The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) suspended Delhi Police Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Manasvi Vashishta with immediate effect on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, citing “violation of discipline”. The order came barely a day after the officer stood at the head of roughly 100 uniformed personnel demonstrating outside Gate No. 1 of the Delhi Police headquarters — a sight the capital had not seen since the Tis Hazari standoff of 2019.
What began on October 23 as a quarrel over a parked motorcycle outside a salon in East Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar has, in 12 days, drawn in the district court bar associations, the Police Commissioner, the MHA and the Delhi High Court. Both lawyers and police accuse each other of misconduct, and no independent inquiry has yet tested either version.
How it began: two versions of one evening
The trigger was mundane. A relative of advocate Amulya Ratan Sharma parked a bike at the entrance of a Gandhi Nagar salon on October 23. The owners asked for it to be moved, an argument followed, and the dispute later spilled into Shahdara police station. There, advocate Lalit Bansal suffered a serious head injury in an alleged assault; Amulya Ratan is the complainant in that case.
| Lawyers’ account | Police account | |
| Why lawyers went to the station | To seek arrest of those who assaulted Bansal; they returned after learning the accused had been let go | A group entered the SHO’s room and created a disturbance |
| Conduct alleged | The ACP displayed a service revolver, threatened advocates, called them “goons in black coats” and referred to an AK-47 | Lawyers accused officers of taking a bribe, one threatened the SHO and tried to pull him by the hand |
| Legal action | Demanded suspension of the ACP and SHO pending an impartial inquiry | FIR against 15–20 lawyers under BNS sections on obstructing and threatening public servants; incident said to be on CCTV |
| Who says so | Coordination Committee of All District Courts Bar Associations of Delhi | Complaint filed by ACP Vashishta (dated October 24) |
The salon owners, Sheetal and Rahul Thakur, give a third version: that a large group of lawyers vandalised the salon and assaulted Sheetal, who is pregnant. None of these allegations has been established by an independent inquiry.
The protest at headquarters
The lawyers won their first round on October 28. Vashishta, then Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Gandhi Nagar, was moved to the Special Police Unit for Women and Children, and Shahdara SHO Inspector Arun Kumar to the Security Branch. The bar ended its indefinite abstention from work the same day.
Inside the force, the transfers read as punishment for doing the job. Messages on internal WhatsApp groups called personnel to the headquarters, and from about 8 am on Monday, November 2, some 80–100 of them — women officers among them — gathered with placards and banners. Vashishta addressed the crowd, and videos showed the slogan “Vardi ka apmaan nahi sahenge” (we will not tolerate insult to the uniform). Senior officers, including New Delhi DCP Sachin Sharma, tried to move the grievance indoors.
Commissioner Anurag Kumar eventually held a Sampark Sabha with a five-member delegation. Reports list these demands:
- Reinstate Vashishta and Arun Kumar to their earlier postings.
- A standard operating procedure (SOP) for police–lawyer confrontations.
- No more than five lawyers in a police station or SHO’s office at a time.
- FIRs against lawyers accused of misconduct towards police, including action on the FIR filed on Vashishta’s complaint.
- A grievance redressal committee, and security for personnel attending court.
The headquarters’ statement afterwards praised the force’s discipline and its handling of the recent BRICS Summit — but made no commitment on the demands.
Suspension, the High Court and the bar
The MHA, which controls the Delhi Police, issued the suspension on November 3. Vashishta is a DANIPS cadre officer; some reports describe a 2022 batch, Rajasthan roots and an IIT Kharagpur degree.
The same day, advocates asked a Delhi High Court bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma to act on its own over the ACP’s alleged remarks. The bench declined suo motu proceedings and told them to file a formal petition, which it promised to list, with a copy to Delhi Police Standing Counsel (Criminal) Sanjay Lao.
The bar’s response split. The Rohini Court Bar Association, which had called a strike late on November 2, withdrew it after the suspension. The Central Delhi court bar association pressed for criminal proceedings and an independent inquiry, and the All India Lawyers Union called for a time-bound probe, arguing the uniform puts no one above the law.
