Two recent clusters of complaints in Delhi have put police conduct toward women journalists under scrutiny. In both, the journalists say they were targeted while reporting. The police either deny the core claims or say the matter is under inquiry. None of the allegations below has yet been established by a court or a completed independent investigation.
Jantar Mantar, 3 October 2026
On 3 October, during a protest at Jantar Mantar calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, three women journalists filed complaints alleging sexual harassment by Delhi Police personnel.
One journalist told reporters that she asked Assistant Commissioner of Police Vivek Bhagat why women officers were not present while protesters were being detained, and that he then sexually assaulted her and pushed her. In a complaint reported by The Indian Express, she said an officer “pushed my breast and shoved me.” A second complainant, a video journalist, said that while she was recording the detention of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on Ashoka Road, someone pressed against her back and thighs from behind. When she turned, she saw a policeman standing very close to her.
The journalists spent hours at Parliament Street police station seeking an FIR. As of 4 October, reports in The Wire, Scroll and The Quint said no FIR had been registered, with some officers citing a lack of evidence at that stage. Delhi Police acknowledged the complaints in a public statement: allegations of sexual harassment had been made by three female journalists “while being in [a] law and order situation,” and New Delhi district had transferred the complaints to the Crime Branch “for fair and impartial enquiry.”
The Press Club of India and the Press Council of India criticised the treatment of the journalists and asked for prompt action. Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, also took up the complaints.
Saket police station, 3 September 2026
A separate set of allegations, about physical assault rather than sexual molestation, dates to 3 September. Freelance journalists Shaheen Khan and Nafisa Khan, associated with the digital outlet 4PM News Network, said they were detained near the inauguration of a new wing at Max Hospital in Saket — an event attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta — and taken to Saket police station.
In videos and interviews carried by India Today, The Hindu, The Indian Express and The Telegraph, Shaheen Khan said they were taken into a room and beaten with sticks and slapped by police personnel, including a woman officer in plain clothes. She said the force increased after officers learned their surname was Khan and that they were Muslim, and that phones were taken. The women displayed what they described as bruises on an arm and a leg. Press bodies including the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Press Association condemned the alleged assault and asked the police commissioner for an inquiry. The journalists later said they were going for a medico-legal examination and asked that station CCTV be preserved.
Delhi Police rejected the account. DCP (South) Anant Mittal called the claims “factually incorrect and misleading.” The force said the two women had parked a scooter on a designated VVIP route, refused repeated instructions to move it, and were taken to the station for enquiry under security protocol. Police also said the women were not carrying identity cards, created a disturbance, and manhandled a pregnant officer, and that they were free to leave within minutes. Several outlets noted that the assault allegations had not been independently verified.
What is and is not established
The October complaints are specifically about sexual harassment and groping by police. The September complaints are about detention and beating, with an added claim of religious targeting. In the October case, police have accepted that complaints exist and moved them to the Crime Branch. In the September case, police deny any assault and offer a security-protocol explanation. In neither matter has a court found the allegations proved, and early reporting repeatedly flagged the absence of an independent verification or a completed inquiry.
A related but distinct case from July 2026 is sometimes conflated with these. A woman television journalist covering protests near Jantar Mantar alleged she was kicked and hit by agitators, not by police. Parliament Street police registered a molestation and assault case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against protesters, citing video footage.
Press organisations have treated both 2026 police complaints as tests of whether journalists, particularly women, can report from protest sites and political events without being detained or assaulted, and whether complaints against officers are investigated rather than closed at the station. The outcomes now depend on the Crime Branch inquiry into the 3 October complaints, any medical and CCTV record from the Saket episode, and whether FIRs are eventually registered.