New Delhi: The Mumbai police detained noted human rights lawyer and former Obama Foundation scholar Trisha Shetty for protesting against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). Shetty was at the Nagpada police station as the legal counsel for some other protestors who had been detained when senior police inspector Shalini Sharma allegedly threatened to file a case against her too. Speaking to The Wire, Shetty said that she started attending the Mumbai Bagh protests near Hotel Arabia at Mumbai Central around four days after it began on January 26. On Monday, when she started getting SOS calls from protestors who were picked up from the protest site, she rushed to the Nagpada police station to give them legal aid. Also read: Nearly 1,000 Lawyers Distance Themselves From Bar Council’s Resolution on Protests“The police initially said that none of the protestors had been detained but then a protestor who was picked up informed me on the phone where to find all detainees. They were all kept in an unmarked room in the Nagpada police station,” she said, adding that she saw that the police were attempting to confiscate their phones. “I requested the policemen to let me meet senior police inspector Shalini Sharma. When I met her in her room, I showed her my legal license and identified myself as the legal counsel for the detainees,” she added. A few days ago, she said, Sharma had visited the protest site and while engaging with the protestors had dismissed the dharna as a “third class protest”.At the station, Sharma threatened her to charge her with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code that prohibits unlawful assembly. “The police did not allow me to leave the room and and escorted me to sit with the other three detainees They served me four notices under Section 149 which I refused to sign and asked others too to do the same,” she told The Wire. Meanwhile, Shetty had sent out messages of her detention to the press and tweeted about her situation. “Sharma and her colleagues had come to Mumbai Bagh earlier too and threatened people to withdraw the protest,” she said. SOS – I am currently being detained at Nagpada Police Station. The police is targeting me now for exercising my fundamental right to peacefully protest against CAA/ NRC. @MumbaiPolice I have not violated any laws. I will take this further to the courts if need be.— Trisha Shetty (@TrishaBShetty) February 3, 2020Soon, Shetty and the three detainees were released. After being released I went to the protest site to sit w/the women, exercising my fundamental right to peacefully protest against NRC & CAA + help others w/legal concerns. I care about safeguarding our Constitution. I am a law-abiding citizen & wont cower to intimidation tactics.— Trisha Shetty (@TrishaBShetty) February 3, 2020Officials of both Shivaji Nagar and Nagpada police stations, however, said none of them were detained. “We had called the protesters to the police station and served them notice under Section 149 of the CrPC. We offered them tea and left them after serving the notice. They were not detained,” Sharma told HT.
