New Delhi, October 17, 2026 — Lawyers and student activists raised an alarm late Friday night over the whereabouts of All India Students’ Association (AISA) national president Neha Bora after she was detained during a police crackdown on protests in the capital, alleging arbitrary detention and repeated undisclosed transfers of her custody.
Advocate Supantha Sinha, counsel for Bora, said in an urgent representation to senior Delhi Police officials that the 29-year-old PhD scholar and activist was detained near Mandi House Metro Station while attempting to join a peaceful protest. Bora did not have her mobile phone with her at the time of detention, complicating efforts to locate her.
Around midnight on Friday, AISA announced that Bora had been traced to R.K. Puram police station. According to the organisation, she was kept on the road for five hours as the sole female detainee in a Delhi Police detention van. The episode triggered widespread outrage on social media and among opposition voices, with the slogan “Where is Neha Bora?” circulating rapidly as lawyers were reportedly denied access at some police stations.
The search for Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke continued into the early hours of Saturday. Efforts to locate both activists intensified amid a sweeping police operation that has seen large numbers of protesters detained across the city.
Bora, a Jawaharlal Nehru University PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies and national president of the left-wing AISA, has emerged as one of the most visible faces of recent Gen Z-led protests. The current wave of demonstrations, organised with the CJP and other groups, demands the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Protesters and opposition parties have claimed that more than 130 million voters were deleted.
Earlier this year, Bora gained national attention during a 23-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar alongside educationist Sonam Wangchuk over examination paper leaks and education reforms. In recent weeks she has been detained multiple times while leading or participating in street actions, including climbing barricades and continuing to address supporters from police vehicles. Media profiles have described her as a persistent street mobiliser who uses they/them pronouns and often links student issues to broader questions of democratic rights.
Delhi Police have maintained that protests lacking proper permission have been dispersed and that detainees are processed according to procedure. Lawyers and civil society groups, however, have accused authorities of stonewalling attempts to confirm locations and of holding detainees without timely access to legal counsel.
As of early Saturday, Bora’s situation appeared to have been clarified after the overnight uncertainty, while the search for Dipke remained active. The developments have added to tensions surrounding the ongoing protests against the voter-roll revision exercise in the national capital.