Mumbai: Around 500 people turned up at August Kranti Maidan on Saturday in support of the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar following a call by Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson.On Friday, Tushar Gandhi of Hum Bharat Ke Log had called for a protest in support of the CJP stir in Delhi.The protesters came in batches beginning at 3.30 pm and were detained by the police before it ended two hours later. Actor Imran Khan, who turned up for the protest, Tushar Gandhi and his daughter were among those detained by the police.A source said late Saturday, Gamdevi police registered an FIR against 12 named accused and 350 others. Among those named in the FIR were Tushar Gandhi, Shailendra Kamble, Prakash Reddy and Imran Khan. Police said it was Tushar Gandhi who gave a call to gather at August Kranti Maidan. Police registered a case under BNS sections 223 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint) and 189 (2) (unlawful assembly), among others.DCP Ragasudha R, in a message, stated: “Around 600 protesters were detained across Mumbai City. They have also been released. Further legal process is on.” She added around 400 protesters were detained at Nana Chowk (near August Kranti Maidan), and around 500 police personnel were deployed for bandobast.Police faced a tough time detaining protesters who almost managed to reach the road leading to the maidan in small groups over a few hours, causing traffic congestion. Some local residents who were stopped by police expressed unhappiness over being questioned. Cops were seen dragging and bundling many protesters into police vans lined up on barricaded roads before taking them to different police stations. Some protesters turned up at Hutatma Chowk.Tushar Gandhi’s daughter Kasturi Gandhi, who was detained, posted: “Detained from August Kranti. All I was carrying was Gandhi and our Constitution. The good news: police stations are so full that they had to take me to one much further away…”Shiv Sena (UBT) politicians including Aaditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut and Anil Parab, and local Congress functionary Mohsin Haider stationed themselves at D N Nagar police station, insisting on Tushar Gandhi’s release. Police had detained Gandhi near National College in Bandra at 9.30 am and taken him to D N Nagar police station. He was released around 7.30 pm after nearly 10 hours in custody.Near August Kranti Maidan, despite no leader from CJP or any prominent personality being present to lead the protest, supporters kept coming in small groups and then started shouting slogans. Unlike the usual young protesters, the crowd comprised an older and a more diverse group of people who had gathered in solidarity with CJP. Police found it difficult to bundle such slogan shouters into vans. Resistance was massive. They dropped to the ground, making it almost impossible for the police to drag them.A retiree who was detained at the protest said, “I was talking to a journalist near one of the entrances to August Kranti Maidan when the police came and, without any confrontation or escalation, tried to detain me. I said I am moving out from here, and they said, ‘Nothing doing. You have to come with us to Gamdevi,’ and then they detained us at a passport verification centre. After some time, they questioned me about what I was doing in the area. I told them I was only there to have lunch with a friend, and this wasn’t a restricted area.”Meanwhile, civil rights activist and senior counsel Mihir Desai said the police action to round up and pack protesters into vans was hasty and totally unwarranted. It goes against the very grain of democracy where protests can be held peacefully, he said.
