Rush Hour: Delhi, Mumbai hold protests against Gyanesh Kumar, ‘Mohammad’ Deepak arrested and more

Several protesters and political leaders, including Aam Aadmi Party’s Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi, were detained near Jantar Mantar in Delhi ahead of a proposed demonstration to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Manoj Kumar Jha and All India Students’ Association chief Neha Bora were also detained by the Delhi Police.

Internet services were suspended in areas around Jantar Mantar, while the main protest area was barricaded.

In Mumbai, the Cockroach Janta Party also began a protest demanding Kumar’s resignation over concerns about the functioning of the Election Commission and its handling of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. The exercise has resulted in crores of Indians being deleted from the rolls.Read on.

Dehradun gym owner Deepak Kumar, who had opposed the harassment of an elderly Muslim shopkeeper by alleged Bajrang Dal members in January, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a trader. Kumar had purportedly uploaded a social media post about the Ujjain municipal authority demolishing a portion of a mosque as part a road-widening project ahead of the Hindu religious gathering called the Simhastha Kumbh Mela.

The complainant, Sanjeev Tonk, said in his complaint that he had commented on Kumar’s post.

Kumar then went to Tonk’s shop and assaulted him, said Sarvesh Panwar, the senior...

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