On July 20, hours after students marching to Parliament were beaten up in Delhi, Preeti Kamble headed towards Mumbai’s Shivaji Park.Kamble, who recently cleared her Class 12 exams and is preparing to join a private college, wanted to attend a protest in solidarity with students. “A close friend of mine is preparing for the NEET exam,” she said, referring to the national-level medical entrance test.The Cockroach Janata Party-led protest in Delhi is demanding that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign for mishandling the national NEET-UG exam for seats in medical colleges.Kamble added: “Her parents have put their entire savings into her education. I decided to show up at the protest site so I could do my bit to ensure she does not face what other NEET students did.”But Kamble was detained by the police even before she could reach the protest site at Chaityabhoomi or raise any slogans.She was taken to the Kalachowkie police station. “They took my name, phone number and address and let me go,” she said.But the police action did not end there. The next day, she got a call from her local police station to come and collect a notice issued against her under sections 37 and 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act that relate to disobeying prohibitory orders and section 189 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita invoked in cases of unlawful assembly.She visited Amboli police station on Tuesday and waited for two-and-a-half hours before the police allowed her to leave.On Wednesday, three police officials showed up at her door. “Only one of them was dressed in uniform. They insisted that I again go to the police station with them,” Kamble said.She said the police would have forced her physically had her mother not stepped in.Kamble is not alone. Several young protestors alleged that the Mumbai police have been using intimidation tactics to prevent them from attending protests in support of the youth agitation in Delhi that has rattled the Narendra Modi government.According to a statement by the Mumbai police on July 21, hundreds were booked for taking part in various protests against India’s education system. Many of them were under 25 years of age.Many of those then were pressured not to take part in protests, they said. Some got police notices on WhatsApp, under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Some received calls to visit the local police station. Some were asked to share their live GPS location with the police. And some, like Kamble, had police constables knocking on their door.On Wednesday, as the city braced for protests in support of the Cockroach Janata Party campaign, Mumbai police began picking up protestors mapped over the last two days from their homes.Scroll called Mumbai Police spokesperson Raj Tilak Roshan several times to ask about the rationale behind the police action. He did not respond.Senior police inspector at Shivaji Park station, Pramod Pawar, told Scroll that the protestors were detained because they assembled unlawfully. The police at the protest in Chembur. Credit: Tabassum Barnagarwala.‘Stay at home’Writer Rohan Shelar had attended the Cockroach Janata Party protest at Jantar Mantar for several days.Last week, when he visited Mumbai, he decided to join a protest in the city. On July 19, he took part in a silent march in Dadar, following which he was detained and taken to Bhoiwada police station.“The police pulled my hair, grabbed my clothes,” he said. “But I was released the next morning.”Since yesterday, Shelar claimed, he has been receiving calls from the police to share his live GPS location. “I received calls from the RCF police station in Chembur. Today three police officials were stationed outside my house to keep an eye on me,” he said.RCF police senior inspector Dattatray Patil refused to comment on Shelar’s claims.In Andheri West, protestors complained of harassment and threats by Versova senior police inspector Deepshikha Waare.Nandini Gautam, a student, said she was picked up by the police on July 20 outside Dadar station. “I had not even joined a protest. But I was extremely cooperative. I gave all my details. They detained us for four hours that day,” she told Scroll.On July 21, she was summoned to the Shivaji Park police station where she gave her statement.On Wednesday, Gautam claimed that a senior inspector from the Versova police station called her and asked her to stay at home. “Later she called again and asked me to send her my live location,” she said. “I shared it even though I am not obligated to do so. The police officer eventually began to threaten me by saying that they know my address and can pick me up anytime.”When Scroll contacted Versova station’s senior PI Deepshikha Waare, who had texted and called Gautam, Waare first asked for the protestor’s name. She refused to comment on the calls and texts.A senior Mumbai official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Scroll that while “protest is a right, it is subject to not hampering other people’s rights”.