Delhi police detained journalists during protest over electoral roll deletions
Delhi police briefly detained several journalists while cracking down on a youth-led protest that called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down over alleged large-scale deletions of names from electoral rolls.
Reporters from Navbharat Times, Scroll.in, and Newslaundry were held, even after showing press IDs, but all were released later.
Police actions spark press freedom debate
Some journalists, like Shoaib Daniyal from Scroll.in, were picked up far from the protest itself.
Others, Hritik Joshi and Rahul Charas from Navbharat Times, plus three Newslaundry journalists, were stopped while just doing their jobs.
The incident has sparked fresh debate about press freedom during protests and whether police actions are crossing a line set by India's Constitution.
The protest planners, Cockroach Janata Party and several student activist groups, were over large-scale deletions of names from electoral rolls.