Student leaders, activists detained for Jantar Mantar protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Several leaders of a student-led protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar demanding the arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar were detained by the police on Friday. They alleged irregularities in the conduct of elections after The Indian Express on Wednesday reported that two election commissioners had objected to the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.

Among those detained were All India Students’ Association chief Neha Bora, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, and activists Yogendra Yadav and Anjali Bharadwaj.

The Delhi Police had denied permission for the protest and “brutally detained” the leaders, said the All India Students’ Association.

The protest was held after an investigation by The Indian Express revealed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected 14 times in 10 months to decisions related to the SIR, saying that some had been taken without their knowledge.

Their objections were reportedly related to the registration of new voters and changes to Form 6, appeals against the inclusion of voters in West Bengal and the handling of voter data in Goa, among other matters. Form 6 is used to register new voters.

In one written objection, Sandhu was quoted as having stated that the poll panel had acted against the advice of both commissioners and described the action...

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