“If there is a prohibitory order issued, then the protestors can’t step out. Of course, we will ask them to share their live location or ask them to stay at home,” the senior official said.The official added that the protests held in Mumbai on July 16, July 20 and July 21 had no permission from the police.Notices on WhatsAppAnother protestor Annapurna Soni, 36, recounted a similar pattern of detention and intimidation.Soni said that on July 20 the police detained her as soon as she stepped out of her car at Shivaji Park and took her to Mahim police station. “Male cops pushed me around. I kept asking the reason for detention since till that point I had not done anything,” she said.She was released after four hours that day. At 2.30 am on July 21, she received a notice on WhatsApp to visit the Shivaji Park police. Soni was served a notice under sections of the Maharashtra Police Act that relate to disobeying prohibitory orders, and sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to unlawful assembly and rioting. Similar notices were served to other protestors on WhatsApp.“I complied with everything they asked me to do. They asked me to appear again on July 23,” she said. A notice serviced over WhatsApp by the Mumbai police. Credit: Special Arrangement.On Wednesday, Soni received a phone call from a police official from Oshiwara, which she recorded. Scroll has heard the recording.“Hum logo ko uppar se order aaye hai,” the police official on the line said. We have got orders from higher-ups. “We have to present you to the senior police inspector. You need to come back.” Soni told the officer that she had already visited the police station twice and given all her information.Soni said repeated calls by the police were “a way of trying to scare us”. “The government thinks they can suppress us in this way. But I will again join a protest. This will not scare us,” she told Scroll. Like Soni, an actress from Andheri West was picked up by the DN Nagar police on Wednesday morning at 10.30 am, two days after she was picked up from the Shivaji Park protest and detained at the Sion police station.“On Wednesday, three cops showed up at her home with no warrant or summons. They took her to the DN Nagar police station again,” said advocate Aditya Mehta. The actress waited at the police station till evening. Mehta said that typically, the police station under which a protest is held detains or books people and investigates any violations of law. “This time protestors are being taken to various other stations. And local stations of protestors are contacting or picking them up later. This is unlike routine protocol,” Mehta said.Advocate and activist Samya Korde told Scroll that several protestors she is legally aiding called her in a panic on Wednesday because the police were demanding that they share their GPS location at all times. “This is to monitor their movement and discourage them from joining the protest,” she said.Lara Jesani, a human rights lawyer with People's Union for Civil Liberties, said the latest methods adopted by the Mumbai police “are clearly intimidation tactics to scare young students”. “Police cannot detain people without allowing access to lawyers or pick them up from their homes without a warrant.”“We have never seen the police act so fast. They are reaching protestors’ doorsteps within a day,” Jesani said.A protest at Shivaji Park on Tuesday. Credit: Tabassum Barnagarwala.‘We won’t be scared’Advocate Jesani told Scroll that the police are trying to scare people so that they do not show up at protest sites. “We have circulated a list of advocates who are helping detained protestors in these cases,” she said.But students have been defying the police. Anushka Kashibasi, a clinical psychology student, said she has joined the protest for a better education system. “There has to be accountability. The government is answerable,” she said. Kashibasi said police detentions will not deter her. On July 21, she was detained briefly by Shivaji Park police. Her name, address, phone number and Aadhaar details were taken by the police. She returned to the protest site as soon as she was released that evening. On Wednesday, Shetkari Kamgar Paksh held a press conference and demanded that the police stop harassment and drop charges against all students.Activist Aamir Qazi said the police assaulted him on July 16 near Azad Maidan when he was on his way to attend a protest. “The way the police are tackling the situation is shocking. They do not care about citizen rights. They are only looking at ways to suppress our protest.” On Wednesday, at least 51 people were detained at the RCF police station after attending a protest at Chembur’s Ambedkar Chowk. Of them most were students and eight were minors, confirmed senior police inspector Dattatray Patil. John Bright, one of those students, told Scroll that the police did not allow him to meet his lawyer waiting outside. Waiting outside the police station, advocate Bhagyesha Kurane told Scroll that “this is nothing short of kidnapping.” Amongst the protestors was Uzair Ansari, a 17-year-old, who wanted to offer support to students. His elder brother Faraaz told Scroll that they were both detained for three hours before being released. Sanchi Bhowar, another protestor in Chembur, said she was protesting for the first time in her life. “I am in Class 11. I am preparing for NEET. And I have no trust in the education system. That is why I am here,” she said, adding, “We are only demanding a better system. Why are the police acting against us?”