Mumbai: Cops end #OccupyGateway with early morning pack up

DCP Sangramsinh Nishandar urges protesters to shift to Azad Maidan. Pics/Bipin Kokate

Protesters gathered at the Gateway of India since Sunday night - to express solidarity with the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, who were attacked by masked goons on Sunday evening - were moved on Tuesday to Azad Maidan by the Mumbai police, effectively ending the brief #OccupyGateway movement.

"We appeal to all of you to vacate Gateway of India and relocate to Azad Maidan. We had already informed your organisers that as per Bombay High Court guidelines there cannot be any agitation outside (the limits of) Azad Maidan," Deputy Commissioner of Police Sangramsinh Nishandar told protesters at 7 am on Tuesday.

The police after clearing up the Gateway of India venue of protesters on Tuesday

"We are in no way against this agitation...Mumbai is a peace-loving city and people are getting inconvenienced due to the huge traffic snarls. We had also requested organisers to not march from Hutatma Chowk to Gateway of India but they did not listen," said Nishandar, adding that commuters were delayed due to Monday's protest.

Saying that they are in a dire situation, protesters rejected Nishandar's appeal, insisted that they are sitting only on the footpath and argued that protesting at Azad Maidan does not have the same impact. They demanded that the Union Home Minister come speak to them.

After 20 minutes of back and forth, the protesters who had formed a human chain, were stuffed into police vans and taken to Azad Maidan. Police personnel from Colaba, MRA Marg, Azad Maidan, JJ Marg, Dongri, LT Marg police stations were summoned for the operation.

The Colaba police have filed an FIR against Suvarna Salve, Firoz Mithiborwala, Umar Khalid and others for unlawful assembly at the Gateway of India. The MRA Marg police also filed two FIRS on Tuesday, one against 31 protestors including Salve, Mithiborwala, Khalid and others for taking a morcha from Hutatma Chowk to the Gateway of India and the other against ABVP students for their protest at Hutatma Chowk.

Mumbai police clears the spot near Gateway of India where students held their protest

The protesters stayed at Azad Maidan for three hours and dispersed. "We call off our protest and will not go to Gateway of India as our protest was successful. We managed to occupy Gateway to express our solidarity with JNU students," said Kapil, one of the protesters.

Mumbai police sources said that guests at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel were apparently inconvenienced by the noise created by the protesters. "The receptionist told us that several guests, especially foreigners, called them to enquire about the sloganeering and clapping at night," the officer said.

7am
When police moved the protesters

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