Trouble erupted on Friday evening around the Daryaganj police station in the immediate vicinity of Jama Masjid in the national capital.

Activists alleged that the police had dragged 30-40 young protesters into the police station on the ground that they were throwing stones.

“We are not sure of the exact number, but they are mostly young people, boys and girls, and there might at least be one minor among them,” Dushyant, a lawyer-activist on site, told The Telegraph.

“Lawyers have been denied access to the police station, which is against the law. We do not know if there are any lady police on the premises, which is mandatory if they are holding young women. They have padlocked the entry. This is outrageous,” Dushyant added as he headed to a local magistrate in a bid to secure relief.

Late at night, Congress councillor Yasmin Kidwai had a long argument with Daryaganj police and was able to take a few lawyers into the police station. Dozens of youths had been detained. Among them, eyewitnesses told The Telegraph, were 8-10 minors.

Some of them complained of having been beaten in the lockup, and were taken for treatment to the nearby LNJP hospital.

Citizens gathered outside the Delhi police headquarters and started a vigil against the high-handed action and to press for the release of the detainees.

Around midnight the minors were let off. Sources that anyone above the age of 18 would, however, remain in custody for a while. The vigil continued.

The detentions had begun some time after the gathering at Jama Masjid — where Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad had slipped in under the police’s noses to hold a protest and disappeared before they could grab him — had dispersed.

Navaid Hamid, general secretary of the All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an umbrella body of Muslim organisations, said the youths picked up from Daryaganj had been taken to several police stations.