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.
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.
