Tiranga on her back, she holds on to the bus

By 5:30 pm on Sunday, CRPF and RAF personnel, alongside a fleet of orange low-floor buses, had cordoned off A Block in Connaught Place. They awaited protesters set to join the SFI's all-women Tiranga rally near Rajiv Chowk Metro station Gate 7. Shortly after 6 pm, security forces began apprehending the demonstrators. Among the first to be seized was a woman social worker, followed by others, including a lawyer and her companion.

"I am willing to cooperate," the lawyer declared as police personnel dragged and shoved her and her friend into a bus. Inside another vehicle, a woman clad in white and sporting a black mask berated reporters: "They have no right to detain us under today's Supreme Court ruling. I am unsure why I am being held captive or where my destination lies."

Another protester, who managed to unlatch a bus window amid male police officers guarding the entrance from the outside, lamented: "I was detained for inquiring about the whereabouts of my sister who was taken away earlier." At 6:40 pm, around ten protesters, comprising SFI activists, attempted to impede a bus as it began to depart.

Two women—former JNU students' union president and SFI member Aishe Ghosh, and another protester draped in the National Flag—leapt onto the bus's front and held on. The confrontation persisted for about fifteen minutes before police personnel wrestled the women down and consigned them to the bus. Officers then fashioned a human chain to clear the path for the vehicle to exit Connaught Place.

From within, a protester wailed: "We are being seized, held against our will for merely walking down the streets." For Khushi (26), who had shunned the CJP's July protests due to apprehension, the spectacle was emotionally distressing. "I was too frightened to attend the July protests. This time, I resolved to be present. However, the manner in which police have brutalized the protesters, particularly women after 6 pm, is abhorrent. The officers are shoving, grabbing, and hauling them without a shred of regard."