11 IYC members held for violating COVID-19 guidelines during protest in Delhi, later released

Eleven members of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly violating COVID-19 guidelines while protesting in central Delhi against the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020, police said.

The members of the Congress' youth wing were later released, they said.

Around 12.30 pm on Wednesday, 25-30 workers of IYC were protesting at Kushak Road. They were stopped before the official residence of Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, they said.

The IYC workers started raising slogans against the government on the Draft EIA Notification, 2020.

"They were told that in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and guidelines related to it, gathering is not allowed and prohibitory orders under CrPC section 144 have been issued.

"However, they kept on protesting despite several requests, following which they were apprehended for violation of order and a case under sections 188 of the Indian Penal Code, 3 of Epidemic Disease Act, and 51 (b) of the Disaster Management Act has been registered against them," a senior police officer said.

The IYC members were identified as Harish Pawar, Shubham Sharma, Jiaprakash Sisodia, Tejas Bhardwaj, Nawab Ali, Divyansh Girdhar, Rahul Chauhan, Mukesh Kumar, Varun Khari, Laxman Sagar and Gaurav Kaushik, police said.