Mumbai Police file FIRs against woman holding ‘Free Kashmir’ poster and other protesters

Hours after the #OccupyGateway protest against the recent violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was called off, Mumbai

Hours after the #OccupyGateway protest against the recent violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was called off, Mumbai Police on Tuesday registered four first information reports (FIRs). Among those booked are former student leader of JNU Umar Khalid; activist Feroze Mithiborwala; student Suvarna Salve; and storyteller Tejal Prabhu. Members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Parishad (ABVP), a right-wing student organisation, were also booked for protesting.

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Deputy commissioner of police (zone 1) Sangramsingh Nishandar said two FIRs have been registered at Colaba police station and two at MRA Marg police station. Police said they are also scanning CCTV cameras’ footage to identify those who participated in unlawful assembly, including celebrities and political leaders. Earlier on Tuesday, police had relocated the protesters at Gateway to Azad Maidan, following which the #OccupyGateway protest was called off.

Colaba police have booked Salve, Mithiborwala, Khalid and others for unlawful assembly at the Gateway. Prabhu, who goes by Mehek Mirza Prabhu, has been booked under section 153 (B) (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the Indian Penal Code for carrying a placard that read “Free Kashmir”. Prabhu has said the placard was not hers and that she had picked it up, thinking it was in reference to the five-month-long internet shutdown in Kashmir. “I was voicing my solidarity for basic constitutional rights,” she wrote on Facebook.