On May 3, I was receiving best wishes messages for Press Freedom Day. The same day we saw the news that India had slipped further on the Press Freedom Index to 161st position out of 180 nations.

Little did I know that after a few hours I was destined to prove that in the heart of the nation.

It was 11.30pm on May 3 when I first saw videos on Twitter of protesting wrestlers crying. It was suddenly trending and I could hear them cry in helplessness.

Social media was abuzz with the news of Delhi police allegedly manhandling wrestlers protesting at Jantar Mantar when they tried to place a couple of temporary beds to sleep on at the protest site, pleading for help while police personnel were dragging them away. A few even got hurt in that scuffle.

We all saw how Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik broke down and said they were not criminals to be treated in such a manner. Everyone with a sane mind was shocked and enraged by this behaviour of the Delhi police. I too was and just then I decided to visit the site. How could I not? That’s the least I can do after witnessing the appalling injustice meted out to our heroes who were once carried on shoulders and are now left to sit on the streets. Who were once used for photo ops by Prime Minister Modi and now he doesn’t even want to hear their grievances. It was also important to go because I knew that, like always, the mainstream media would twist the truth to appease the powerful.

Since it was very late in the night and difficult to arrange for staff at that hour, I told my husband that I was planning to go to Jantar Mantar and asked him if he was willing to come along. He agreed without a second thought and we both went to the site.

We reached around 12.30am. He waited outside while I tried to go to the main site.

I could see heavy deployment of the police, too many barricades, the area from where we could easily enter earlier was completely blocked and the whole area was turned into a fortress. There were two tiers of security. I somehow managed to cross the outer layer of the barricades, but as soon as I went ahead, all I could see was a sea of men and women in uniform moving in one direction, a PCR van, and a bus used for detention.

What I saw was enough to pull my camera out and start recording. All I was showing was that there was heavy deployment at the site and they weren’t allowing even journalists to go inside. I had not even asked them to let me in but a woman cop came to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to record. When I asked why, she told me there was Section 144 imposed there.

Someone who knows what Section 144 means would genuinely ask how can its imposition stop a journalist from doing her job! So I told them what Section 144 meant. More than four people couldn’t stand in one place in a group. I told them I was standing there alone. And by applying Section 144 how could they stop a journalist from covering an incident?

Wrestlers Sangeeta Phogat and Vinesh Phogat react after a scuffle allegedly broke out between protesting wrestlers and the police at Jantar Mantar on May 3. PTI picture

As I asked this genuine question, a senior police officer of the 2014 IPS batch, additional DCP Dr Hemant Tiwari, instructed women police personnel in anger to detain me. He firmly instructed them to climb up the divider where I was standing alone.

When I heard the word detain, I started asking him on what ground has he instructed them to detain me. He said they would tell me later. In the video that was shot from far away by my husband, you can see 6-8 women police personnel who surrounded me and pounced on me to snatch my camera. I kept resisting but they managed to take it away.

After unconstitutionally stopping me from doing my work, and taking my equipment away while I wasn’t a hindrance in their work, they again did something illegal. The law says you cannot detain or arrest a woman after sunset or before sunrise. I kept telling senior police officer Dr Hemant Tiwari and his colleagues about this law as well but they seemed determined to misbehave and mishandle me. They were determined to flout all the rules. While I was asking them these questions they all were laughing at me. I even asked them what they were laughing at but they did not respond.

By this time, the police van’s driver had arrived and Dr Hemant Tiwari asked the women police personnel to put me inside the van. When I resisted and refused to go, one of them pulled my hair from behind, the other tried to lift me, and another started pulling my clothes and tore my salwar. A big patch of my salwar was torn from my thighs to the knees. I kept telling them they were tearing my clothes off but they didn’t stop. They too looked determined as if their orders were quite direct and specific.

Around 12.50am, I was pushed inside the bus. They waited for 10 minutes and then two women constables came and handed my camera to me. The bus began moving, I kept asking them where were they taking me, but again all I got in response was silence.

After moving me on deserted Delhi roads at night, they finally stopped at Mandir Marg police station. As soon as I got down, the police van went and a policeman standing outside the station asked me to go on my own.

I kept asking him how do I go in this condition where my clothes were torn. It was late at night and I was all alone. He didn’t respond and went and closed the police station’s main gate so that I couldn’t even go inside.

They left me stranded on a deserted road to fend for myself. So I called up my husband to inform him where I was.

He could reach me only after 25 minutes. He was accompanied by another senior independent digital journalist, Ajit Anjum, who must have learned about my detention after I was taken away. I was deeply horrified as a woman. But as a journalist, I had to also continue reporting. It was shocking and terrifying to see their deliberate intent of humiliating me by tearing my clothes.

But you can see, this is how Delhi police’s motto of Citizens First is a sham. What was my fault? I am still not able to figure it out.

Soon after I came back home and uploaded every piece of evidence I had, I got many calls of support. The Press Council of India has taken suo motu cognisance and sent a letter to the police. I have also sent a written complaint to the police commissioner of Delhi but haven’t received any response so far. The National Commission for Women has again gone on mute mode as this incident happened to a woman journalist who was mishandled by Delhi police that falls under Amit Shah’s home ministry.

Only the chief of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, has responded to my complaint and ensured to take it forward. The same night, she too was detained in a similar manner, by the same people in uniform, she was also stopped from doing her duty being on a constitutional post.

At this pace I am too convinced, the world’s largest democracy will soon be at the 180th position on the Press Freedom Index and the mainstream media will successfully convince you that these ratings are an international attack on India.

Sakshi Joshi is an independent digital journalist on YouTube