JNU violence: Mumbai Police files four FIRs; Umar Khalid and organisers, participants of Gateway of India protests among those booked

Mumbai Police on Tuesday filed four FIRs against people involved in local protests against the violence on students and faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on 5 January. A spontaneous gathering of citizens took place at the iconic Gateway of India in the city after reports of the incident, in which 34 people were injured, surfaced. [caption id=“attachment_7874451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Protest against JNU violence at Gateway of India. Firstpost/Neerja Deodhar[/caption] The FIRs, which have been registered at the Colaba and MRA Marg police stations, are filed against the organisers and some participants in the protest, including a woman who was seen holding a placard with ‘Free Kashmir’ written on it. Reportedly, a case of unlawful assembly and holding protests without permission has been filed against Suvarna Salve, a leader of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Social Justice, Firoz Mithiborwala, and Umar Khalid, among others, for the Gateway of India protest. The gathering, which turned into a sit-in, began at midnight on Monday and continued till Tuesday morning. India Today reported that one of the two FIRs filed at the MRA Marg police station is against a group of ABVP students for protesting at the Hutatma Chowk on Monday evening, and the second is against students who marched from Hutatma Chowk to the Gateway of India despite not getting the permission for the protest. Mumbai Police spokesperson Pranay Ashok was quoted by Mumbai Mirror as saying that no arrests had been made in any of the cases so far. The report also said that the police had taken suo motu cognisance of the protests in the city.