Delhi detentions: AISA alleges lawyers denied access to Neha Bora

Bora located, questions remain over Dipke

Detentions ahead of a Tiranga protest in Delhi prompted demands for information about protesters’ whereabouts and access to legal counsel on Friday night. The All India Students’ Association (AISA) said its president, Neha Bora, had been located at RK Puram police station after hours of uncertainty. The whereabouts of CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke remained unknown in the account available.

According to India Today, AISA alleged that lawyers who arrived at the station around midnight were not permitted to meet Bora. The organisation also accused police of withholding medication despite knowing that she had been unwell for several days.

Police said around 150 people had been detained to preserve law and order and keep traffic moving. The supplied report does not contain a specific police response to the allegations about legal access, medication or the failure to disclose locations. Those accusations remain claims by the organisations and leaders involved, not independently established findings.

AISA describes hours of uncertainty

AISA alleged that Bora was moved between locations across Delhi for nearly five hours. Before identifying RK Puram police station as her location, it said she had been taken to an Anti-Narcotics Task Force facility in the South-West district and subsequently transferred elsewhere.

At 10 pm, the organisation posted that her whereabouts were still unknown. It said a delegation including AISA activist Anjali, advocate Manik Gupta, RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, Professor Jitendra Meena and other civil society members was heading to Parliament Street police station to approach senior officers.

Former AISA president and CPI(ML) Liberation leader N Sai Balaji questioned what he described as conflicting information about Bora’s location. He alleged that plain-clothed men had detained her alone in a bus, and said her last known location pointed to the Anti-Narcotics Cell at Mangalapuri. He later alleged that she was being moved again.

AISA separately claimed that two people in plain clothes travelling with Bora in a van were not detainees. It also said police had declined to meet a delegation seeking her release. These details were not corroborated by a police account in the supplied report.

CJP seeks custody details in writing

CJP said it had lost contact with Dipke after police took him to a location that had not been disclosed to the party. It alleged that he was unable to speak to lawyers and questioned his detention, saying he had been leaving his residence carrying the national flag.

Party leader Rohan Deshpande wrote to the station house officer of Mandir Marg police station seeking a formal account of Dipke’s custody. The letter asked police to identify where he was being held, the legal provisions invoked and the grounds communicated for what Deshpande described as preventive detention.

Deshpande also sought the identity of the authority directing the detention and the officer responsible for custody. He requested that Dipke be allowed to communicate with colleagues and obtain legal assistance.

Police sources gave a different description of the location of Dipke’s detention, saying he was detained at Jhandewalan while travelling towards Connaught Place. The available account does not resolve the difference between that description and the party’s account of him being detained outside his residence.

Political leaders press for disclosure

CPI(ML) Liberation demanded the release of Bora, Dipke and other detained protesters. In a Friday-night statement, it said a legal team was following up on Bora’s detention and repeated the account that she had first been taken to an anti-narcotics facility before being shifted.

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas said an AISA representative had told him that Bora was detained at Mandi House while travelling to the ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ protest. He called for police to disclose her location, explain the grounds for detention and ensure access to people close to her. His account was attributed to that representative, rather than presented as an eyewitness statement.

CJP legal head Ratna Singh also sought disclosure of both detainees’ locations and legal status, along with information for their families and lawyers. AISA called on supporters to assemble at Parliament Street police station to demand the detained protesters’ release.

Police cite public order; individual answers remain pending

Police sources confirmed Mandi House as the location where Bora was picked up. Their broader explanation for the detentions was the need to maintain public order and prevent disruption to traffic.

Security personnel cordoned off Central Park in Connaught Place. Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed inside the park, while additional forces were stationed nearby.

The report leaves several individual custody questions unanswered: where Dipke was being held, the specific legal grounds for the two detentions, whether Bora subsequently received medication or met lawyers, and when either would be released. The organisations’ demands centred on those disclosures; the general police explanation did not settle them. No subsequent release or court outcome is recorded in the supplied account.