Saturday, 17 October, at Town Hall, Bengaluru. The police lifted protesters. The Hindu: about 50 AISA members and activists. The News Minute, the same order of magnitude. The New Indian Express: 75–80. Three figures, one afternoon. No one, in the texts consulted, has been convicted. Detention is not a sentence. They were released after an hour, NIE writes, or after some time, TNM writes, from the CAR grounds on Mysuru Road, Chamarajpet.

The protest: against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. AISA also demands the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in TNM. Activists, in NIE: SIR could drop migrants, women, Muslims and other marginalised groups from the lists. That is the accusation. It is not a finding by the Commission. They chose Town Hall because it is central and has a history of gatherings. They want Mysuru Circle too, not only Freedom Park.

SJ Park police refused the request, citing Karnataka High Court guidelines: rallies, at Freedom Park. A notice dated 17 October, reported by TNM: demonstrations, marches, placards, mock protests banned elsewhere. DCP (Central) Akshay Machhindra, to NIE: on Friday, permission denied. On Saturday, they assembled at Town Hall anyway. They were reminded of the court. They were warned. They did not leave. Detained between 4.30pm and 5.30pm. Released. “After they failed to listen.” That is the police version.

AISA, to NIE: they took out flags, raised slogans, then the detentions began. Allegations: force, torn clothes, muscle pain, some women officers without identification badges. The gathering, they say, was peaceful, with no march planned. TNM: CM D.K. Shivakumar had sought a report on an earlier police action; Home Minister Priyank Kharge had said peaceful protests would not be disrupted. Organisers: two standards, Delhi and Bengaluru. That is the argument. It is not the file.

Traffic, disrupted for a while. Extra force, barricades. TNM: additional platoons in the area to stop further gatherings. Public space, on the table again: Town Hall versus Freedom Park. The court designated a venue. The protesters want the old square. The police applied the order, they say. The figure, 50 or 80, stays in the statements.

Until a complaint, what remains is two buses and an hour. After a complaint, what remains is whether Freedom Park is a right or a pen. Between them, an electoral list that nobody, on Saturday, counted.

Image: Muhammad Mahdi Karim / Diliff, Sir Puttanna Chetty Town Hall, Bengaluru, 8 March 2010, GFDL 1.2, Wikimedia Commons. The photograph is of the building, not the 17 October 2026 protest.

Sources consulted: Bengaluru: 50 detained during anti-SIR protest at Town Hall — The News Minute; Bengaluru: 75-80 protesters detained during anti-SIR agitation near Town Hall — New Indian Express.