A seemingly routine operation to arrest political workers linked to a protest at India’s most high-profile technology summit turned into a near-24-hour standoff between the police forces of two states this week.
Police officers from Delhi travelled before dawn on Wednesday to Rohru, a small town near Shimla in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, to arrest three members of the Indian Youth Congress party for allegedly causing a disruption at the India AI Impact Summit held in the national capital from 16 to 20 February.
By nightfall, they were arguing with the Himachal police about who, exactly, was breaking the law.
Inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi, the summit drew delegations from more than 100 countries as well as global technology leaders such as Sundar Pichai of Google and Sam Altman of OpenAI, alongside Indian industrialists like Mukesh Ambani.
The protest took place on 20 February, when members of the Youth Congress, a wing of the main opposition party, removed their jackets to reveal t-shirts with a picture of Mr Modi alongside the slogan “PM is compromised”.
The Delhi police described it as a “shirtless protest” and registered an FIR – the first step to formally initiating a criminal investigation in India – citing offences including rioting, criminal conspiracy, and unlawful assembly.
VIDEO | Shimla: A jurisdiction dispute has erupted after the Delhi Police detained three Youth Congress workers in connection with an AI Summit protest pic.twitter.com/H7o7eaYOb8
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 25, 2026
The reaction from Mr Modi’s ruling BJP was prompt. Party spokesperson Sambit Patra called the demonstration “topless, brainless, shameless”, and Mr Modi charged that the Congress party had “turned a global event for India into a platform for its dirty and naked politics” and tried to tarnish the country’s image.
Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib defended the protest, saying it represented “the voice of millions of angry unemployed youth” and insisted the group was “not against the AI Summit”, but was protesting a “compromised” prime minister.
Five days later, the dispute had moved 400km north.
A Delhi police team arrived at a resort in Rohru, where the three Youth Congress workers named in the FIR were staying, at around 5am. They detained the suspects and seized a digital video recorder linked to the resort’s CCTV system as well as the car they had arrived in.
By 6.15am, according to the Times of India, the three men had been formally arrested and thrown in police vehicles. The plan was straightforward: drive them to Delhi, and produce them before a court.
Youth Congress stages shirtless protest at AI summit venue. Congress men shout ‘PM is compromised’ slogans pic.twitter.com/BscJyLapyd
— Padmaja Joshi (@PadmajaJoshi) February 20, 2026
However, local police stopped the vehicles near Shimla’s interstate bus terminal and asked the Delhi police officers to explain the arrests and if they had followed the requisite legal procedures.
The convoy got moving again, only to be intercepted two hours later at Shoghi, a checkpoint on the highway that winds down from Shimla towards the plains, and then again near Dharampur in Solan.
A video of the roadside exchange, broadcast by NDTV, captured an unusually public clash between officers of the two forces. Assistant commissioner Rahul Vikram of the Delhi police could be heard telling the local officers: “We’ve arrested three people. You are preventing a government employee from working.”
“We have filed a case against you,” a Himachal police officer responded. “You are kidnapping three people. You should join the investigation.”
A Shimla police officer later told the Indian Express that “unpleasant scenes erupted again when the Delhi police personnel locked themselves inside their vehicles after being intercepted at the barrier, apparently to avoid joining our investigation”.
“After much persuasion, they did not join the investigation but only agreed to provide their names, ranks, and places of posting.”
#WATCH | Shimla, HP | Delhi Police ACP Rahul Vikram says, "You can't do it (seize the vehicle). When we have seized the DVR, and we have supplied the documents for it, then how can they search our vehicle for it on suspicion that the DVR has been stolen?" https://t.co/aeW86vLR2H pic.twitter.com/kwFSud54ul
— ANI (@ANI) February 26, 2026
After a standoff that lasted several hours, local media reported, the Delhi police convoy was escorted back to Shimla and taken to the district court.
According to Shimla superintendent of police Gaurav Singh, his force had received information that “15 to 20 unidentified individuals, dressed in plain clothes, arrived in vehicles and allegedly forcibly took away three guests staying at a resort”.
The same “individuals” had removed CCTV equipment “without providing any seizure memo or receipt”.
On that basis, he said, a case had been registered under sections of the law related to wrongful confinement and kidnapping.
“I don’t know in what capacity the Himachal police detained us,” ACP Vikram told the Indian Express. “Two of the three suspects were directly involved in the shirtless protest and one was involved in the conspiracy.”
When police arrest a person in another state, the criminal procedure requires they produce them before the local magistrate and seek what’s known as transit remand, judicial permission to move the accused across state lines.
After the convoy returned to Shimla, the arrested men were produced before the city’s additional chief judicial magistrate, who, after hearing the defence counsel’s challenge to the legality of the Rohru operation, granted a transit remand permitting the Delhi police to take the accused to the national capital.
Even then, the standoff did not immediately end. The Hindu reported that the Delhi police vehicles were again stopped twice in the early hours of Thursday, with the Himachal officers seeking access to digital evidence before allowing the convoy to proceed.
The Delhi police argued the material was case property and refused to hand it over.
Shortly before 6am on Thursday, nearly 24 hours after the arrests were made, the Delhi police team was permitted to leave the state with the three detainees.
The standoff played out against a political backdrop. Himachal Pradesh is governed by the Congress, while the Delhi police report to the federal home ministry under Mr Modi’s government.
Each side has since accused the other of breaching procedure. Naresh Chauhan, media adviser to Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, said “every action must be taken within the ambit of law”. Senior BJP member Jai Ram Thakur called the standoff “shameful”, according to the Times of India.
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