20 December,2019 06:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Faizan Khan
Mumbai police deployed special branch officers inside August Kranti Maidan to collect intelligence
The 2,000 police personnel deployed to monitor a crowd of 25,000-plus protesters at August Kranti Maidan on Thursday pulled off a successful bandobast with Mumbaikars having been spared a violent demonstration. The more-than-prepared police also had the riot control unit and state reserve police force on standby."
Senior police officers, including Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order) Vinoy Choubey monitored the entire protest from ground zero to ensure that there was no untoward eventuality.
"The crowd that had gathered was far more than what we were expecting but adequate arrangements had been made to handle the crowd and everything went off peacefully," a senior officer told mid-day.
Apart from the deployment inside and outside August Kranti Maidan, special branch officers were also deployed inside the ground to collect intelligence information and keep close tabs to ensure no one tried to disturb the peaceful protest. Officers were also keeping a very close eye on journalists, especially from specific media houses, who have been accused of running pro-government news.
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"There were some inputs that the crowd coming to the protest was furious with some media houses for their biased reporting so we kept a very close eye on them to ensure that they are not troubled," the officer added.
Three
No. of hours that the protest went on for
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