NEW DELHI: As protests organised by the Cockroach Janata Party continued in the national capital for a second consecutive day on Sunday, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas alleged that security personnel pinned him down inside a bus, leaving him struggling to breathe despite repeatedly identifying himself as a parliamentarian. He was later admitted to Delhi’s RML Hospital.
Brittas said he had reached Connaught Place after learning that police were detaining Students’ Federation of India (SFI) activists. While he was speaking to the media, police forced him into a bus, where five CRPF personnel held him and another person down against a seat, he alleged.
He said the personnel ignored his identity card even after he repeatedly said he was an MP. A young man from Jharkhand, Sajid, helped him inside the vehicle.
According to Brittas, DCP Sachin directed the personnel to release him after reviewing body-camera footage from the control room. The MP said the DCP apologised, but alleged that police later pushed him out of the bus and left him by the roadside.
Unable to catch his breath, Brittas said he sat on the pavement before Sajid helped him find an autorickshaw. Speaking to reporters, Sajid said that the police acted brutally.
CPI leaders, including Annie Raja and Rajya Sabha MP P. Sandosh Kumar, reached the spot to protest the police action but were later dragged into a police vehicle.
After the incident, Brittas wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, the Rajya Sabha chairman and the chief justice of India (CJI) seeking urgent intervention, accountability and an independent investigation into the alleged police assault.
In identical letters to the three constitutional authorities, Brittas alleged that he was dragged for around 50 metres by Delhi Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel while he was peacefully interacting with journalists in the Connaught Place area, forcibly lifted into a police vehicle, assaulted inside it and subsequently, abandoned on the roadside.
According to the letter, Brittas reached the area around 12:30 pm after learning that young activists were being assaulted and detained. He alleged that police personnel continued to manhandle him despite repeated assertions by him and journalists that he is a member of Parliament, and assaulted him inside the vehicle even after he identified himself.
Brittas said he was released following instructions from a deputy commissioner of police, who had found the detention unlawful. He said he continued to experience physical pain and discomfort after the incident.
The MP has sought a court-supervised independent probe by a special investigation team comprising officers unconnected with the personnel involved or by another independent agency. He has also called for the preservation of video recordings, vehicle identification and movement details, deployment records, duty rosters and other evidence, besides seeking protection for witnesses, journalists and bystanders.
Referring to the Supreme Court's directions earlier in the day concerning the handling of protests in Delhi, Brittas said the timing of the incident raises questions about whether constitutional safeguards on peaceful expression and personal liberty are being respected.
Meanwhile, the SFI said in a post on X that hundreds of its activists had been detained at Surajmal Stadium in Nangloi. It accused police of torturing its all-India president Adarsh M Saji, Delhi state secretary Sooraj Elamon and leaders Abhijith Manilal, Simran, Anil, Sharanya, Sant and others inside “cage-like police vans”.
The organization further said that Adarsh, Sooraj, central executive committee member Abhijith, and others were picked up from Connaught Place, beaten, and taken towards the Haryana border.
