A Delhi court at Patiala House Courts granted bail to nine Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers arrested over a shirtless protest at the India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam.
Judicial Magistrate First Class Ravi allowed the bail pleas. The Magistrate said the protest amounted to symbolic political criticism. The court also cautioned that keeping the accused in custody before trial could become “illicit pre-emptive punishment”.
The bail order covers Krishna Hari, Narshimha Yadav, Kundan Kumar Yadav, Ajay Kumar Singh, Jitendra Singh Yadav, Raja Gurjar, Ajay Kumar Vimal alias Bantu, Saurabh Singh, and Arbaz Khan.
The court assessed the incident and said the protest, at its highest, remained a “symbolic political critique during a public event”. It noted that the accused wore T-shirts with leadership imagery. It also recorded that they raised non-inciteful slogans, “bereft of communal/regional taint”. The assembly, the court said, remained brief and transient.
The Magistrate found no material to show property defacement. The court also found no evidence of panic among delegates. It noted that the protesters exited “orderly via escort”.
The court added that pre-trial detention must serve a clear need. If custody does not meet any pressing necessity, and the investigation does not require it, detention may operate as impermissible punishment before conviction.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 began on February 16. As per the case record noted in the report, police detained multiple individuals after they wore T-shirts bearing images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump. The T-shirts also carried slogans aimed at the government and the India–US trade deal.
