‘Beaten with lathis, kicked’: Protesters say they were assaulted in detention

At least three men detained by Delhi Police in connection with the CJP protests have alleged that they and others, who were bundled into buses and taken to detention centres, were “assaulted” at makeshift detention facilities.

Medical records document injuries ranging from bruises and abrasions to a fracture in one man’s right elbow.

On Sunday evening, Nihal Alam (36), a resident of Kishanganj, Bihar, was allegedly visiting his sister in Bawana. Believing the CJP protests had ended on Saturday, he took the metro to Janpath and walked towards Connaught Place to buy clothes.

However, police picked him up and took him with others to a detention centre at the community centre in Pandwalan Khurd, Dwarka.

Alam alleges that police personnel beat the detainees with sticks inside a bus fitted with iron-barred partitions. “I told them my upper right arm was hurting, but they did not listen,” he said.

A medico-legal certificate (MLC) from a government hospital records a radial head fracture following an X-ray of his right elbow. The doctor also advised further imaging to assess the bones and joint structures, records show.

Alam said he was picked up around 5 pm in a roadways bus, taken to Janpath after about an hour, detained further and then shifted to what he described as jail cells. After reaching the detention centre, he requested first aid but received an injection and painkiller only after more than an hour.

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“The doctors at RML told me I have a fracture in my upper right arm and that a rod will be inserted, which will cost Rs 20,000,” said Alam, who runs an eatery in his village. He returned home early Monday and said he would ask his family for money.

Arjun Unnikrishnan, a 30-year-old law graduate and researcher, who was also taken to the community centre in Pandwalan Khurd alleged assault.
Unnikrishnan claimed that personnel inside struck people across their bodies, kicked them in the “chest and back, and hit them in their private parts” The cramped conditions left the detainees with little room to move away, he said, adding that he reported injuries to his face, chest and back.

“I headed directly to a hospital after my release to secure the MLC, since I wanted documentary evidence of the physical harm I had suffered,” he says.

His MLC says “assault by unknown police personnel at 4:15pm near Rajeev Chowk”. He was prescribed medicines and some painkillers, according to the MLC.

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Protesters who were detained in the police station also alleged that they were assaulted.

Fidal Tom, a 26-year-old Delhi-based lawyer detained by Delhi Police during Saturday’s protest-related detentions, alleged that police personnel beat him at the Sanjay Colony police post under Maidangarhi police station. Police held him there with other detainees before releasing him around 2 am on Sunday, he said.

His MLC prepared in the early hours of October 11 in Madan Mohan Hospital in Malviya Nagar records multiple injuries, including swelling on the left side of his face, an abrasion above his left eye, injuries on both arms and multiple contusions and abrasions on his back.

The examination noted that the injuries were most likely caused by multiple blunt-object trauma, according to the MLC.

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Tom said he was detained at INA around 2 pm on October 10 and taken to the Sanjay Colony police post an hour later. Around 6 pm, he alleged, police personnel grew irritated when an AISA student discussed democratic rights with fellow detainees. About 20 students were being held in a room and beaten by a man in civilian clothes, he alleged.

When Tom questioned the man’s authority to beat detainees, noting that he was not in uniform, the man allegedly dragged him into a small bathroom, “where around 10 police personnel beat him with lathis”.

Tom said he identified himself as a practising advocate and showed his Bar Association ID card, also mentioning his appearance in court with senior advocate Kapil Sibal on October 9. The assault stopped after he disclosed these details, he alleged.

When reached out, a senior police official said: “We have not received any complaints on these allegations. However, if we receive a complaint, action will be taken under relevant provisions of law”.