“I could not breathe. We were brutally dragged up the stairs. I kept saying, ‘Please stop, let me breathe. Tell me where you are taking me.’ But they did not tell us anything.”
This is how journalist Shaheen Khan described the ordeal she and her sister and colleague Nafisa Khan allegedly endured inside Saket police station on September 3, after they were detained while covering the inauguration of Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi attended by Union home minister Amit Shah and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta.
According to Shaheen, what began as a detention soon turned into an assault. She alleged that their phones were snatched, they were dragged upstairs into a room, slapped, kicked and hit with a baton. She further alleged that the assault intensified after a policewoman saw the name of an incoming caller on her phone and said, “Oh, you are a Muslim. Then I will hit you with four more baton blows and slap you four more times.”
Speaking to Alt News, Shaheen gave a detailed account of what happened at the venue and later at the police station.
The two women journalists work for digital news platform 4PM News Network. The outlet posted a video in which Shaheen appeared visibly distressed and in tears, alleging that she and Nafisa had been assaulted by police officers. The report asked whether asking questions to the chief minister had “become a grave crime” for which journalists could be beaten up, and called for an impartial investigation. It also demanded that all available CCTV footage from the site be preserved.
क्या मुख्यमंत्री से सवाल पूछना अब इतना बड़ा अपराध हो गया है कि पत्रकार को पुलिस बेरहमी से पीटेगी?
आज दिल्ली में 4PM की पत्रकार शाहीन के साथ जो हुआ, वह बेहद गंभीर और डराने वाला है.
शाहीन दिल्ली की मुख्यमंत्री रेखा गुप्ता से सवाल पूछने की कोशिश कर रही थीं. शाहीन का आरोप है कि इसी… pic.twitter.com/KB3p3kGKDK
— 4PM News Network (@4pmnews_network) September 3, 2026
According to an Indian Express report, police denied the allegations of assault, and said that “the journalists were detained after they allegedly blocked the exit and parked their scooty on the VVIP movement route, and had an altercation with police personnel deployed there”. Multiple calls from Alt News to Saket Police went answered.
In an X post, DCP South Delhi called the allegations ‘factually incorrect and misleading’. However, the post was deleted shortly after being shared.
‘Illegally Detained’
Speaking to Alt News, Shaheen alleged that she and Nafisa had been detained around 11 am and taken to Saket police station. “The SHO threatened us with an FIR and spoke about putting us in the lock-up,” she added.
“We kept asking them to tell us what our crime was, what we had done wrong, why they wanted to keep us in the lock-up and why they wanted to file an FIR against us. We told them that we were educated people, that we were journalists, and that we would cooperate with the police. But we were given no answers. Instead, they said, ‘Put them in the lock-up’.”
“We had been told that they were taking us home. But when we were brought to the police station, some police officers began threatening us. At that point, I felt that the police could do something to us, either legally or otherwise, and I thought I should inform my family. Until then, I believed this was simply a routine detention. I thought the police would question us and let us go.”
Shaheen said that after the SHO had threatened them, she tried to call her family and was scrolling through her phone when a woman in civilian clothes, wearing a pink suit, approached her.
“Her name is Sonam Solanki. She told me, ‘Give me your phone.’ I asked her, ‘Why are you asking me for my phone, and under which law? Tell me what my crime is, and I will give you the phone.’ She then told me to go upstairs because she wanted to talk to me.”
‘Phones Snatched, We were Repeatedly Slapped’
Shaheen said she asked why they had to go upstairs and told Solanki that whatever she wanted to say could be said in the main area of the police station.
“Solanki told me, ‘I have to talk to you. My way of talking is very different.’ I later understood what she meant by that,” Shaheen said.
The sisters then asked to be allowed to call their families. At that point, their phones were taken away, Shaheen alleged.
“The moment they snatched our phone, she began slapping us repeatedly. This happened in the reception area. If the CCTV footage has not been tampered with, all of this should be recorded.”
“We kept asking, ‘Why are you hitting us? What have we done? You cannot hit us. We have committed no crime, and even if you believe we have committed a crime, you do not have the right to beat us’.”
Solanki then allegedly began dragging them towards another room upstairs.
“We did not know where she was taking us. She dragged us through the area where the SHO’s room is located. She pulled our hair and clothes,” Shaheen alleged.
Two @4pmnews_network female Muslim journalists were physically assaulted by @DelhiPolice for asking questions to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta & Home Minister Amit Shah.
Their only crime was that they dared to asked few questions which journalists like @RubikaLiyaquat will never… pic.twitter.com/ZG2hj0U8kQ
— Mahua Moitra Fans (@MahuaMoitraFans) September 3, 2026
‘Teach them a lesson’: Dragged, slapped, kicked
Shaheen said she managed to break free and rushed into the SHO’s room, seeking his intervention.
