Mumbai, Oct 10: Police on Saturday detained around 600 people, including actor Imran Khan, activist Tushar Gandhi and CPI (M) workers, from various locations in Mumbai for protesting without permission in solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)’s demonstration in New Delhi.

Several protesters complained of manhandling by the police.

The demonstrations were held at the August Kranti Maidan, Hutatma Chowk and other locations in the metropolis.

At Hutatma Chowk in south Mumbai, several workers of the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) held a protest.

Hundreds of people, including those belonging to Tushar Gandhi-led ‘Hum Bharat Ke Log’ organisation, and activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) assembled at the August Kranti Maidan without permission, and around 200 of them were detained for protesting, a police official said.

“Overall, around 600 people were detained from various spots across the city,” the official said.

One of the protesters, Rubaid Bhojani, alleged that the police took the protesters into custody “very brutally”.

“We voted for the Prime Minister, but he betrayed us. We demand Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation,” Bhojani said.

Actor Imran Khan was among the protesters detained by the police at the August Kranti Maidan in south Mumbai.

“Apparently, I am going for a drive,” the actor posted on a social media platform from a police van.

A video later surfaced, which showed Khan responding to a reporter’s query, while he was being forced into the police vehicle, about his participation in the protest. “I have no demands. I am not part of any organisation,” he said.

He was also seen asking the police, “What have I done? Why am I being manhandled?”

A senior citizen with a heart pacemaker alleged that a police constable pulled and pushed her.

Another protester alleged that what could have been a peaceful meeting with some slogans and fiery speeches was turned into a brutal spectacle of police dragging people into police vans and detaining them.

The protesters were shifted to Gamdevi and Tardeo police stations.

Earlier in the day, Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was picked up from Bandra and taken to D N Nagar police station. A large number of people gathered outside the police station. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray also visited the police station demanding Gandhi’s release.

The police finally released Gandhi around nine hours after his detention.

Gandhi had earlier shared a poster on X, urging citizens to join a protest at August Kranti Maidan at 3.30 pm.

Activist Feroze Mithiborwala was also taken into custody from his home and shifted to the MIDC police station.

Meanwhile, additional police personnel, including women officers, were deployed at Shivaji Park in Dadar to prevent CJP members from staging a demonstration.

Security was also stepped up at other locations across Mumbai.

Authorities maintained that August Kranti Maidan is not designated as a protest site in accordance with a Bombay High Court order, prompting preventive action to maintain law and order.

The CJP has called a demonstration at Jantar Mantar against the CEC over allegations of voter-list manipulation during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and changes relating to Form 6, used for voter registration.

In Delhi, an unprecedented security clampdown and the detention of over 7,000 protesters, including CJP leader Abhijit Dipke, four former chief ministers and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, helped the government thwart a planned mass mobilisation at Jantar Mantar.

New Delhi, Oct 10: Anti-terror agency NIA has registered a case to probe and unearth the larger conspiracy behind last month’s mid-air attack on Captain Smit Machchhar inside the cockpit of an Israel-bound flydubai flight, officials said on Saturday.

It was reported that on September 30, 2026, the Omani first officer of flydubai flight no 1073 stabbed the Indian pilot, Captain Machchhar, mid-air “in an apparent attempt to hijack or cause it to crash”, according to the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on October 9.

The FIR mentions the “Omani first officer” as the accused.

The NIA has invoked Section 3 (hijacking) of the Anti Hijacking Act, 2016 and Section 16 read with Section 15(1)(a) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, officials said.

Section 16 of UAPA entails punishment for terrorist act.

The Section 15(1)(a) details punishment for terrorist activities for “whoever does any act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security, (economic security) or sovereignty of India or with intent to strike terror or likely to strike terror in the people or any section of the people in India or in any foreign country, (a) by using bombs, dynamite or other explosive substances or inflammable substances or firearms or other lethal weapons or poisonous or noxious gases or other chemicals or by any other substances (whether biological radioactive, nuclear or otherwise) of a hazardous nature or by any other means of whatever nature…”

Captain Machchhar sustained critical injuries after he was stabbed by the Omani co-pilot inside the cockpit of the flydubai flight heading from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The incident occurred in the “Saudi airspace while flying near the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border”.

The case was filed on the direction of the Home Ministry, considering the gravity of the offence and the need to unearth the larger conspiracy, the officials said.

“The Central government has received information that flydubai flight no 1073, which was being piloted by Indian national pilot Captain Smit Machchhar and an Omani first officer, departed from Dubai on September 30, 2026 at 7.05 am (GST) with 174 passengers and six crew members and dived rapidly and turned back into Saudi airspace while flying near the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border at around 9.21 am (GST),” the FIR states.

“And whereas passengers reported that the first officer stabbed Captain Smit Machchhar during the flight in an apparent attempt to hijack or crash the plane but was overwhelmed and restrained by passengers and crew. However, Captain Smit Machchhar sustained deep cuts to the head and hands as a result of the attack,” it said.

The other flydubai pilots on board then landed the plane safely at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia at 10.45 am (GST), leading to the arrest of the first officer by Saudi authorities, the FIR reads.

The Central government is of the opinion that a scheduled offence under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, has been committed and the case is related to an attack on an Indian national pilot with an apparent attempt to hijack or crash the plane, and “having regard to the gravity of the offence, its grave national and international ramifications, and the need to unearth the larger conspiracy, the matter requires thorough investigation by the National Investigation Agency,” it said.