New Delhi: Forty seven eminent citizens, including former civil servants, academics and activists, have written to the Delhi police commissioner on the excessive and unprecedented police action against the October 10 protests.As has been reported before, police are visiting mosques, houses, hotels and more to dissuade citizens from participating in the movement against the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commission’s conduct of the special intensive revision of rolls.Police have also moved to shut down 57 Metro stations, and key trains, and has also planned to erect points of blockade and detention centres across the district tomorrow. Several youth activists have been detained in order to prevent their presence at the protests.Police have also denied permission for the rally.The full text of the letter is as follows:ToThe Commissioner of Police, Delhi,ITO, New DelhiSubject: Regarding the Illegality of Police Action with respect to protestsSir,We write to take up with you the completely illegitimate actions of the Delhi Police, who are going to colleges, mosques, RWAs, and other public places, making public announcements to dissuade citizens from joining the peaceful and non- violent protests that are taking place in the city. To begin with, the misuse of Section 163 and Section 172 of the BNSS by declaring the entirety of Delhi as out of bounds for protests is, on the face of it, a colourable exercise of a statutory provision to subvert a constitutional right and prevent people from exercising their freedom of expression. Over and above this, the officials of the Delhi Police are also going to those giving premises out to paying guests, which is a common mode of accommodation in the city for outstation students and young professionals, asking that they restrain the paying guests/tenants from joining the demonstrations. You should know, as should your subordinates, that dissuading citizens from exercising their democratic choice and fundamental right to demonstrate and assemble peaceably to voice their demands is criminal intimidation, especially when carried out by the constabulary. It amounts to a threat of dire action if the people fail to heed these words.Please ensure that your force ceases these unconstitutional and criminal pressure tactics immediately, failing which you shall be called to account in every manner known to the lawWe further want to say that other strong-arm tactics are used to prevent the people of the city from expressing themselves through democratic means such as preventive arrests or detentions, violence, house arrests, or any other similar tactics. The Delhi Police will be called to account for every such illegality at its own cost and consequences in courts of law.Anticipating a swift response,The Undersigned:1. Yogendra Yadav2. Apoorvanand3. Radha Kumar4. Amitabha Pande5. Jayati Ghosh6. Mridula Mukherjee7. Rajeev Bhargava8. Gautam Mukhopadhaya9. Zoya Hasan10. C Uday Bhaskar11. Ashok Kumar Sharma12. Aditya Mukherjee13. Kamini Tankha14. Anjali Bhardwaj15. Amrita Johri16. Prasanto K Roy17. Sucheta Mahajan18. Aditi Mehta19. Yamini Aiyar20. Balveer Arora21. KK Kailash22. Sadanand Menon23. Anita Rampal24. Prabhat Patnaik25. Gautam Menon26. Ananya Vajpeyi27. Ashish Joshi28. Thomas Franco29. Nivedita Menon30. Purwa Bharadwaj31. Nadeem Khan32. Nandini Sundar33. Kiran Bhatty34. Ruchira Puri Pujari35. Saveen36. Sharika Bhan37. Ishaan Arora38. Nikhat Bhatty39. Kabeer Khurana40. Sagari Ramdas41. Raghu Rangarajan42. Ayesha Kidwai43. Damini Narain44. Neeraj Bhasin45. Simran46. Arudra Burra47.Kavita Srivastava