Shirtless protest: Court sends arrested IYC workers to 5-day police custody

Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers staging a protest during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, in New Delhi. (Courtesy: PTI photo)

A Delhi court on Saturday sent the four Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers, who were arrested for protesting at the AI Impact Summit venue a day ago, to five-day police custody.

Judicial Magistrate Ravi allowed the Delhi Police's plea seeking five days of custodial interrogation of the accused persons.

A detailed order is awaited.

The arrested protesters were Krishna Hari, national secretary of Youth Congress from Bihar; Kundan Yadav, IYC state secretary, Bihar; Ajay Kumar, IYC state president, Uttar Pradesh; and Narasimha Yadav from Telangana.

Delhi Police sought five-day custody of the arrested protesters, arguing that they raised anti-national slogans and wore T-shirts with objectionable images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the event venue.

It said the mobile phones of the accused persons were required to be recovered and, as they were from different states, custodial interrogation was necessary.

Counsel for the police argued that it was a "serious" matter. An attempt was made to stop the police, following which three personnel were injured, he said.

Besides, the conspiracy behind organising the protest, the source of funding and where the T-shirts were printed needed to be ascertained, the counsel said.

The counsel appearing for the arrested protesters argued that they were associated with a political party and had exercised their democratic right to protest peacefully.

The advocate claimed that their arrest greatly diminished the dignity of democracy and that if arrests are to be made for protesting, then MPs protesting in Parliament should also be arrested.