Listen to this article:

Mangaluru: Even before they could gather at Mumbai’s Chaityabhoomi, where student-led agitators had planned to protest on Monday (July 20), police indiscriminately rounded up and detained over 300 protesters across different police stations in the city. Among those detained were minor girls and boys participating in the protest.

Several protestors The Wire spoke to were still at the police stations well beyond 10 pm.

A school-going boy, who was attending the protest along with his 19-year-old brother, spoke to The Wire from the Worli police station. “This is the first time that my brother and I have set out for a protest. Within minutes of reaching the Shivaji Park area, we were detained,” the 11-year-old told The Wire. The boys had travelled from Mumbai’s suburbs and were detained at the Worli police station until around 8:30 pm.

The call for the protest in Mumbai today was given by left-wing students’ groups to demand Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and timed to coincide with the Cockroach Janta Party’s march to parliament in Delhi.

Police confirmed on Monday evening that officers at the Shivaji Park station are in the process of registering FIRs against those who participated in the protest. “No permission is granted for holding any protest at Chaityabhoomi,” they said.

The Mumbai police meanwhile invoked its........

© The Wire