Gurgaon: Police presence at Kendriya Vihar in Sector 56 was unlike anything some of its workers and residents said they had seen before.A shopkeeper said around 50 plainclothes personnel entered the society late on Oct 9, its three gates were shut through the night, and police gathered around the house where YouTuber Dhruv Rathee’s parents lived. For some residents, it was only after the operation that they learnt the family lived there.The shopkeeper, who did not wish to be named, recalled seeing the personnel enter around 10-11pm on Oct 9 and gather around the house through the night. The deployment continued into the next morning, when, around 7am on Oct 10, personnel entered the house and took Rathee away, he said.“Cops in civil clothes continued to station outside his residence even till Sunday morning,” he added.By afternoon, however, the society was as silent as on any other day, the shopkeeper said. “When I entered the society yesterday morning, I was asked to make an entry, which happened for the first time. I have been running my shop here for around 20 years now. I was surprised by the act. When I inquired about it, I learnt about the detention of Rathee.”The scale of the operation left an impression on those who witnessed it. A worker, on condition of anonymity, described the deployment as unprecedented, saying the number of personnel was unusual.“I have never seen such police personnel here before. They looked as if they were dressed to attend a function,” he said, describing the men in plain clothes.“His parents had recently returned from Dubai and they used to live in another block of the society before shifting to the villa block from where he was detained. They have been living here for maybe more than 10 years now,” he further stated.The commotion did not mean everyone knew who the operation was centred on. A resident said he had been unaware that Rathee’s parents lived in the society.“I did not even know that his parents lived here. It was only after the police took him and I learnt about it through the news that I came to know,” the resident said. He added that he did not think many people in the society would have seen Rathee or known that he lived there.Rathee alleged that around 20 people, including police personnel and men in plain clothes, entered his house around 7 am on Oct 10 while he was asleep. He claimed his mother was pushed aside when she opened the door and that he was dragged out of his bedroom without being given time to put on his slippers. He also alleged that his parents were mistreated. The allegations could not be independently verified.Rathee was released early Sunday morning after being detained ahead of the Cockroach Janta Party’s planned protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. The demonstration was called to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls. Police said prohibitory orders were in force and the protest had not been granted permission. They said Rathee had been detained preventively after he did not heed warnings against attending.In a video posted on his social media after his release, Rathee gave a sharply different account, alleging that he was “kidnapped” from his bedroom, assaulted and kept confined for around 22-23 hours without access to his phone or a lawyer.“They kept me confined for 22-23 hours, without allowing me to use my phone or speak to a lawyer. They kept saying it was neither an arrest nor a detention and that I would be released. But I would call it kidnapping,” he said.
