Delhi prepared itself on Saturday as it would have done in case of any security issue.
Body cameras, drones, facial recognition technology, security zones, and detention centers were all employed by the authorities in Delhi. The buses were waiting to take in whoever would cross the line.
The arrests kept rising throughout the day, and by evening, Outlook was reporting that more than 7,000 people were arrested at the anti-CEC rally.
This rally was being held to force the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on account of SIR.
The leadership of the Cockroach Janta Party did not attend the protest.
The leader of CJP, Abhijeet Dipke, and their spokespersons, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were apparently arrested upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport from Mumbai.
The protest had been organized without the organizers themselves present.
National President of AISA Neha Bora and Convener of Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan Yogendra Yadav were arrested at about 2.20 p.m. while they were attempting to walk towards Dilli Haat.
The protesters surrounded the police van carrying Bora and prevented it from going ahead with their demands for the release of Bora.
From detention, Bora released a message which soon went viral: "I am in detention, but the struggle is not."
The AISA made strong allegations regarding the conditions of the detention of Bora. She was kept in solitary confinement, her phone was confiscated, and access to lawyers was denied.
AISA maintained that these were violations of Articles 19(1)(b), 21, and 22(1) of the Constitution and pleaded with the Delhi Police to allow lawyers access to her.
These allegations are being made by AISA and have not been independently verified.
Detainees started being freed from different centers around 8:05 pm.
Bora mentioned that her phone had been returned and that the women detainees were being freed from Maidan Garhi Police Station.
Prominent individuals along with average demonstrators were taken into custody.
Bora, Dipankar Bhattacharya, Prashant Bhushan, and Yadav were taken into custody near INA Market en route to the demonstration.
After about 3:40 pm, around 50 individuals who had gathered at Bora’s call near Dilli Haat were taken into custody by the police. Some of them claimed that they were not taking part in any kind of protest.
According to the Outlook’s live blog, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, and Pinarayi Vijayan were also taken into custody. It is not confirmed yet through this reporting.
The action was not restricted to Delhi alone.
According to the Mumbai Police, 400-plus people had been arrested at August Kranti Maidan, which was meant to be the site of a rally in support of the CJP movement.
Tushar Gandhi was reportedly arrested in Mumbai too.
The main demand of the agitation remains constant: resignation of Gyanesh Kumar.
Dipke has listed more demands this time. “Our demands are to file cases against him, suspend SIR, conduct elections with the 2025 voters' list, and have a fresh CEC chosen by an independent body,” he was quoted as saying recently.
According to ThePrint Live Blog, CJP made another call for Sunday and gave an ultimatum to the Modi government.
There has been an exponential increase in the size within just over a week.
Towards the beginning of the month, about 150 protesters, including Bora, Yadav, and Bhushan, were arrested on the second day of the anti-CEC rally. The number of protesters for Saturday is in thousands.
As reported by ThePrint, the "Jantar Mantar 2.0" title was used months after the movement for alleged irregularities in NEET-UG exams, which led to the resignation of the Education Minister.
