Indian police accused of harassing journalists at Delhi protest

Three female journalists have accused Indian police officers of sexual harassment during street protests in the capital, Delhi, according to the BBC.

The allegations were made on Saturday, after police detained scores of young people demonstrating for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Thousands of people gathered in Delhi and Mumbai for a third day of protests on Sunday.

Police refer complaint for inquiry

Delhi Police said on social media that its New Delhi District had received the complaint and referred it to the crime branch for a “fair and impartial” inquiry. The journalists’ allegations include inappropriate touching by police officers.

Videos posted online show people being dragged away from the protest site at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. Activist and Jawaharlal Nehru University student Aahna Singh told Reuters that police “dragged me by my hair” and were resorting to “brutality”.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said women feared for their safety and that the home ministry must “answer for this”.

Dispute over voter-roll revision

Protesters say changes to voter rolls will benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The Election Commission says the exercise is designed to remove duplicate and ineligible entries; it says 130 million names have so far been removed from the rolls.

The demonstrations have included supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party, which began as an online satirical movement. The group called for the latest protest after The Indian Express reported that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions they said were issued without their knowledge.

The reported disagreements mainly concerned the Special Intensive Revision of the country’s electoral rolls, which began last year. The Election Commission said differing views were part of its decision-making process and that all decisions had been taken unanimously.

The report prompted opposition leaders to demand Kumar’s resignation.