What changed
Three female journalists accused Delhi police officers of sexual harassment during protests in the Indian capital. Delhi Police said the complaint, made on Saturday, had been transferred to its crime branch for a “fair and impartial” inquiry.
The allegations came as thousands protested in Delhi and Mumbai for a third day, demanding the resignation of election chief Gyanesh Kumar over a voter-roll revision that the Election Commission says has removed 130 million duplicate or ineligible names.
Why it matters
The complaint puts police conduct at the centre of an already volatile dispute over who gets counted as a voter. Videos showed people being dragged from the Jantar Mantar protest site, while one activist, Aahna Singh, said police pulled her by the hair.
That makes the inquiry more than an internal disciplinary question. It will test whether journalists can document the protests without intimidation, and whether Delhi Police treats allegations involving its own officers with enough independence to command trust.
The Press Club of India said journalists must be able to work freely and warned that such behaviour cannot be normalised in a democracy. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called on the home ministry to answer for women’s safety.
The voter-roll revision is also under growing political pressure. The Election Commission says the previous full revision was nearly 25 years ago and that the update is needed to remove people who have died, left the country or moved and registered elsewhere. Opposition parties accuse Kumar of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP; both the BJP and the commission reject that claim.
The allegations have not been independently adjudicated, and it remains unclear whether the inquiry will lead to disciplinary or criminal findings. The immediate signal to watch is whether the crime branch produces a finding that addresses both the journalists’ complaints and the wider questions about police conduct at the protests.
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