The students -- eight boys and and a girl -- were released later. The Chanakyapuri Police said the girl was asked to to leave soon after her detention while the others were let off late in the night. The girl, Mineshi Mishra, however, refused to leave without her friends.
The students had plans to meet HRD minister Prakash Javadekar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to submit a memorandum. However, they could not get an appointment.
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal tweeted, "Just heard dat BHU girls have been detained at PS Chanakyapuri.
Speaking to Police to immediately release them. DCW team on its way to assist them.(sic)"
On a delay in release of the students, she tweeted, "Really unfortunate that despite requests @DelhiPolice is yet to release the girls. They should be immediately released."
The girl student, Mishra, alleged that during the detention period her friends were threatened by police and some of them were "deported out of Delhi".
"We are not going to encounter you. We will just drop you off Delhi, just like Teesta Setalwad," she said quoting the police in a complaint to the DCP Chanakyapuri Police Station.
"I put on record if it weren't for the media personnel, the police was fully prepared to manhandle us, just like they did in BHU. My request is not only to take action against your intimidating officers but also ensure safety and liberty of me and my friends," she said in the complaint.
Two days back, the students staged a demonstration in Jantar Mantar against the lathi charge on girl students who were protesting the molestation of a girl at the BHU campus.
They also demanded the resignation of Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi.
Laying emphasis on implementation of laws strictly, she demanded that police resources need to be increased and their accountability fixed.
"Merely making the law is not enough, it will also have to be implemented. You are requested to immediately implement the law of death sentence for all rapists in six months and all the necessary mechanisms should be started for this," she said.
Citing the incidents of the gangrape and murder of a Hyderabad veterinarian and the brutal rape of a six-year-old girl in Rajasthan, she said, "Daughters are falling prey to such heinous crimes in every corner of the country.
"These two daughters are not with us, but their screams are not letting us sit in peace. The soul trembles even thinking how much pain they must have suffered."
In the last three years, the DCW has heard 55,000 cases, attended 2.15 lakh calls on 181 helplines, conducted 75,000 ground visits, assisted victims in 33,000 court cases, held 11,000 counselling sessions and set over 200 counselling centres, she said.
"DCW is the only women's commission in the country which works on Sundays and Saturdays and day and night as well. But even after doing so, if the daughters are raped, then it all seems meaningless," she said.
Maliwal was supposed to start a hunger strike on Tuesday morning to press for her demands but she claimed police did not allow her to do so. Police said they were waiting for her to send details of the protest.
When Maliwal's condition deteriorated on Saturday night, doctors advised her to go to a hospital, but she refused to budge.
On Sunday morning, she was taken to the LNJP Hospital after she fainted.
According to a DCW member, she was initially taken to the emergency ward of the hospital since she was unconscious. Later when she regained consciousness, she refused to allow doctors to put her on intravenous fluids.
Maliwal was shifted to a special ward, where she was put on intravenous fluids, he said, adding that her condition was stated to be stable.
He said the DCW chief's supporters were stationed outside the hospital.
Maliwal was on a hunger strike for over 10 days at the Samta Sthal near Raj Ghat.
She on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that Disha Bill, which mandates disposal of cases of atrocities against women within 21 days and handing out the death penalty, is implemented in the entire country.
(PTI)