Anti-Siang dam protester alleges sexual assault during detention; Pawan Khera slams Delhi Police

New Delhi: Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday slammed Delhi Police over allegations that a protester detained during a demonstration against the proposed Siang dam project in Arunachal Pradesh was subjected to sexual harassment and physical assault.

The allegations surfaced after a protester claimed that police personnel lifted their shirt and pinched them on their private parts during detention outside Arunachal Bhawan on Saturday.

Sharing a photograph of the protest, Khera wrote on X, “My shirt was lifted, I was pinched on my private parts”, alleges a peaceful anti-Siang Dam protester brutally detained by Delhi Police outside Arunachal Bhawan on Saturday. Is this the Delhi Police whose job is to serve and PROTECT the PEOPLE? The lengths that Home Minister Amit Shah’s forces are going to quash any kind of political expression is reaching depraved and disgusting new lows day by day. The right to protest is constitutional. Who will hold the Delhi Police accountable?”

The protest was organised by Himkhand and Youth for Change Arunachal. Participants demanded the withdrawal of the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), the release of activists detained during anti-dam protests in Arunachal Pradesh and the withdrawal of security forces from the Siang Valley.

The proposed 11,200-MW project on the Siang River has faced opposition from indigenous communities, particularly members of the Adi tribe, who fear the submergence of ancestral lands, displacement of villages and damage to their livelihoods and cultural heritage.