Jantar Mantar protest LIVE updates: SC orders metro, internet resumption as protests continue unabated

Protests at Connaught Place in Delhi intensified on Sunday, with more young people arriving at the site and further detentions reported amid heightened tensions.

The developments come as demonstrators protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the police action against protesters in the national capital.

Reports from the site also refer to the presence of people described by protesters as Hindutva supporters and goons from the fringe elements of the society.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah of targeting the country’s youth and turning Delhi into a “prison”, as protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar continued amid a police crackdown in the national capital.

“Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have attacked the youth of this country, turned Delhi into a prison, unleashed BJP gundas on boys and girls,” Gandhi said.

“But no matter what they do, the trap is closing on them,” he added, asserting that the country’s youth and the Opposition would get justice.

The Supreme Court has directed authorities not to illegally detain people gathering peacefully in Delhi and asked the Centre to ensure normal metro services and the restoration of internet connectivity, subject to law and order requirements, amid allegations of restrictions and mass detentions during Saturday’s protest against Gyanesh Kumar.

A bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, which convened for a special hearing, issued notice to the Centre on a plea seeking contempt proceedings over the alleged violation of the court’s 9 October order concerning metro and train services in the national capital.

The bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to ensure that the Delhi Metro operated according to its normal schedule and that internet services were not disrupted, subject to law and order conditions. It also directed that lawyers, journalists and others should not be prevented from performing their professional duties. The court said urgent applications had alleged violations of its earlier order and the illegal detention of a large number of people on 10 October.

Activist Anjali Damania was among the dozens of persons detained on Sunday when they arrived at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai's Dadar area to take part in a protest in support of the Cockroach Janta Party, police official said.Damania was intercepted near the iconic ground and taken to an undisclosed location in a private vehicle, the officials said.

"As I reached Shivaji Park in support of CJP, police officers came in plainclothes and detained me. All the police personnel were in plain clothes, and I do not know where they are taking me,” Damania told PTI.

Officials said most of those detained in the vicinity have been shifted to Shivaji Park police station. Some have been taken to nearby police stations, they added.

In a video post on social media, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee has hit back at claims circulating among right-wing voices that he is a German citizen who should not be allowed to participate in political protests in India, displaying his passport and asserting that he is an Indian citizen in a video released after his detention ahead of the Cockroach Janata Party’s (CJP) demonstration in Delhi.

“I am an Indian citizen, have been and will remain one,” Rathee said, holding up his passport. He accused sections of the media of spreading rumours about his nationality to justify his detention, calling claims that he was a foreign passport holder and therefore could not participate in the protest “blatant lies”.

“I am an Indian citizen, and I have the same rights as any ordinary citizen,” he said.