New Delhi: Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) said on Tuesday (July 28) that Delhi Police officers entered the party’s office in an attempt to arrest student leader Aishe Ghosh without having served her with a proper warrant.“I am shocked, aghast, at the way in which the Delhi Police is behaving,” party MP John Brittas told PTI, shortly after a brief stand-off with police officials at the party’s headquarters in Delhi. “Today, Delhi Police officers barged into the office of the CPI(M), which is a national party. They wanted to take [student leader] Aishe Ghosh into custody. She is one of the faces of the Jantar Mantar agitation,” he said.Ghosh is Delhi state secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and its All India Joint Secretary. She has led several student protests, including against paper leaks over the last few months. The police reportedly arrived around 4:30 pm.Also read: After SC Interim Order on Protest FIRs, CJP Warns of Return to Streets as Govt Deadline Nears‘Political retaliation’, says CPI(M)“Coming in the wake of the SFI’s active participation in the recent Jantar Mantar protests against the NEET examination scandal, this action bears all the hallmarks of political retaliation. Such blatant misuse of state power reflects the BJP-led Union Government’s growing intolerance of dissent,” wrote former Kerala chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan in a post on X.Responding to the development, party general secretary M.A. Baby said, “The illegal attempt by the Delhi Police to enter the CPI(M) Headquarters, AKG Bhawan, to arrest SFI leader Aishe Ghosh is a dangerous assault on democratic norms.”He wrote in a statement on X, “It is learnt that for the past several days, Aishe Ghosh has been continuously followed and surveilled, exposing a blatant campaign of intimidation against student leaders.”Later in the evening, the Cockroach Janta Party’s spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka backed Ghosh, writing “Stop harassing our team. Honour your words” in a post on X. “If anything happens to @aishe_ghosh, the government will see a protest like never before,” he wrote.Brittas alleges arrest norm violationsBrittas said several police officers arrived, including at least one in civilian outfit and driving a private vehicle. They were referring to a warrant for Ghosh’s arrest that they had not communicated to her. “They said it had been communicated over the phone – but it has to be done in person,” he said. He said then and a while later as well that the officers lacked “clear, visible identification and name tags”. When this was pointed out to them, the officers “panicked and fled”, he wrote.“Whoever has participated in the student agitation, each one of them, at least the leaders would be picked up, that is the message that they [the Union government] wants to convey,” he said.The party also wrote on X,” Instead of addressing the legitimate concerns of students, the state is using police power to intimidate, silence and criminalise dissent.”“I am sure that police would not have entered the CPI(M) office without orders from the high and mighty,” Brittas said, adding that “the whole nation needs to be aware of how the Delhi Police is behaving”.Brittas is seen asking police “what gave them the courage” to barge into a political party’s office in a video shared by the CPI(M) on X.Delhi Police forcibly entered the CPI(M) Headquarters, AKG Bhavan, in an attempt to arrest SFI leader @aishe_ghosh.The illegal attempt was firmly resisted by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP @JohnBrittas, who forcefully intervened to stop the police from carrying out this unlawful action. pic.twitter.com/PMr1jgxsmn— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) July 28, 2026In another post on X Brittas later wrote that the Delhi Police violated the Supreme Court’s D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal judgment and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita during its attempt to arrest Aishe Ghosh. “The 1997 ruling,” he wrote, “mandates that police officers carrying out an arrest must wear clear, visible identification and name tags.” Section 36 of the BNSS reiterates this principle.