Demonstrators protesting the amended citizenship law at East Delhi's Khureji on Wednesday claimed that police personnel tried to forcefully disperse them by barging into their protest site at around 2 am, cutting the power connection and knocking down their tents.
The Delhi police, however, has refuted the claims saying no such "coercive action" was taken.
Over a thousand protestors, including women and children, have gathered in the East Delhi neighbourhood where protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and a possible pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) had started on Monday.
"By 2 am, around three dozen protestors, including some 15 women, were at the venue when policemen barged in and cut power supply for the lights, leaving the area in darkness," a local resident, who claimed to have been present at the site, told PTI.
"They then brought down the poles supporting the tarpaulins that were put up for shelter in front of the stage," said the man, in his 50s, who wanted to protect his identity for security reasons.
He said nobody was injured in the alleged police action.
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"They (cops) just came and did what they had in mind. But the word spread among locals immediately and soon hundreds of people gathered at the site, which led the policemen to leave," he claimed.
The tent was erected again by protesters and by 11 am, scores of people gathered at the venue where women were leading the charge, chanting slogans like "Aazaadi" and "Aawaaz do hum ek hain".
Zafar Ahsan Karimi, who runs a school for the poor in Khureji, described the police action as "unjust".
"There were over a dozen women at the protest site and they (cops) barged in with a motive of vandalism at 2 in the morning. There were no female police personnel either. Is this constitutional?" he said.
On the issue of CAA and NRC, he said, "The government should not be asking for our papers to check whether we are Indians. They should get our DNA test done and will find out even about our 10 generations who belonged to this country."
Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi East, Alok Kumar told PTI, "No such coercive action was taken at the protest site. Had police wanted to clear the protestors, it would have been done. But the protestors are still there."