Security forces have detained over 5,000 protesters across Delhi till 2 pm on Saturday as they tried to march towards Jantar Mantar, The Hindu reported citing a Delhi Police officer, thwarting a protest demanding the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Officers took demonstrators into preventive custody after telling them permission for the gathering had not been granted, ANI reported, citing police sources. The Delhi Police had earlier rejected the organisers’ request, citing public interest, and said they lacked the required authorisation.
Detentions began before the protest was due to start. According to a report by The Hindustan Times, Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which called the demonstration, and associates Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained upon landing at Delhi airport.
Dipke, who had travelled from Mumbai, alleged in a video posted on Instagram that police boarded the aircraft and attempted to detain them. “This is dictatorship, where Delhi Police has entered the flight and is trying to arrest us,” he said.
The CJP founder said they had wanted to stage a “peaceful protest”.
The party’s legal head, Ratna Singh, said in a video that officers arrived at her home in the morning seeking to detain her without producing official documents, and that she was refusing to leave her car. “They are not leaving this space, so I am, in a way, illegally detained on the road,” she said.
The CJP also claimed that content creator Dhruv Rathee had been detained, saying in a social media post that the government feared young people questioning its actions.
The Hindustan Times reported that Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and AISA’s Neha Bora were among other political leaders detained in the crackdown.
Security was tightened across Delhi ahead of the protest, with The Hindu reporting a combined presence of more than 14,000 security personnel, including 10,000 men and 4,000 women. The deployment included Delhi Police and Central Armed Police Forces personnel, along with forces from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Barricades and spike strips were installed on roads leading to Jantar Mantar.
The New Delhi district was divided into 20 operational zones, each with a dedicated detention centre, and stadiums across the city were converted into temporary detention centres, police told ANI.
Loudspeakers at three main entry and exit points warned against gatherings, processions and road blockades, among other activities prohibited under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, according to a Hindustan Times report.
Journalists were reportedly denied access to the protest site.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said entry and exit gates at 45 Metro stations had been closed from 9 pm on Friday, revising an earlier list of 57. ANI separately reported that 46 stations remained shut on Saturday. Sarai Kale Khan and New Ashok Nagar Namo Bharat stations were to stay closed until 10 pm on October 10, 2026.
The Railways cancelled mail and express trains due to arrive at New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations between 4 am and 2 pm, citing the possibility of heavy road congestion. Retail liquor shops were also shut.
Election Commission data cited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party shows about 130 million names, more than the population of Japan, have been deleted from the rolls during the verification exercise, including 63 million people who had relocated and 30 million who could not be traced.
The BJP and the Commission deny allegations of manipulation.
Opposition parties say Muslim voters and other minorities, who they say are unlikely to support the Hindu nationalist ruling party, are disproportionately affected, and that the deletions affected the outcome of some recent state elections the BJP won.
The BJP says Modi’s popularity and India’s economic growth are some reasons for its electoral dominance.
Dipke has alleged that about 130 million voters have been removed since 2024 and linked the deletions to the narrow vote-share gap between the National Democratic Alliance and the opposition INDIA bloc in the 2024 general election.
An investigation by The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and procedures connected to the SIR.
The Commission maintains that major decisions, including the revision, were taken unanimously by the full commission.
Gyanesh Kumar, who took over as Chief Election Commissioner in February 2025, has had a difficult relationship with opposition parties. Opposition lawmakers moved a motion to remove him earlier this year; Parliament rejected it. A 2023 law passed by Modi’s government grants the Election Commission chief immunity from prosecution for acts carried out in an official capacity.
At a rare press conference last year, Kumar asked the opposition to submit their allegations under oath. Amid the recent backlash, the Commission announced revisions to the verification process, including home visits by officials to collect documents and an extension of the deadline for final verification in some states.
At least seven Indian states will hold elections next year, including BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, the most populous and considered a bellwether state in national politics. Verification there began in October 2025 and resulted in 13 percent of names being deleted, according to local media reports. Voters whose names are missing need to prove their credentials before being enrolled, and many have complained about the process.