Indian police accused of sexual harassment against journalists at protest

Three female journalists have accused police officers in India of sexual harassment during street protests in the capital Delhi.

Key points

• The protesters say the voter-roll revision will benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.
• "Police dragged me by my hair, " Aahna Singh, an activist and student at Jawaharlal Nehru University informed Reuters news agency during the protests.
• Thousands of protesters gathered in Delhi and Mumbai cities for a third day on Sunday demanding that Gyanesh Kumar step down over large-scale changes to voter rolls.
• Videos online show individuals being physically dragged away from the Jantar Mantar protest site in central Delhi.
• The protesters have included supporters of the influential Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) that began as an online satirical movement.

For context, the claims were created on Saturday after the force detained scores of young residents calling for the resignation of the chief election commissioner.

In a post on social media, Delhi Police remarked its New Delhi District had received the complaint, and it had been transferred to its crime branch for a "fair and impartial" inquiry.

Notably, the Election Commission notes the exercise is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries – and so far, 130 million names have been struck off the voters' list.

Meanwhile, the accusations by the women journalists include inappropriate touching by some police.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi remarked women fear for their safety and the home ministry must "answer for this".

"Police dragged me by my hair, " Aahna Singh, an activist and student at Jawaharlal Nehru University informed Reuters news agency during the protests. She remarked the police were resorting to "brutality".

For context, the protesters say the voter-roll revision will benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

For context, the Election Commission notes the exercise is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.

For context, the protesters have included supporters of the influential Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) that began as an online satirical movement.

For context, the pressure group recorded its first major victory in July when it forced the then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign after weeks of protests calling for education reforms.

In practice, the CJP pressed the latest protest after a report in The Indian Express, external stated that Kumar's two fellow election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had formally objected at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders they noted had been issued without their knowledge.

For context, the differences were documented to be mostly over the controversial revision of the country's electoral rolls known as the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR. It began last year.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has defended its way of working and remarked in an official note that "differing views" were part of the "decision-making process" and that all the decisions were taken unanimously.

But the revelations sparked a furore, with opposition leaders demanding Kumar's resignation.

Taken together, the developments around indian police accused of sexual harassment against journalists at protest point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.