New Delhi: Central Delhi experienced heightened tension as extensive security personnel, combining local police and paramilitary forces, deployed heavily across Connaught Place and thoroughfares leading toward Jantar Mantar. Authorities enacted strict movement controls by shutting down commercial establishments, suspending internet connectivity, sealing key entry routes, and closing forty-five metro stations to curtail public assembly.
Despite the sweeping restrictions, crowds of demonstrators, including students, managed to arrive on foot from peripheral areas with the intention of marching toward Jantar Mantar. Participants voiced anti-government slogans before security forces, which included female officers, intervened to disperse the crowds and detain numerous individuals throughout the inner and outer circles.
The widespread security measures and detentions drew sharp criticism from political circles, with critics condemning the actions as unlawful and a direct violation of constitutional rights to peaceful assembly, while likening the capital's barricading to siege conditions. Meanwhile, the Congress party chose not to participate directly in the ground mobilization in Delhi, as senior leader Rahul Gandhi traveled to Chennai to attend the Chhatro Ki Goonj programme.