A Delhi court on Saturday granted five days of police custody to four Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers who were arrested for staging a “T-shirt” protest at the venue of the AI Impact Summit over the India-US trade deal.
Judicial Magistrate Ravi of Patiala House Court sent Krishna Hari, National Secretary of Bihar Youth Congress; Kundan Yadav, IYC State Secretary, Bihar; Ajay Kumar, IYC State President, Uttar Pradesh; and Narasimha Yadav of Telangana into police custody for questioning.
In their plea seeking the arrest of the accused, the police alleged that they raised anti-national slogans and wore t-shirts with inappropriate pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the venue.
Stating that the act was “serious” misconduct as there was an attempted police stop in which three employees were injured, the police further argued that the custody of the accused was needed to recover their mobile phones. Police also claimed that the purpose of the custodial interrogation was to find out the “conspiracy” behind the protest, the source of funding and where the T-shirts of the accused were printed.
The legal representative of the IYC workers objected to the police’s remand request. He argued that the arrested youths were affiliated with a political party and exercised their democratic right to protest peacefully. He added that the arrests of the protesters “have greatly reduced the dignity of democracy”.
Published – 21 Feb 2026 21:50 IST
