4 youths holding placards at Juhu beach detained

The police on Tuesday detained three men and one woman for standing with placards carrying messages against the Delhi riots, at Juhu Chowpatty around 11am. The detainees

The police on Tuesday detained three men and one woman for standing with placards carrying messages against the Delhi riots, at Juhu Chowpatty around 11am. The detainees were released by 5.30pm.

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The four – Shashank Shekhar, 30, an engineer; Binjal Shah, 27, a freelance journalist; Siddhant Vaidya, 23, a photographer; and Noman Khan, 28, a writer – were first taken to the beat police post of Santacruz police station at Juhu beach.

They were later taken to the Santacruz police station on the instructions of Paramjit Singh Dahiya, deputy commissioner of police, zone 9.

Dahiya said, “We took action against them under sections 68 and 69 of Maharashtra Police Act and released them.”

The sections pertain to action for failure or opposition to following the directions of the police.

Shashank Shekhar said, “A few weeks ago, the national capital saw riots, which saw many lose their lives and many others suffer grievous injuries. We stood at the beach to express our views. We felt deeply about the violence in Delhi. We stood there for around one-and-a-half hours.”

“Around 12.30pm, police officers came and snatched our placards and asked us to come with them to the police chowky near Juhu Chowpatty. We were taken to the Santacruz police station police where our names, contact numbers, address, native place were taken down, and our statements were recorded,” Shekhar said.

Binjal Shah said, “Police officers asked us why we violated the law. We told them that this was not a protest. They told us that the violence took place in Delhi, and if we wanted to protest, we should go there.”

“Police officers told us holding such a placard could spoil the city’s peace, and law and order situation. We were then taken to Santacruz police station and asked to sign our statement, but we refused to sign as we had not done anything wrong,” Shah said.