “no point were we informed that Himkhand and bsCEM planned to raise any unrelated or adventurist slogans”.
“As soon as we realised what was happening, we first tried to stop them; when they refused to respond, we immediately distanced ourselves from them and continued addressing the common people and carrying forward the protest separately. We also want to reiterate that this act on part of these aforementioned organizations is completely undemocratic, totally against the ethics, mandate, and common minimum program of the issue-based joint front based on the issue of the pollution crisis in Delhi,” they further stated.
However, they condemned the detention of “all protesters and demanded the immediate release of all activists”.
Earlier, Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), a collective of over 38 organisations, in a detailed statement, said the protesters were exercising their democratic right to demand action on Delhi’s hazardous air pollution and should not have been targeted with criminal charges.
The group alleged that several women protesters were detained overnight in violation of Supreme Court guidelines and that some detainees faced severe mistreatment, including allegations of sexual harassment in custody.
It also said lawyers were prevented from meeting detainees, calling it a violation of constitutional safeguards.
The coalition demanded the immediate release of all arrested protesters, an independent probe into custodial abuse, strict adherence to legal protections, especially for women, and urgent government action to tackle Delhi’s worsening air pollution.
CASR warned that “silencing voices will not clear the air, action will,” and urged authorities to engage with citizens rather than intimidate them.
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