Mumbai, December 14, 2019 (PPI-OT): The Mumbai police have detained former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Kannan Gopinathan, who had resigned from service as a mark of protest against the restrictions imposed in occupied Kashmir following the repeal of its special status, during a march against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 1, Sangramsingh Nishandar, told media persons in Mumbai that Kannan Gopinathan was among a group of people who had gathered outside a hotel near Marine Drive to protest against the bill, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. “People were protesting and we took them to the police station,” Nishandar said.
Later, in a tweet, Kannan Gopinathan said the detention was illegal. “We were not even allowed to read the Constitution. Mumbai police detained us illegally and forcefully took us even before the protest began,” he said in the tweet.
“Get out and regain your constitutional rights! Else it will be gone forever,” he appealed to people in another tweet, while posting a picture of himself and other protesters along with the police.
“Why should I be scared? This is my country and I will not be silent when exercises such as NRC and CAB are conducted,” Gopinathan told media men. The CAB is biased and does great injustice to the Muslim community, he said. “It may be a win for BJP, but it is not a win for India or the Indian Constitution,” he added.
Feroze Mithiborwala, the organiser of the protest, said that the participants were peaceful. The protesters arrested included Mithiborwala (Bharat Bachao Andolan), Fahad Ahmed (Former General Secretary of Tata Institute of Social Sciences), Amol Madame (Akhil Bharatiya Parivar), Nasirul Haq (All India Tanzeem-i-Insaaf) and MA Khalid (All India Milli Council). Fahd Ahmed said, around 150 Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) students took out a march against the CAB.
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