CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar urges Amit Shah to probe Delhi Police over hidden name badges

A Communist Party of India (CPI) Member of Parliament has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing Delhi Police officers of deliberately removing or hiding their name badges before detaining and using force against protesters.

P Sandosh Kumar, a Rajya Sabha MP who was himself detained during a demonstration at Jantar Mantar on Friday, 2 October, called on the Home Minister to order a time-bound investigation into the conduct of the capital's police force.

In his letter, written on Saturday, Kumar argued that the practice of officers concealing their identities is not a minor slip-up, but a deliberate move to escape accountability while exercising state power.

'Democratic dissent cannot be met with methods reminiscent of the British Raj police,' Kumar wrote, adding that the Delhi Police must understand its role is 'to protect citizens and facilitate their constitutional rights, not to intimidate, assault or silence them.'

The protest at Jantar Mantar

The demonstration on Friday was directed against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with protesters raising concerns over the functioning of the Election Commission of India. Their grievances included issues with the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, changes to Form-6, and the commission's IT systems.

The protest brought together a wide coalition of opposition groups and student bodies, including the CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML)L, AAP, the All India Students' Federation (AISF), the All India Youth Federation (AIYF), SFI, DYFI, AISA, and various civil society organisations.

Kumar was among those rounded up by the police. He alleged that instead of managing a peaceful, democratic gathering at a site designated for protests by both the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal, the police responded with 'violence, mass detentions, internet shutdowns and manhandling'.

A pattern of hiding identity

A central point of Kumar’s complaint is the alleged pattern of police officers stripping off or covering up their name plates before moving in on demonstrators. He pointed out that this is not an isolated incident. He cited visual reports from an earlier protest on 20 July, where plain-clothes personnel and officers without visible badges reportedly used force against demonstrators.

'The fact that the same conduct was repeated on October 2 makes the matter serious,' Kumar wrote.

To back his complaint, the MP pointed to clear legal rules. He cited the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal, which strictly mandates that police officers carrying out arrests or handling detainees must wear clear, visible identification showing their names and designations. He also cited Delhi Police's own Standing Order No. 51, which makes visible name plates a compulsory part of the uniform.

Concerns over facial recognition

Kumar’s letter also raised questions about the Delhi Police's deployment of facial-recognition technology at Jantar Mantar.

He urged the Home Minister to include the use of this software in the demanded inquiry, pointing to an investigation that reportedly exposed major flaws in the technology. According to Kumar, the system had previously identified individuals as being present at a student protest when official records showed those same people were actually locked up in jail at the time.

The Home Ministry, which directly controls the Delhi Police, has not yet publicly responded to the MP's letter.