Delhi Police added Section 197 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita to an FIR against protesters demonstrating at India Gate over worsening air pollution, an action strongly condemned by a collective of over 38 organisations, which accused the police of criminalising a peaceful demonstration, after officers alleged that some participants raised slogans in support of slain Maoist commander Madvi Hidma.
Delhi Police have arrested a total of 23 protesters, including 11 women, who had gathered at India Gate to raise concerns over Delhi’s worsening air pollution.
Section 197 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita penalises making or publishing statements that target any religious, regional, caste, language or communal group in a way that harms national integration or spreads false information threatening India’s sovereignty, with punishment of up to three years or fine or both.
According to reports, police registered two separate FIRs, one at Kartavya Path Police Station and another at Parliament Street Police Station.
Under the first FIR, a court remanded five protesters to two days’ judicial custody, while a sixth detainee has been placed in a safehouse until authorities complete age verification. Under the second FIR, 17 students were arrested and have been sent to three days’ judicial custody.
Police said the protesters were carrying posters of Hidma and, when officers attempted to remove them for blocking the road, the demonstrators allegedly used pepper spray on police personnel and tried to attack them. Officials also claimed that the group was heard shouting “Madvi Hidma amar rahe.”
Meanwhile, a photograph of a young man pinned face-down on the road during the police crackdown went viral, prompting allegations of shrinking space for dissent.
As reported by Newslaundry, the man in the image was 24-year-old Delhi University law student Akshay E R, who, along with others, was later accused by police of shouting pro-Maoist slogans, jumping barricades and using pepper spray on officers.
However, student groups told Newslaundry that neither Akshay nor the detained students have any Maoist affiliations, stressing that the Hidma slogans were shouted by a small, separate group on the fringes of the gathering and not by those organising the clean-air protest.
They also denied the pepper-spray allegation and said the police were using it to frame a peaceful environmental protest as extremist activity.
Lawyers representing the students said several detainees suffered injuries during the crackdown and argued that the restraint used on Akshay mirrored dangerously excessive force.
They argued that the students were part of a peaceful protest and had no intention of engaging in any anti-national activity.
Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), a collective of over 38 organisations, in a detailed statement, said the protesters were exercising their democratic right to demand action on Delhi’s hazardous air pollution and should not have been targeted with criminal charges.
The group alleged that several women protesters were detained overnight in violation of Supreme Court guidelines and that some detainees faced severe mistreatment, including allegations of sexual harassment in custody.
It also said lawyers were prevented from meeting detainees, calling it a violation of constitutional safeguards.
The coalition demanded the immediate release of all arrested protesters, an independent probe into custodial abuse, strict adherence to legal protections, especially for women, and urgent government action to tackle Delhi’s worsening air pollution.
CASR warned that “silencing voices will not clear the air, action will,” and urged authorities to engage with citizens rather than intimidate them.
