Bengaluru: On a day Karnataka chief minister DK Shivakumar and home minister Priyank Kharge protested against Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and police action against protesters in Delhi, police in Bengaluru detained dozens of protesters and assaulted photojournalists covering the action on Monday.Personnel in plainclothes were seen acting against protesters and journalists outside SJP college — opposite the chief electoral officer (CEO) office — which is under 1km from Freedom Park, the designated protest site in Bengaluru.The protesters, including students, lawyers, activists and academics, had gathered to march to the chief electoral officer’s office to demand that SIR be scrapped and chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign.Police began detaining them before the march could begin, according to activist group My Vote, My Right. The group said police confiscated placards. Some students waiting for the bus were chased away.Protesters were pushed, dragged and forcibly taken away in buses. Police personnel were seen beating up young protesters and pulling at the clothes of women protesters, the group said. Advocate Vinay Sreenivasa told TOI: “They used force and detained several of us and released us at the CAR (City Armed Reserve) grounds. Clifton Rozario, the national general secretary of All India Lawyer’s Association for Justice, was assaulted.”Those detained and released were activist-author Aakar Patel, members of AILAJ, members of My Vote, My Right, a coalition of over 40 civil society organisations, including trade unions, women’s groups, and human rights organisations.Among the photojournalists, one was beaten up by four police personnel, while three other journalists were manhandled. The cameras and mobile phones of the journalists were snatched and damaged by cops.A photojournalist said police assaulted a group of students and objected when journalists tried to record the action. When he continued filming, an officer told him to delete the footage. One photojournalist was pushed to the ground after police grabbed his phone and threw it aside. He was pulled by the collar, pushed and hit on the leg, according to his account. An officer threatened to put him in jail.The journalists were attempting to document police personnel pushing and pulling women protesters. The photojournalist said there were few women police personnel present as male officers handled the protesters. When contacted, a senior police officer said: “We’ll inquire into what happened and decide the next course of action.”My Vote, My Right said it had been demanding the withdrawal of SIR since Oct 2025, arguing that the exercise could lead to mass disenfranchisement.The detentions in Bengaluru drew criticism on social media, including from people who said their family members had been taken away.“My daughter and her friend who went to join anti-SIR protests in Bangalore have just been detained. Why is this happening in a Congress-ruled state even when the young step out in support of your cause? Please respond,” Arpita Das, associate professor of writing at Ashoka University, posted on X, tagging Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge.Prateek Waghre, sharing a video of the police action, questioned Karnataka govt’s response to the protesters. “For all your posturing against RSS, your police is acting like it is administered by an RSS off-shoot political party,” he posted, tagging Kharge.Box:Protesters didn’t comply, friction with media unintentional: DCPDCP (central) Akshay M Hakay said protesters who assembled without permission were asked to move to Freedom Park, but did not comply, following which they were taken into preventive custody and released. He said police acted with restraint, adding that the friction between journalists and police personnel was “completely unintentional” and occurred under “straining circumstances”. Bengaluru police urged protesters to follow high court directions and hold demonstrations only at Freedom Park.
