Imran Khan and his girlfriend Lekha Washington detained by Mumbai Police at August Kranti Maidan during protest – Report |

Imran Khan and his girlfriend Lekha Washington detained by Mumbai Police at August Kranti Maidan during protest – Report

Imran Khan was detained by the Mumbai Police on October 10 in connection with a protest planned in support of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). News agency ANI reported that he was taken into custody from August Kranti Maidan, the proposed venue for the demonstration.

Police say no permission was sought

Mumbai Police said that no permission had been asked for the protest. They added that it could not have been granted anyway, because the Bombay High Court’s directions allow protests only at Azad Maidan. The protest workers, however, claimed they had emailed the police seeking permission but received no response.

Detentions in Delhi

In the national capital, nearly 1,500 people were detained ahead of the protest at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, according to the police. Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, TMC’s Mamata Banerjee and AISA’s Neha Bora were among those held.

What Imran Khan said earlier about protests

Imran Khan had also joined the student protest march of July 2026 in Mumbai. An aspiring actor asked him what he would say to actors who believe that art is not political. He replied, “True art is going to have an individual artist point of you embedded within it, and as part of our human nature, we are going to have opinion and perspective that we hold through to ourselves. If you can’t stand by your opinions and if you do not pour your own heart into your art, your art has no value.”

His post on the previous student protest

The actor had also backed the student protest on social media. He expressed anger over the alleged lathi charge on students and said the system meant to protect them had failed them. He wrote, “Something broke in me today. Watching as police gassed and battered student protestors… how could I make sense of this? These students who worked hard only to be failed by the system. These people who asked to be heard, only to be met with silence. These citizens who stood up to show what matters to them… beaten down and disowned by the establishment.”He added, “Are these not the children of Mother India? If not them, for whom do we build, and whose future do we claim to protect? Those who demand ‘organisation’ from students protesting education reform but don’t apply such lofty standards of accountability to established authority; bootlickers, one and all.”

What is the current protest about?

The protest has been organised to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR of electoral rolls. The CJP has kept the issue alive through protests and public statements, including a demonstration in Mumbai on October 2.The controversy grew after an investigative report by The Indian Express. It stated that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and procedures linked to the SIR exercise.