‘Everybody claims to be a journalist these days’: Delhi Police detain Scroll’s Ayush Tiwari

· Scroll

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It was about 11.10 am. I was outside Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan, behind Rouse Avenue Court in Central Delhi.

Left groups affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), such as the Students’ Federation of India, and some students from Ashoka University had marched in a procession from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s office at Deendayal Upadhyay Marg. There were about 60 people in all. Most of them were young, but there were also a few older people among them.

They were heading to Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan. The police were dragging them away and detaining them. Many of them tried to run inside the Bhawan. Some protesters were behind the gates of the Bhawan and the police were outside. I was filming this scene.

Then, some of the police officers tried to detain me. I was wearing my press card. I showed it to them. “Everybody claims to be a journalist these days, you are no different,” they said. I recorded a video of them. Their badges were not clearly visible.

There were no violent clashes between the police and the protesters. The police were just detaining whoever they could get hold of and the protesters were trying to get away.