Mumbai Police Detain TISS Students Who Attended Gathering In Honour of G.N. Saibaba
Mumbai: A team of the Mumbai police detained and booked students at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in the city on Monday (October 13) for organising a get-together in the memory of professor G.N. Saibaba on his first death anniversary the previous day.
The students had simply gathered on campus, held posters of Saibaba and lit a few candles, they said.
Police invoked sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to “causing prejudice to the nation”, causing enmity between groups and unlawful assembly among others against at least ten students, the Indian Express cited an officer as saying.
Saibaba, who suffered with over 90% disability and was wheelchair-bound, was incarcerated for a decade for having alleged links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). He was, however, acquitted of all charges early last year.
But within months, his already fragile health deteriorated and he died on October 12 last year.
The event organised on the TISS campus, students said, simply involved a group of students coming together. “There was no sloganeering or speeches delivered. We only stood there for some time,” a student who had participated in the gathering said.
Within minutes, a number of right-leaning students, associated with the Democratic Secular Students Forum, arrived at the gathering and allegedly began tearing photos of Saibaba.
“They started clicking photos of a few of us gathered there, hurled abuses at us and tore photos of Saibaba,” alleged a Masters’ student.
In no time, some active right-wing social media handles had shared photos on social media and tagged the Mumbai police and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The Mumbai police was quick to respond to the posts on X.
GN Saibaba was accused of helping Naxals.
His death anniversary being celebrated in TISS without any approval.
What Mumbai Police and TISS VC Badri Narayan Tiwari doing?
Hope CM Dev Fadnavis shows some action now! @MumbaiPolice @Dev_Fadnavis pic.twitter.com/ItFJJxfJBN
— Harshil (હર્ષિલ) (@MehHarshil) October 12, 2025
On Monday, the Trombay police, under whose jurisdiction the TISS campus in Mumbai falls, arrived in multiple vans and hurriedly moved around campus, students said.
They said the police, who came there in the evening, remained on campus and continued to question a few students at the time this report was published.
“They have detained at least four students right now and are asking for the addresses of a few more students,” one student, who is present on campus, told The Wire at 11 pm on Monday.
The police have confiscated laptops and phones belonging to those detained, another student shared.
According to the Express, the TISS administration learned of the event through social media posts. It has accused the students of gathering without proper permissions, either from the institute or from the police.
Its report also claims that the students had raised slogans in support of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, both of whom have faced prolonged incarceration in the 2020 Delhi riots case. But students who were part of the gathering said no slogans were raised and that the police were making up the allegation.
One student claimed that the police came with a warrant that was handed over to at least one of the detained students. There is no clarity if it is a warrant for arrests or searches.
The police have also been noting down the details of students who gathered outside the hostel in solidarity of those being detained and questioned.
This is a developing story. It will be updated as and when more information is available.
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