Mangaluru: Without notices, warrants, or revealing the grounds for detention, Mumbai police knocked on the doors of rights activists, children, local political leaders, and comedians, and took them away to police stations on Wednesday, July 22. Even hours after being detained, many of them were not informed of the reason for their detention.Sandhya Phanaskar, a rights activist from Mumbai’s western suburbs, was taken to Vakola police station around noon. “A bunch of them [police] came over to my residence. I was home with my 11-year-old son and asked the police to wait at least until my husband returned from work. I also asked the police to show me a legal paper. They plainly refused,” Phanaskar told The Wire from Vakola police station.Phanaskar, who had tried to attend the July 20 protest organised at Chaityabhoomi, Mumbai, was detained along with her son at Worli police station the same evening. “For just attempting to protest, they have already registered a case and detained us, and today they have again held me at the police station,” Phanaskar said.Despite crackdowns and mass detentions, protesters gathered in different parts of the city and continued to demonstrate, reiterating their demand for Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. The protest, initially organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), has since grown far beyond its original scope, taking on an organic shape of its own. Its the demands are no longer restricted to Pradhan’s resignation alone. At the protests, young people have also been raising other pressing questions, including unemployment and communalism, among others.मुंबईतील विद्यार्थी आंदोलनादरम्यान ताब्यात घेतलेल्या आंदोलकांना घेऊन जाणाऱ्या पोलिस व्हॅनसमोर एक निर्भय महिला ठामपणे उभी राहिली.तिने माघार घेण्यास स्पष्ट नकार दिला.क्षणातच आणखी लोक तिच्या समर्थनासाठी जमा झाले आणि अखेर पोलिसांना आंदोलकांना सोडावे लागले.तिचे धैर्य आणि निर्धार… pic.twitter.com/i9ttuAgY5T— Mumbai Congress (@INCMumbai) July 23, 2026At RAK Marg police station, located on the eastern edge of South Mumbai, the police detained at least seven children – four boys and three girls – for close to five hours, well after sunset. Bhagyesha Kurane, a human rights lawyer who reached the police station to provide legal aid, said over 40 people, including young kids, were randomly picked up from near the Shivaji Park area, the site where a protest was to be held on the evening of July 22. “Some of them said they were headed to the protest. Many others, especially the minor kids, were simply picked up from areas close to the protest site even when they repeatedly said they were not participating in the protest,” Kurane said. While the police let the minor girls and over 20 young women go around 7:30 pm, the four minor boys were allowed to leave only at around 9 pm.The minor girls were at the police station for several hours, unaccompanied. Their parents were informed only when they were finally released in the evening. Detention of children and women after sunset and before sunrise is prohibited by law and Mumbai police have been repeatedly flouting it.Hacker Hai Bhai….Hacker 🫡 pic.twitter.com/XftwOu9tke— Cockroach is Back (@Cockroachisback) July 22, 2026Lawyers prevented from aiding clientsAt the neighbouring Sewree police station, the police refused to let the lawyers intervene. Several detainees were brought there from across the city, but when the lawyers arrived, the police prevented them from entering the police station premises or interacting with those detained. “The police just stopped us at the gate,” Kurane said.Senior activists Feroze Mithiborewala and Salim Saboowala were summoned to MIDC police station in Andheri and detained for many hours. “I was on my way to a meeting organised by the Congress. I even told the police that I was heading for some important work, but they insisted I come straight to the police station,” Mithiborewala said. He was allowed to leave only later that night. Mithiborewala had also been detained at a separate police station on July 20, asked to return to meet police on July 21, and said that an FIR has been registered against him as well.Tushar Gandhi, a known activist and great-grandson of M.K. Gandhi was also held at South Mumbai’s Colaba police station.Neither of the three were told why they were being detained.Phone threats from policeA few young people The Wire spoke to said they were also threatened by the police over the phone. “I received a call from a policeman, and when I started asking for more details, he told me that he also has my parents’ phone numbers and the house owner’s contact details. It was a veiled threat that I either come to the police station or they would ensure I can no longer stay in the place I had rented in the city,” said an undergraduate student.At least two comedians, Raunaq Rajani and Abish Mathew, were taken to Kalachowki police station late in the evening. Lawyer Chetan Mali, who had reached the police station, said there were at least 20 persons detained there. “The police said they won’t be registering an FIR against those detained,” Mali told The Wire.Indiscriminate rounding up of youths and activistsBut going by the police’s response on July 20, it is hard to posit faith in the police’s promise. On July 20, The Wire had reported on the police’s arbitrary action against people they thought were heading to Chaityabhoomi for the protest organised by the Left students’ groups in the city. That evening, the police detained over 300 people, including minor girls and boys, and kept them at the police station until midnight. Those detained were later served notices within hours (around 3 pm) and called to the police station the next morning.The police’s indiscriminate rounding up of youths and activists has turned out to be a ritual source of harassment for rights activists in the city. Lawyers spent large parts of their day running from one end of the city to another, simply trying to ensure no detained person was left unrepresented. Lara Jesani, a human rights activist in Mumbai and also part of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), said, “Since morning, activists and students have been picked up from their houses by the police without any warrant or notice. This is a complete violation and abuse of the law. Most of them are still not released, and the police are refusing to provide any information on why they are being illegally detained.”13 FIRs over a protest that did not take placeThe police registered eight FIRs for the July 20 protest that never actually happened. In all, the number of FIRs is now at 13. For the same protest, which Mumbai police call a “criminal act,” the police have registered different FIRs. In some cases, persons from the same family were taken to different police stations and booked under different FIRs. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Zone) Anurag Jain justified the police’s move to register different FIRs. “There were so many of them, and they were put in police vans and sent across different police stations in the city. The police ought to have registered the FIR immediately. Now all FIRs have been moved to Shivaji police station,” he said.These FIRs are yet to be made available to the detainees or their lawyers. This, Jesani points out, is a clear violation of the Youth Bar Association judgement by the Supreme Court which mandates the police to make the FIRs available within 24 hours. In response to this Jain said: “Let them go to the court and find out what they are booked under.”Jain also claimed that no minor was named in the July 20 FIRs. But contrary to what he claimed, several children were detained on the night of July 20 and also received a summons to appear at the police station on July 21. Several more were picked up again on July 22.