‘I was kidnapped, not detained’: YouTuber Dhruv Rathee after being released from custody

The mass detentions in Delhi indicate a state of ‘unofficial Emergency’, said YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, soon after he was released from police custody. He said he was not arrested or detained, but “kidnapped” from his bedroom on the morning of October 10.

Dhruv was taken into police custody ahead of the protest called by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“[Prime Minister] Narendra Modi has turned this country into a dictatorship. This is an unofficial Emergency,” Dhruv said in a video posted on his social media after he was let go from custody. 

Describing how several people in plain clothes allegedly barged into his bedroom, snatched his phone, and dragged him out of his house into a police vehicle, Dhruv said he was “kidnapped”. 

“Detention would be if I had gone to a protest and the police detained me while I was protesting. Arrest is when a uniformed police officer with a name badge informs me under what section I was being arrested, and tells me I was being taken to the police station. None of this happened. They literally sent goons to kidnap me while I was asleep in my bedroom,” the YouTuber said. 

Dhruv said that around 7 am on October 10, his mother opened the door as she saw several people lurking outside. Suddenly, around 20 people in plain clothes shoved her aside, barged into his bedroom waking him up, dragged him out without answering any of his questions and without even letting him put on slippers, Dhruv alleged. He said he was then taken to different police stations in a jeep, and kept him in custody for nearly 20 hours. 

“They said I cannot meet my lawyer or access my phone. They said not to worry, it’s not detention or arrest, and that I would be let go,” he said. Dhruv also alleged that the men who took him into custody manhandled him and his parents. 

“This doesn’t happen in any democratic country, that an ordinary citizen who has not broken any law, who has only raised his voice for the truth and in national interest, who demanded a better Election Commission, is kidnapped and his parents are manhandled,” Dhruv said. 

He also addressed rumours over his citizenship, as some BJP supporters had questioned if he was an Indian citizen and had the right to participate in a political protest in India. He showed his Indian passport and asserted that he is an Indian citizen and will remain one. 

He referred to the detention of CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka, and Saurav Das, various political leaders from opposition parties including CPI(M), Aam Aadmi Party, and Trinamool Congress, and thousands of people who turned up for the protest and said, “These things happened during the Emergency. They happen in North Korea. Now they are happening in our country.”

He said his residence still remained under surveillance with around 15 people keeping an eye on him, calling it an unofficial house arrest. 

“I want to tell Narendra Modi, the more you suppress people, the louder their voices will rise. Read some history, look at how things ended for men like Hitler and Mussolini who tried to be dictators. In a dictatorship, things don’t end well for the dictator either,” Dhruv said.