As Central Park in Delhi's Connaught Place heats up on Friday over the 'Lehra Do Tiranga' protest, at least 150 protesters have been detained so far amid attempts to join the latest Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
This comes after CJP chief Abhijeet Dipke and All India Students' Association (AISA) head Neha Bora were detained in preventive custody amid the 'Lehra Do Tiranga' march.
Heavy security has been deployed in the region, with visuals from the scene showing Rapid Action Force (RAF) and other forces patrolling the area as Section 163 of the BNSS was imposed after the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) blocked off the site to protesters on October 16-17.
While Dipke was detained near Central Park when he had been on his way to the protests, the AISA has alleged that Bora was taken to an "unknown location" after she was detained at Mandi House.
Friday's protest is also a response to the detention of CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who were remanded to judicial custody after they entered Jantar Mantar on October 13 to unfurl the national flag, even after the Centre had de-notified it as a protest site.
Dipke's detention came after he was earlier warned by the Delhi Police not to conduct the Tiranga march at Central Park—not only due to the reported security risks, but also because the planned venue was not a notified protest site.
The Delhi Police had also said that it planned to deploy more than 6,000 personnel in and around the Lutyens area, in addition to about 5,000 additional personnel from other districts.
Amid the Tiranga march, it also used drones to monitor not just rising traffic jams in the region, but also the protesters themselves.
