Delhi Police detained journalists for a second consecutive day on Sunday, October 11, while they covered the protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and Left-wing student outfits demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Journalists from mainstream outlets and independent houses were among those held, and several said they were detained even after showing press credentials. The detentions came on the same day the Supreme Court said lawyers, journalists and other professionals must not be hindered in their duties “in any manner whatsoever.”

Three journalists from Indian Express Hindi, Shashwat, Siya and Vijay, were among those detained. The organisation said on X that the three told police they were journalists doing their job but were forcibly put into a bus. It said Shashwat sent a video he recorded on his phone as the bus passed through Connaught Place, and that Siya’s phone was seized by police. The three were later released at Chhatrasal Stadium, the organisation said.

Pragya Mishra, journalist and founder of news outlet Ulta Chashma, was detained on Sunday while covering the protests. In a video she posted on X, policewomen are seen carrying her off the streets by the arms and legs and putting her into a bus.

“I have a mic. The mic ID is there. I have everything, but in an extremely humiliating manner, Delhi Police deliberately threw me inside the bus and detained me. This is the capital of the country, Delhi. City of darkness. Blind police and ruined king,” she wrote.

Among those detained was independent journalist Shyam Meera Singh. The incident was particularly disturbing because before being detained, Singh had been heckled by a violent mob. In an interview with Jansatta, Singh narrated what he identified as a pattern.

According to him, in A Block of Connaught Place, people linked to the BJP and RSS were moving around and gathering in an organised manner. Singh alleged that they targeted protesters, particularly those who were alone, including journalists and activists. Once they identified someone critical of the government or perceived as anti-establishment, they would ask the police to detain the person. According to Singh, the police acted on these demands, detaining the targeted individuals rather than the people in the mob.

Singh said he was reporting on Sunday morning when a group of people linked to the BJP and RSS gathered around him and began raising slogans against him. Fearing an assault, he approached the police and pleaded for protection. He also sought help from armed forces personnel present at the spot, but said they did not come to his aid.

Singh then approached a Delhi Police constable and told him, “Please protect me.” Instead, when members of the crowd began shouting, “Detain him, detain him, detain him,” the constable moved to detain Singh as he was leaving the spot with two or three others. Singh alleged that the constable grabbed and manhandled him, acting at the crowd’s behest.

As the constable took him towards a bus, Singh began raising slogans of “Inquilab Zindabad”, “Bhagat Singh Zindabad” and “Amit Shah Murdabad”. When the policeman questioned him, asking, “Why are you abusing?”, Singh retorted, “When did I abuse anyone? You aren’t stopping the people who are abusing, and you’re saying this to me.”

Singh alleged that the constable had already hit him three times with a baton. “However much you want to beat me, go ahead,” he told the policeman, adding, “I am a journalist, but because of your mindset, you have become a sycophant of the Sangh or the BJP, that’s why you’re targeting me.” Despite the constable’s anger, Singh said, he continued raising slogans of “Inquilab Zindabad”. Following this, he was detained and out in a police van.

Here is a video of the events leading to Singh’s detention:

Vedanta Agarwal and Sara Khan of Peek TV were roughed up by police on Sunday. Peek TV posted about the detentions on X on October 11. “Peek TV’s Sara Khan was violently dragged by the Delhi Police while covering protests demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. Peek TV’s co-founder Vedanta Agarwal was also briefly shoved into a bus. The incident happened on Sunday morning in Delhi’s Connaught Place,” the outlet wrote.

Sara broke down while narrating the experience. “A male constable held me from my back and pushed me towards a lady constable. There were CRPF men…. they said she is from press.. take her away.. Then they pushed me and dragged me.. My T shirt got disheveled. My phone and my specs fell down…  They carried me off lifting me by my legs and hands. I could not see without my spectacles. I got scratch marks from their nails on my arm… I was shouting I am from Peek TV.. please see my card. I kept showing them my card. I asked them why are you detaining me? I have breathing issues. I could not breathe properly. It was insane and horrifying…”

The video shows Ulta Chasma journalist Pragya Mishra coming to Sara’s help. Mishra herself was later detained.

The Caravan said its assistant multimedia producer, Ryan Thomas, was detained and brutally beaten up by Delhi Police on October 11.

According to the report, around 6 pm on Janpath Road, Ryan was allegedly manhandled and beaten by Delhi Police personnel while recording the detention of a protester. Despite repeatedly identifying himself as a journalist and displaying his press card, he was assaulted inside a police vehicle, while officers attempted to seize his phone and force him to delete footage. He was slapped, struck on the head and prodded with a gun butt before being taken to Connaught Place, where police threatened to put him in another detention bus but eventually let him go.

At Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, Ryan told doctors and police that Delhi Police personnel had beaten him while he was reporting on the protests, but his MLC did nit mention the same. When he and his colleagues insisted that the MLC be corrected, hospital authorities refused and asked them to meet the medical superintendent the next day.

Varnika, a journalist with The Hindu, was briefly detained near Connaught Place while she was reporting. While talking to other journalists, Varnika appeared to be unable to process the fact that she was detained while doing her job wearing her press card in the national capital.

Senior journalist Sreenivasan Jain reported extensively on how police treated reporters doing their jobs. Sharing the video of a woman journalist being dragged through the streets and pushed into a bus, Jain wrote, “… on the day the Supreme Court ordered the police to allow journalists to do their job, Delhi Police bundle a woman reporter into the van. This despite her and us repeatedly telling the police that she’s with the media, and showing her badge.”

Jain reported that six or seven journalists had been rounded up at R K Ashram Marg. When he asked police officer Angad Mehta about the reasons for the detentions, Mehta said the journalists had surrounded a police official and were asking questions aggressively. Then one of the journalists pushed the official. This is when tempers flared and they were picked up. According to Jain, one in the group was a reporter with Hindustan Times. Others were from Kerala.

Journalist and author M Rajshekhar, too, was detained “for merely trying to take a photo of students being detained in Connaught Place”, fellow journalist Aruna Chandrashekhar claimed at 5.50pm on October 11. Past midnight, Rajhsekhar wrote on X that he had returned home.

Hindustan reported that its staffer, 27-year-old Ashish Singh, had been injured while police pushed him and forcefully detained him, despite him showing his ID card and mic. Singh was covering a demonstration by the All India Students Association (AISA) on R K Ashram Marg. He was held in the bus for about half an hour and released at Mandir Marg.

Photo from Hindustan’s Facebook page

BBC Hindi reported that journalist Dilnawaz Pasha and cameraperson Shahnawaz were stopped by police when they were reporting on the protest. The video posted by the outlet showed Pasha identifying himself and asking cops why they were trying to detain him despite seeing his press card. The policemen simply walked away.

 

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Independent journalist Nidhi Suresh was covering an AISA-led protest around 2.30 pm at R K Ashram Marg metro station. As nearly a hundred activists and protesters marched towards Connaught Place, security personnel closed in, barricaded roads and prevented others from joining. At Connaught Place, journalists were stopped from recording as police and CRPF personnel pushed protesters into buses. Suresh was among those detained and taken away in a police vehicle. According to her own narration, she remained in detention until late into the night.

A photojournalist working for a news agency told The Times of India that he was covering the All India Student Association (AISA) protest at R K Ashram Marg when police began dispersing people. When only media persons remained, he said, police started dragging them by the neck into police vans, even though they displayed IDs and cameras and shouted that they were from the press. The van held seven or eight journalists when its doors were shut and it moved off. After a few kilometres it had to stop because police were removing barricades, and he and two others jumped out. The photojournalist was not named in the report.

The Supreme Court’s Order

In a special hearing on Sunday morning, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana sought responses from Union home secretary Govind Mohan, Delhi police commissioner Anurag Kumar and Delhi Metro chief D Thara on a contempt petition alleging a prima facie violation of the court’s October 9 order against a complete shutdown of Metro and train services on Saturday. The bench said the petitioners had made out a prima facie case, and it asked for responses by October 13.

The court also asked for internet connectivity to be normalised and said there must be no illegal detentions, particularly of peaceful, unarmed gatherings beyond areas where Section 163 BNSS prohibitory orders are in force. It directed free movement in the city subject to law and order and traffic requirements, ordered the installation of barricades to be reviewed at once, and ordered prohibitory orders around the Supreme Court and other courts withdrawn. It also said lawyers, journalists and other professionals should not be hindered in discharging their professional duties.

Lawyers led by senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the court that police had continued detentions even in areas where prohibitory orders were not in force. Senior sdvocate Shadan Farasat, who was detained outside the Supreme Court on Saturday, said he was manhandled and bundled into a police vehicle. Senior advocate and Trinamool Congress MP Menaka Guruswamy called the episode an “undeclared emergency.”

CJP leader Ashutosh Ranka condemned the detention of journalists and remarked, “We are in a state of emergency.”

Contempt Plea Filed

A contempt petition was filed in the Supreme Court on October 12 by Free Speech Collective over the alleged detention and forcible removal of journalists. The plea alleged wilful disobedience of the Court’s October 11, 2026 order directing that lawyers, journalists and other professionals must not be hindered in discharging their professional duties. It sought contempt action, identification of the police officers and supervising officials responsible, and disclosure of how the order was communicated to personnel on the ground.

According to the plea, journalists continued to be detained and removed from reporting locations, including R K Ashram Marg and Connaught Place, despite identifying themselves as members of the press.