The allegations were made on Saturday after police detained dozens of young protesters demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Delhi Police said on social media that its New Delhi District had received the complaint and transferred it to the Crime Branch for a “fair and impartial” investigation.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Delhi and Mumbai for a third consecutive day on Sunday, calling for Kumar to step down over controversial changes to the country’s electoral rolls.

The Election Commission says the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries. According to the commission, about 130 million names have so far been removed from the voter lists.

Videos circulating online appear to show protesters being forcibly removed from the Jantar Mantar protest site in central Delhi. The journalists’ allegations include claims of inappropriate touching by police officers.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi expressed concern over the allegations, saying that women must be able to participate in public demonstrations without fearing for their safety. He also called on the Home Ministry to respond to the accusations.

Aahna Singh, an activist and student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Reuters that police had dragged her by her hair during the protests. She described the police response as “brutality.”

The Press Club of India has demanded immediate action over the allegations against the police. It said it was “shocked and dismayed” by the treatment of journalists and stressed that such behaviour should not be normalised in a democracy.

The controversy is linked to the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The commission says the revision is necessary to update voter records by removing people who have died, left the country or registered in more than one location after moving.

Opposition parties, however, have accused the Election Commission of manipulating voter lists to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both the BJP and the Election Commission have rejected the allegations.

The protests have also attracted supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an influential political pressure group that originated as an online satirical movement. The group called for the latest demonstrations following reports that two election commissioners had raised objections to several decisions concerning the electoral-roll revision.

According to a report by The Indian Express, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders that they said had been issued without their knowledge.

The Election Commission has defended its decision-making process, saying that differing opinions are part of institutional deliberations and that all decisions were ultimately taken unanimously.

The revelations have intensified political tensions, with opposition leaders renewing their calls for Gyanesh Kumar to resign.