The protest by four Indian Youth Congress workers (IYC) at AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam has transcended the ambit of legitimate dissent and hurt the country’s diplomatic image before foreign stakeholders, a Delhi court said on Saturday as it remanded the IYC workers to five days of police custody. This comes a day after the IYC workers were arrested for allegedly breaching the security at the venue and raising “anti-national” slogans, according to police. The court noted that the four accused — who hail from remote locations from across the country — are at the risk of absconding and preliminary findings in the case suggest a conspiracy link.
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“It (the alleged actions of the accused) imperils not merely the event’s sanctity but also the Republic’s diplomatic image before foreign stakeholders, rendering it wholly unprotected by constitutional safeguards,” said Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Ravi of the Patiala House in his order on Saturday while remanding the accused to custody. “Such conduct palpably transcends the ambit of legitimate dissent, metamorphosing into a blatant assault on public order,” he added.
In his order, he also underlined, “Firstly, the offences implicate grave threats to public order and state security at an international forum…attracting warranting stringent scrutiny. Secondly, the accused hail from remote locales — across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana — (and) pose a high risk of absconding, further heightened by early investigation findings suggesting external conspiracy links. Thirdly, the probe reveals multiple absconding associates, heightening tampering perils vis-à-vis digital footprints, financial trails, and co-accused disclosures.”
The police arrested IYC National Secretary Krishna Hari, a resident of Bihar; IYC National Coordinator Narasimha Yadav; and two other members — Kundan Yadav, also a resident Bihar; and Ajay Kumar — on Friday shortly after the incident.
The incident occurred at 12.30 pm when a group of six-eight men wearing jackets and sweaters entered the Hall Number 7 of the venue. The accused were allegedly wearing T-shirts with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture printed on them, which they had concealed under their jackets and sweaters.
They allegedly removed the jackets and sweaters after entering the AI Expo Hall inside the venue where they started shouting slogans, and then protested without shirts.
The court order read, “In the instant case, the accused are alleged to have orchestrated a premeditated intrusion into the high-security precincts of Bharat Mandapam during the Al Summit 2026…wherein they donned provocative T-shirts bearing offensive slogans such as’ ‘India US Trade Deal Compromised,’ vociferously raised incendiary chants, obstructed public servants in the execution of their duties, and perpetrated physical assaults causing grievous injuries to police personnel, as substantiated by the medico-legal case on record.”
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Public prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava, who represented the Delhi Police, told the court that the custody of the accused was needed to recover their mobile phones and ascertain the source of “funding”. “It can be seen that ‘Gen Z’ reference was made… this is associated with Nepal protests. We need to recover their mobile phones and ascertain funding. All four accused are from different places… we need to find out how they conspired together and how this got printed on their T-shirts,” he said.
On the other hand, the counsel of the accused argued that protesting was a fundamental right and that all the alleged offences against the accused had a maximum punishment of below seven years. “Protest is a fundamental right. Politicians also protest in Parliament. Will you arrest them? Dissent can’t be crushed like this…Bail is the rule, jail is the exception,” the defence counsel argued.
