I am a 29-year-old teacher from Nashik. Last week, I was in New Delhi for some work.
For weeks now, I have been following the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest—and Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike—against the NEET paper leak and the alleged irregularities. So, when I was done with my work, I knew I had to head to Jantar Mantar.
Not everyone gets to be at the heart of action. A huge protest was unfoldingNE—and I felt I was in a far better position than most to stand there and be counted.
I had mixed feelings regarding the protest. Part of me was glad that years of anger and helplessness among students had finally found an outlet. But part of me was also sceptical. I didn’t think that the resignation of a Union minister was realistically on the table, and even if one came, I wasn’t sure that it would change anything.
That scepticism began to shift on Friday, 17 July, when I visited Jantar Mantar and saw the numbers swelling ahead of a planned march to the parliament on the 20th.
It suddenly felt like something that mattered. So, I decided to join.
'Grabbed By The Police'
On 20 July, I joined the march at around 11:30. By noon, I was detained. I was picked up near Krishi Bhavan during the Parliament march.
It happened during what I believe was the first lathi charge, right in front of Parliament, sometime around noon.
What I saw in those first moments has stayed with me. The moment police began the lathi charge, the crowd, mostly young students, many of them at their first protest ever, turned and ran.
I don't blame them for it.
But I noticed that this panic made it easy for the police to pick people off one by one. So I started telling people around me not to scatter, to hold their ground, because there is safety in numbers, if we stood together, the police wouldn't be able to detain so many at once.
No one was resisting arrest. I was simply telling people not to run. But some police personnel may be heard me, and they seemed to decide I was worth noticing. They came into the middle of the crowd, grabbed me, and pulled me out, even though I was nowhere near the front.
I don't know if they understood exactly what I'd said, but they'd seen me shouting, and perhaps assumed I was "leading" something, which I was not.
I was roughed up, though others were treated far worse. Random people who weren't even protestors were swept up in the same crackdown—one man was picked up from Raisina Hill, someone with no connection to the protest at all, and he was beaten badly.
'First Stop Was Burari Police Station'
We were loaded onto a bus and taken to Burari Police Station in North Delhi. For the first hour or two, the police were surprisingly gentle—almost sympathetic, telling us they'd protested too in their younger days. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers came by with snacks. Looking back, I think the police simply hadn't received their orders yet, and everyone was in a kind of holding pattern.
Eventually, around 60 of us were put on a bus again. Some detainees jumped out through the windows along the way. I stayed; I assumed we'd be dropped off far from the city and left to make our own way back. That's not what happened.
We were taken instead to Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi, where, again, AAP volunteers brought food, and things felt calm, until around 12:30 at night, when the police received new orders.
That's when everything changed. Our phones were confiscated, and the earlier warmth evaporated instantly. The intimidation began. One IIT student among us was told plainly by an officer that since he'd now been "caught" protesting, his career was finished, and he'd never get a job.
From there we were taken to Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital in Jahangirpuri for what was supposed to be a medical check-up, though nothing medical actually happened—they just recorded our names, took thumbprints, and noted identifying marks. We were split into groups of seven and held overnight. I was kept at Model Town Police Station.
'Many Went Back to Jantar Mantar'
The next morning, we were handed papers to sign. When I asked if I could read what I was signing, I was told to read it later. I kept trying to read anyway—I'm admittedly a slow reader in Hindi—and an officer slapped me for it. After that, no one behind me dared to ask; they simply signed. We were then taken before a magistrate in Jahangirpuri, who verbally warned us not to repeat the offence, and we were let go.
In total, I was detained around 1 pm on Monday and released close to noon on Tuesday, 21 July. I made my way to Hazrat Nizamuddin station and caught my pre-booked train back to Nashik.
Several of the people who were detained with me went straight back to the protest site as soon as they were released. I couldn't as I had to take the train the very same evening.
I've taught for almost a decade, including students preparing for NEET and other competitive exams. I know how brutal these exams are and how much rides on them for the lakhs of students who sit for them every year. If the system can't guarantee that every meritorious student gets their due, the least it owes them is an exam conducted with integrity. By some counts I've seen in the news, at least 89 papers leaked between 2014 and 2024; more recent figures cited by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi put the number at 152 leaks over the last decade. The number of students affected would run into the millions.
And paper leaks are just one part of it. So many exams get tangled in court cases over unrelated disputes, dragging on for years while students' lives stall, only for the exam to be cancelled anyway. Some exams take four or five years just to produce final results. This isn't new; students have taken their own lives over this broken system, and yet, instead of the government valuing those lives enough to reform anything, they can't even take responsibility to the point of resigning.
Given the brutality the police showed on the ground, and the cold shoulder the government has shown since, I believe we owe it to those affected to demand real accountability and to keep up this struggle until that goal is actually met.
What Delhi Police Has Said
Delhi Police on Monday, 20 July had denied any "sporadic use of violence/detentions" during its handling of the protesters at the march.
In a statement posted on X, Delhi Police said, "Some segments from the media have mentioned sporadic use of violence/detentions at Jantar Mantar by Delhi Police. It is informed that no such incident has taken place and the protest is being handled professionally."
(The Quint has reached out to Delhi Police seeking its response to the issues raised by the author. A response is awaited. This story will be updated upon receiving it.)
(All 'My Report' branded stories are submitted by citizen journalists to The Quint. Though The Quint inquires into the claims/allegations from all parties before publishing, the report and the views expressed above are the citizen journalist's own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for the same.)