New Delhi: Freelance journalist Shaheen Khan, on assignment for the popular YouTube channel 4pm News Network to cover an event attended by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, reported from the Saket Police Station on Thursday, September 3, in which she said that the police assaulted her and her colleague Nafisa Khan.Khan’s video report displayed both their injury marks and showed the poor condition Nafisa was in. She captured bruises on her own arm and showed Nafisa in a nearly unconscious state and with red marks, evidently caused by a stick, on her thigh abover her knee.Nafisa was being held, seated on a sofa, and consoled by a third woman who was with them. The cameraperson is not seen in the video of Khan.In her report, shared by 4pm on X, Khan says they were all dragged to the police station because they had “asked a chief minister and a home minister a question”. She alleged that when she revealed her name, the police took that as a revelation of her religion and assaulted her even harder.A policeman and two others are also captured in the frame of Khan’s camera as she records her report, red-faced and close to tears, from the Saket thana.Nafisa leaving Saket Police Station with support.“After assaulting us mentally, physically, they ask my name, and I say I am a Khan, my name has ‘Khan’ in it, and that is why Delhi Police officers have assaulted us, beaten us with sticks, slapped us,” she says on camera, facing the police officer.At this point, the police official sitting at the help desk says something mostly inaudible, to which Khan replies, facing the camera, “Hogi – bilkul hogi karahwahi (yes, there will be an investigation).”“In the name of ‘Musalman’, the kind of hatred inflicted on us today, Delhi Police, you will have to answer for it,” she said.She and the cameraperson then enter a side room with a few sofas in which Nafisa is groaning in pain and almost passed out. There are a few others present in the waiting room.Images of the incident on social media showed that Nafisa later had to be carried out of the police station by people known to her as she appeared unable to walk. Videos of Khan also circulated online that showed her unconscious and lying on the floor of the police station.Shaheen after the alleged assault at the Saket Police Station on September 3, 2026, in screenshot from video posted on X.“In recent days, 4pm had been consistently raising serious questions and publishing reports on matters related to the Delhi government and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. In such a context, it is natural to wonder whether today’s action is connected to those reports and questions in any way?” said Sanjay Sharma, the editor-in-chief of 4pm News Network, while sharing the video report from the thana.“Since when has asking questions of the Chief Minister become a crime? Since when has a journalist’s question become so dangerous for those in power? And can a journalist having ‘Khan’ in their name become a reason for assaulting them?” he wrote on X.Digipub condemned the Delhi Police action in a statement citing the journalists’ accounts and Sharma, who said his channel was repeatedly targeted by the government.“Asking questions to those in power is a fundamental part of journalism and democratic accountability. Journalist must be able to perform their duties without fear, intimidation or discrimination,” the statement said, demanding an independent investigation, preservation of CCTV footage and accountabilty from those responsible.The Press Club of India (PCI), Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC), Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), Press Association and Kerala Union of Working Journalists issued a statement condemning the assualt on the afternoon on September 3.It states that as per the journalists, they were not only dragged away by police while being assaulted for asking the two leaders a question but on determining their religion, the police assault worsened.“On entering the police station, the station house officer (SHO) allegedly instructed police officials to take the two journalists to a room, where women officers also joined, and started beating Shaheen and Nafisa,” the statement says.It says both journalists were threatened with FIRs and escalated their verbal abuse with hate speech directed at their religious identity.The press bodies’ statement “strongly urges the Commissioner, Delhi Police, Mr. Anurag Kumar, to launch a free and fair investigation against the police officials who were involved in the assault against the two journalists”.It also asks the Press Council of India to take cognisance of the incident and launch an independent investigation against the “officials who violently tried to suppress press freedom”.Several opposition political parties responded to the news with demands for action against the police officials involved and condemning the assault on journalists, including the Congress party and Aam Aadmi Party’s Somnath Bharti.