New Delhi, February 21 A Delhi court on Saturday ordered the detention of four members of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), who were arrested for protesting at the venue of the AI Impact Summit a day ago, for a period of five days.
Magistrate Ravi allowed the Delhi Police's request for five days of custodial interrogation of the accused.
A detailed order is pending.
The arrested protesters were Krishna Hari, national secretary of Youth Congress from Bihar; Kundan Yadav, IYC state secretary, Bihar; Ajay Kumar, IYC state president, Uttar Pradesh; and Narasimha Yadav from Telangana.
The Delhi Police sought five-day custody of the arrested protesters, arguing that they raised anti-national slogans and wore T-shirts with objectionable images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the event venue.
They stated that the mobile phones of the accused needed to be recovered, and that, as they were from different states, custodial interrogation was necessary.
The police's legal counsel argued that it was a "serious" matter. They said that an attempt was made to stop the police, following which three personnel were injured.
Furthermore, the counsel stated that the conspiracy behind organizing the protest, the source of funding, and the location where the T-shirts were printed needed to be ascertained.
The legal counsel representing the arrested protesters argued that they were associated with a political party and had exercised their democratic right to peacefully protest.
The advocate claimed that their arrest greatly diminished the dignity of democracy and that if arrests are to be made for protesting, then MPs protesting in Parliament should also be arrested.
