India Gate protest fallout: Climate & tribal student groups under lens for ‘Naxal links’

According to the police, there were four groups, including these two, which gave a call to hold a demonstration at India Gate. However, none of them sought permission for the stir.

Sources further said that the members of The Himkhand group had also taken part in the protest against the detention of Ladakh-based climate activist Sonam Wangchuk in Delhi who is currently under arrest. “The teams of Delhi Police are collecting details of these two groups, their networks and associations,” a source said.

Officers said the police may also take the custody of the arrested accused in the coming days, if required.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Delhi Police also added Section 197 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) to one of the two FIRs that have been registered.

The police are investigating “any suspected Naxal links” of the protesters, who reportedly “raised slogans in support of Naxalites”, officers said.

A police officer said Section 197 of the BNS was added to the FIR that was registered at the Kartavya Path police station. Six individuals were apprehended in this case, who, according to the police, used pepper spray on officers who asked them to leave the India Gate C-Hexagon area.

The Special Cell and Crime Branch of the Delhi Police are assisting the local police in their investigations to probe into the alleged Maoist links.

An individual who is convicted of an offence under Section 197 BNS – which corresponds broadly to Section 153B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) – is liable to be punished with imprisonment up to three years, or with a fine, or both.

The six individuals arrested in the first FIR were produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Aridaman Singh Cheema of the Patiala House Courts on Monday (November 24). Five of them were sent to judicial custody for two days; the sixth person was sent to a safehouse until his age is verified.

Before the addition of Section 197 BNS, this FIR had been registered under Sections 74 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 79 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant), 221 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), and 223 (disobedience to a lawful order from a public servant) of the BNS.

The protesters gathered near India Gate on Sunday ostensibly against the bad air in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), even as they did not have the required permission from police.

After they were removed from the area, some of them allegedly scuffled with police near Parliament Street police station, after which the second FIR was registered.