Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai (SHP)
Mumbai, Feb 5: Earlier in January, top lawyers Mihir Desai and Lara Jesani were arrested following a probe into the unlawful assembly of 2,000 people at Gateway of India. The gathering was to protest against the attack on JNU students. However, on January 7 the lawyers were arrested and then released on personal bonds.
The protestors, mostly college students, after being allowed to spend about a couple of days at the Gateway, were whisked away to Azad Maidan, the city's only designated protest area. Soon after the students called off the #OccupyGateway protest and dispersed, the Colaba police registered an FIR against 2,000 and named 65 as accused of unlawful assembly.
"It was a formal arrest. The police recorded my statement a week ago. They arrested and released me on a personal bond." Jesani too was arrested and granted bail. The police are in the process of summoning all the accused in the case one by one. "We are calling those named in the FIR, recording their statements and arresting them," said an officer from the Colaba police station. Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, who has also been named as an accused, has not been arrested yet. But, disparaging police FIR, Khalid claimed that he was not in Mumbai when the protestors were detained and pushed to Azad Maidan.
On January 7, the Colaba police registered two separate FIRst, one against the protest and another against Mehak Mirza Prabhu for displaying a 'Free Kashmir' poster. The police are now planning to file a closure report in the Prabhu case since they have not found any evidence against her.