Rights Group Says Indian Authorities Used Excessive Force, Detained Journalists During Oct. 10-11 Protests

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Indian authorities used excessive force, arbitrary detentions, movement restrictions and internet shutdowns against peaceful protesters and journalists during demonstrations in New Delhi and other cities on Oct. 10-11, days after India’s Supreme Court ordered that peaceful assemblies not be illegally detained and that journalists be allowed to do their work.

In a news release dated Oct. 13, the rights group alleged that police beat protesters, dragged them on streets, forced them into vans and buses, and arbitrarily detained them during the crackdown. It also said authorities imposed sweeping transport and movement restrictions in Delhi and suspended mobile internet services. Multiple news outlets reported that thousands of people were detained in connection with the protests, though exact totals varied by source and location. “Police in Delhi are responding to peaceful protests with seemingly unnecessary or excessive force and have wrongfully detained thousands of people,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The protests were led or joined by the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party, opposition parties, student groups and civil-society organizations. They were demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, a nationwide voter-roll verification exercise. The immediate political pressure intensified after an Indian Express investigation in late September reported that the Election Commission’s two other commissioners had formally recorded at least 14 objections over roughly 10 months to decisions linked to the revision drive.

Human Rights Watch said authorities also harassed and arbitrarily detained journalists covering the demonstrations. It said at least 30 journalists were detained on Oct. 10-11. Separate press-freedom reporting, including by the Committee to Protect Journalists, documented at least 37 journalists detained and several assaulted, an overlapping but not identical tally. Reported allegations included journalists being bundled into buses, having phones and other equipment seized or damaged, and being assaulted while recording police action. Three female journalists also publicly alleged sexual harassment by police personnel during the protest period; Delhi Police said the complaints were transferred to the Crime Branch for inquiry.

The main Delhi crackdown took place on and around Saturday, Oct. 10. Authorities had already imposed extensive restrictions ahead of the protest, including deploying tens of thousands of security personnel, shutting or restricting access at dozens of metro stations, canceling some trains and suspending mobile internet. After an urgent hearing on Sunday, Oct. 11, the Supreme Court directed authorities to ensure peaceful protesters were not illegally detained, restore transport and internet services where there was no lawful basis for suspension, and ensure lawyers and journalists were not impeded in carrying out their professional duties. Human Rights Watch said authorities appeared to have ignored or not fully complied with those directions.

The dispute at the center of the protests concerns the Special Intensive Revision, a nationwide process begun in 2025 to re-verify voter rolls. Press reporting has said the exercise has led to the removal of roughly 130 million names from draft electoral rolls across many states. Critics say the process is opaque and risks disenfranchising eligible voters. The Election Commission says the exercise is intended to remove dead, duplicate or otherwise ineligible voters and has pushed back on some characterizations of the deletion figures. Petitions challenging the revision process and seeking Kumar’s removal are now before the Supreme Court.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed concern over the crackdown, saying, “We are concerned by reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists, before and during today’s large-scale demonstrations in Delhi.” It called for restraint and for those arbitrarily detained to be released. India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected the criticism as “unwarranted” and “an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of India.”