New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP and CPI(M) leader John Brittas has accused Delhi Police and CRPF personnel of assaulting him during a protest in Connaught Place on Sunday, alleging that he was dragged, forcibly confined in a police bus and later abandoned on the road. He was admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after the incident.
Brittas said he reached the area at around 12:30 pm after receiving information that activists of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) were being detained. According to him, he was interacting with journalists when security personnel dragged him for nearly 50 metres and pushed him into a police vehicle.
‘Pinned Against Seat’
The MP alleged that once inside the bus, five CRPF personnel held him and another man down against a seat. He claimed that he repeatedly told them he was a Member of Parliament and showed his identity card, but they did not relent.
“He said the personnel ignored his identity card even after he repeatedly said he was an MP.”
Brittas said the restraint left him struggling to breathe. He further alleged that a Deputy Commissioner of Police, identified as Sachin, ordered the personnel to release him after examining body-camera footage from the control room.
According to Brittas, the DCP apologised, but police personnel subsequently pushed him out of the bus and left him beside the road. Unable to breathe properly, he said, he sat on the pavement until a young man from Jharkhand, Sajid, assisted him and helped him find an autorickshaw.
Witness Alleges Brutality
Sajid, who was present inside the vehicle, told reporters that the police had acted brutally.
CPI leaders Annie Raja and Rajya Sabha MP P. Sandosh Kumar arrived at the location to protest against the treatment meted out to Brittas. They were later dragged into a police vehicle, according to the account, as reported by The New Indian Express.
Letters To President, CJI
Following the incident, Brittas wrote identical letters to President Droupadi Murmu, Rajya Sabha Chairman and Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, demanding urgent intervention, accountability and an independent inquiry into the alleged police action.
In the letters, he alleged that he was dragged for about 50 metres by Delhi Police and CRPF personnel while peacefully speaking to journalists in Connaught Place, forcibly lifted into a police vehicle, assaulted inside it and later abandoned on the roadside.
Brittas has sought a court-supervised investigation by a special investigation team comprising officers with no connection to the personnel involved, or by another independent agency. He has also demanded the preservation of video recordings, vehicle identification and movement details, deployment records, duty rosters and other evidence, besides protection for witnesses, journalists and bystanders.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s directions earlier in the day on the handling of protests in Delhi, Brittas said the incident raised questions over whether constitutional safeguards relating to peaceful expression and personal liberty were being upheld.
Meanwhile, in a post on X, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) claimed that several hundred of its members had been held at Surajmal Stadium in Nangloi. The organisation further alleged that its all-India president Adarsh M Saji, Delhi state secretary Sooraj Elamon and other leaders were tortured inside “cage-like police vans”.
According to the SFI, some activists, including Adarsh, Sooraj and central executive committee member Abhijith, were picked up from Connaught Place, assaulted and transported towards the Haryana border.
