After 37 days of protests, slogans and student gatherings, the movement at Delhi's Jantar Mantar came to an end late Saturday night when police cleared the protest site around midnight.
The protest was called off on July 25 after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned amid the NEET-UG paper leak controversy. The student group Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) announced the withdrawal of the agitation after the government accepted their demands.
However, many students stayed back at Jantar Mantar to celebrate the success of the movement. Until midnight, the protest site was filled with slogans, Tricolour flags, posters, music, and students singing and dancing around the stage.
But at midnight, Delhi Police personnel arrived at the site with shields and batons and began removing students from different entry points.
Many students and journalists present at the spot said they were unaware that the area would be cleared at midnight. Police first moved towards Janpath Metro Station, Gate No. 2, where several protesters were gathered.
Speaking to NDTV, many students said they had planned to stay there.
"All of this happened suddenly. Initially, a crowd of protesters ran out of this gate, seemingly under a lathi charge. But that wasn't the case. Delhi Police personnel arrived in large numbers and began clearing out people from both sides of the road," NDTV reported.
Police used loudspeakers to inform students that the protest had ended and asked them to return home. They also announced that the metro service would remain available until 12:30 am.
Within 10-12 minutes, the crowd on one side of Jantar Mantar had been moved out. Some protesters continued raising slogans outside the barricades and briefly stopped traffic near the traffic signal. Police later cleared the area and directed students towards Connaught Place.
The evacuation was carried out in phases. After clearing the Janpath side, police moved towards the main protest stage area, where students had gathered for more than a month.
By around 1 am, the stage area was empty. Municipal workers arrived soon after and began cleaning the roads and removing garbage.
Police teams, along with municipal workers, also cleared the surrounding Connaught Place area. Personnel carrying shields and batons were deployed on both sides of the roads as students were escorted away.
Despite the dispersal, students continued raising slogans as they left the area. By 1 am, the 37-day student protest at Jantar Mantar had officially come to an end.
