By Betwa Sharma And Sabah Gurmat
New Delhi: “They punched me in the face. They kicked me with their boots. I was on the floor. They were just kicking. They kicked me on my back. Then, on my genitals.”
This is how Arjun Unnikrishnan, 30, an activist with the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, described being attacked by the Delhi police inside a police bus after he was detained on 11 October 2026 in central Delhi.
Unnikrishnan went there to join a protest demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Prakash, the Chief Election Commissioner of India’s Election Commission, over a revision of electoral rolls that protesters say has been opaque, riddled with errors, and has wrongfully disenfranchised millions of voters, with 130 million excluded at last count.
Vishal Kumar, 20, a member of the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), a student organisation affiliated with the Communist Party of India (CPI), and a recent graduate of the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha, Maharashtra, said he too was beaten in the same police bus.
He said police personnel struck him on the knee, dug their elbows into him and punched him in the face and stomach.
“There were about five of them in a line,” he said. “As you entered the bus, one would beat you and pass you on to the next.”
Article 14 tried to reach the Delhi Police by phone and email. There was no response. We will update this story if there is.
For two days, on 10 and 11 October 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has prevented protests at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s designated protest site. On the first day, authorities cordoned off large areas around the site with barricades, shut down Internet services and imposed prohibitory orders restricting public gatherings. Thousands of police personnel, including riot police, were deployed across the national capital.
As people attempted to gather at alternative locations, police detained them immediately, dragging and shoving protesters, including women and journalists, into buses.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.