“I asked the SHO what we had done wrong. I told him, ‘Under what authority is she beating us? Please intervene.’ But instead of listening to me or helping me, the SHO told the police constable who had followed me into the room to take me upstairs and ‘teach them a lesson.’”
Shaheen alleged that she was then forcibly dragged upstairs.
“They beat us and dragged us by whatever they could grab — our hair, our clothes. We were brutally dragged up the stairs. I could not walk; I could not breathe properly. I kept saying, ‘Please stop, let me breathe. Tell me where you are taking me.’ But they did not tell us anything.”
The room where the women were taken did not have CCTV cameras, Shaheen said, although there was a camera in the corridor leading to it.
Delhi Police Accused of Assaulting Women Journalists at Hospital Event
Shaheen Khan and Nafisa Khan from 4PM News Network were covering the opening of a new wing at Max Hospital in Saket, attended by Home Minister Amit Shah and CM Gupta.
India ranks 157th out of 180 countries… pic.twitter.com/NmY99lh4PM
— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) September 3, 2026
Shaheen alleged that the assault escalated inside the room.
“They threw me to the floor. They kicked me, punched me and slapped me repeatedly. They slapped me continuously. Then they picked me up and threw me onto a sofa. They began pulling my hair and scratching my face. My head was banged against the wall.”
She alleged that a baton was then brought into the room.
“She told me, ‘I will show you. You ask too many questions.’ She hit both me and Nafisa with the baton. At one point, when she became tired, she sat down at a table. The phone they had taken from me rang at that moment.”
‘Oh, you are a Muslim!’
Shaheen said the officer’s demeanour changed after she saw the name of the incoming caller on her phone.
“When she looked at my phone, there was an incoming call from someone named Mohammad Khan. The moment she saw the name, there was a complete change in her demeanour. She immediately got up from her chair and said, ‘Oh, you are a Muslim. Then I will hit you with four more baton blows and slap you four more times.’”
“She then began hitting me again. She also told the constable accompanying her to hit us. All of them then started beating us, including people who had stood still until then. They beat us so badly that I could not breathe. I needed water and told them, ‘At least give me some water’.”
Shaheen broke into tears while recounting the incident.
MLC ‘Delayed’, Police Sought Compromise
Neetu, another colleague of Shaheen and Nafisa, told Alt News that the police did not arrange a medico-legal examination (MLC) after the alleged assault and instead sought a compromise.
“After the assault, they did not arrange an MLC. They wanted us to compromise and suppress the entire matter. We then called the police ourselves on 100 and went for the MLC on our own.”
Neetu alleged that the MLC was deliberately delayed and took five hours to be conducted. After the medical examination, the journalists returned to Saket police station around 9 pm.
“After that, they made us wait there until around 4 am without registering an FIR. Three SHOs came to the police station and eventually left. We were then told to remove two names from the complaint and that ‘whatever happens will happen’. But the FIR was not registered,” Neetu said.
आज दिल्ली में 4PM की पत्रकार शाहीन के साथ जो हुआ, वह बेहद गंभीर और डराने वाला है.
दिल्ली पुलिस और दिल्ली सरकार को जवाब देना चाहिए क्या सवाल पूछना जुर्म है ? pic.twitter.com/rYs7lUUOn4— Akshay Lakra (@akshaylakra17) September 3, 2026
‘Even if I had Committed a Crime, there is Law’
Shaheen disputed the police’s version of the incident.
“The DCP posted a tweet and then deleted it. If what he said was true, why did he delete it? The DCP should be ashamed of making such a statement. Under what law are they trying to justify this heinous act?” she said.
“Even if we assume that I had committed a crime, under which provision of law and under what procedure were we detained, assaulted, locked inside a room and had our phones snatched? We were literally kidnapped. On what legal basis was all of this done?”
“Whatever I may have done, you could have registered an FIR against me and taken legal action. You could have prosecuted me according to the law. I would have cooperated with you,” Shaheen said.
What was Shaheen Reporting on when She was Detained?
Shaheen claims she was detained for asking questions to the chief minister.
“I did not question anybody there directly. I was simply shooting my segment, in which I raised a few basic questions. The government has a responsibility towards its citizens, right? But instead, it appears to be devoting so much attention to private hospitals.”
In the roughly two-minute segment, Shaheen questioned why elected leaders were giving so much time and attention to a private hospital while public hospitals, women’s safety and law and order remained issues.
“This was a barely two-minute video. In it, I raised these questions and showed the venue and the surrounding area, which had been transformed and decorated for the event yesterday, even though it is usually littered with waste,” Shaheen said.
Several journalists’ associations, including the Press Club of India, “strongly condemned” the incident and called for “punitive action against Delhi Police officials posted at the Saket Police Station, including the Station House Officer (SHO), for brutally assaulting freelance journalists Shaheen Khan and Nafisa Khan while they were reporting…”
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.