Delhi Police arrested three activists — Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde — after they attempted to enter the Jantar Mantar protest site by climbing over a locked gate, a day after authorities de-notified the location as a designated protest venue.
According to Delhi Police sources quoted by Mint, the activists are under preventive arrest. The group’s lawyer, Ratna Singh, called the detention “illegal” in a post on social media and claimed the leaders were taken to the Parliament Street police station in the early hours and produced before an executive magistrate.
Gate-climbing confrontation caught on video
A video shared online shows the protesters climbing over the locked gate to enter Jantar Mantar. They raised slogans including “Gyanesh Kumar isteefa do” (a demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar) and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” while holding the national flag, before being detained and taken to the Jaffarpur Kalan police station.
The confrontation followed the administration’s decision to de-notify Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site — a move that sharply raises the legal stakes for any demonstration attempted there.
Delhi under tight security
The national capital has been under heavy security amid ongoing protests linked to the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Opposition groups have challenged the revision process, and the Supreme Court has also weighed in on the demonstrations — holding that the right to protest cannot override legal restrictions.
Authorities have deployed thousands of personnel across sensitive locations, and the Jantar Mantar de-notification appears to be part of a broader tightening of protest permissions in the capital.
What happens next
With the activists set to be produced before a magistrate, the immediate question is whether the case escalates into judicial custody. More broadly, the episode underscores the growing friction between protest groups and authorities over where — and how — dissent can be expressed in Delhi.
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