Around 20 people, some of them journalists and content creators, were detained by the Delhi Police on the morning of October 5 from outside the Parliament Street Police Station and taken to the Delhi Police Camp in Delhi Cantonment.

They had been sitting outside the police station, protesting against the police for allegedly not registering an FIR against Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vivek Bhagat. Bhagat had been promoted as Additional DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) before withdrawing from the role “of his own volition” pending a “full enquiry” in the case, according to a government notification. 

A female journalist has alleged that Bhagat sexually harassed and assaulted her while she was covering the October 2 protest near Jantar Mantar. The police, however, have registered an FIR at the Parliament Street Police Station against 17 of the 20 people detained. Beauty, a friend of the complainant, said at a press conference on October 5, “The police have not filed an FIR on the sexual harassment and assault complaint but have filed an FIR against our people.”

The 17 protesters were charged under Sections 223(a), 221, 132, 190 (unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. According to the police, the protesters violated Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), formed an unlawful assembly, and allegedly attacked police personnel and damaged a bus.

On the night of October 5, Patiala House Court granted bail to 17 protesters arrested in connection with the Parliament Street protest. Four were released after furnishing personal bonds, while the remaining 13 were sent to judicial custody as they could not furnish the required sureties. They are to be produced before the concerned court on October 6.

The court also noted that two of the accused, Dharmender and Samarth, alleged that they were beaten inside the Parliament Street Police Station after their detention, and their MLCs (medico-legal certificates) recorded injuries. In the........

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