Youth Congress protest at AI summit inspired by Nepal’s Gen Z agitation, Delhi Police tells court

A Delhi court on Saturday sent four Indian Youth Congress workers to five days of police custody in connection with a protest at the venue of the India AI Impact Summit, ANI reported. The court also rejected the bail applications of all four accused.

The Delhi Police had told the court that the protest was part of a “larger conspiracy” and claimed it was inspired by Nepal’s recent Gen Z-led agitation, Times Now reported. It alleged that the demonstration was a pre-planned attempt to disrupt the high-profile event at Bharat Mandapam.

The four persons accused in the case, Krishna Hari, Kundan Yadav, Ajay Kumar and Narasimha Yadav, were produced before Judicial Magistrate Ravi, PTI reported. Kumar is from Uttar Pradesh and Narasimha Yadav is from Telangana, while Hari and Kundan Yadav are from Bihar.

The police had sought five days of custody for the four workers, who were arrested on Friday after they held a protest during the summit. The group shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and held placards alleging that he was “compromised”.

During the hearing on Saturday, the court asked the Delhi Police why five days of custody was required.

The police submitted that “anti-national” slogans were raised in the presence of “international leaders and prominent figures”, ANI reported.

It also told the court that three officers were injured in the incident. The police said the mobile phones of the accused needed to be recovered to verify whether they had “received funding”.

“Their custody is necessary to arrest other accused who fled,” the police added.

Opposing the plea, counsel for the accused argued that there was no evidence to show that the protest was not peaceful. He submitted that there was no footage proving that the accused had attacked police officers or made any “anti-national” speech, ANI reported.

The defence also argued that the accused were being targeted because they belonged to an Opposition party. “They are young, they have careers, and political dissent shouldn’t be crushed like this,” ANI quoted the lawyer as saying. “It was a peaceful protest.”

On Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party had described the protest by the Indian Youth Congress as a “national shame”.

“At a time when India is hosting a prestigious global AI summit, showcasing its innovation and leadership in technology, the Congress party chose disruption over dignity,” the Hindutva party said.

Commenting on the legal action being taken against the Indian Youth Congress workers, the unit’s chief Uday Bhanu Chib had told ANI that his colleagues will not be intimidated.

“The BJP can go to any lengths, but we are soldiers of the Constitution, soldiers of Rahul Gandhi,” he had said. “We won’t back down. We will raise our voice for the youth of the country.”

The five-day summit at the Bharat Mandapam, which began on February 16, has been promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, executives from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries attended the event.