India Gate Protest air pollution protest: Four protestors sent to police custody, 13 to judicial custody

Judicial Magistrate Sahil Monga was hearing a case registered against 17 people at the Parliament Street police station. The Delhi Police sought seven-day custody of four of the 17 protesters, while a request was made to extend the judicial custody of the other 13.

Alleging that the accused were “Naxalites” and “supporting militant movement in Jharkhand”, police referred to a purported video on X where one of the accused could be seen participating in the 50th anniversary of Radical Students Union (RSU), a banned organisation.

Police, claiming to have recovered pepper sprays and chilli powder from the accused, further alleged that several CCTV footage of the Parliament Street police station, where the accused were detained, shows them hitting police personnel.

Alleging that the accused didn’t disclose their personal details and gave wrong addresses, police sought their remand to confront them with the chats found on their mobile phone related to the “planning, coordination and instigation of the protest”.

Defence lawyers Nizam Pasha, Sowjhanya Shankaran, Ahmad Ibrahim and Deeksha Dwivedi, meanwhile, argued that while FIR talks about an altercation between the protesters and police personnel at the police station, custody was being sought for something else in the remand papers. They argued that allegations of the accused supporting RSU can’t be introduced in the current case.

Further, they cited judgments, saying that since maximum punishment in the FIR is five years, the accused shouldn’t have been arrested and if they were, then the police must give reasons in writing for the same. The lawyers argued that the grounds of arrest has not been provided to them.

In all, 23 students were arrested for Sunday’s protest and two FIRs were lodged. While 17 protesters were arrested in connection to the FIR lodged at Parliament Street police station, six were arrested in the case registered at Kartavya Path police station. The FIRs were lodged under charges related to assault, obstruction of public servants and outraging the modesty of women of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Among those named in the FIRs are Delhi University students associated with the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch and Himkhand, an environmental research and action collective.

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