After protest visuals from Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, a woman who stood in front of a police van carrying detained protesters during a demonstration in Mumbai has emerged as one of the most talked-about moments of the ongoing student protests.
The woman, identified as Rhiya Yadav, was seen standing in front of a police vehicle and refusing to move during a protest near Shivaji Park in Dadar on Wednesday. The demonstration was held by students demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities.
A video of the incident went viral on social media, showing Yadav wearing a hoodie and cap while standing in heavy rain and blocking the police van. According to reports, her action helped in getting some of the detained protesters released.
“The police aren’t doing their job responsibly,” she told reporters after the incident.
Who is Rhiya Yadav?
Rhiya Yadav is an actor, model and entrepreneur. She has a significant following on Instagram, with nearly one lakh followers, and has appeared in music videos.
Her recent appearance was in the music video “Dilbara”. Apart from her work in entertainment, Yadav runs her own personalised clothing brand, ‘Rhiyasat’, where she creates and handcrafts garments.
The Maharashtra capital on Wednesday witnessed protests at multiple locations in solidarity with the CJP stir against alleged irregularities in exams, leading to the detention of several people and police forcibly evicting senior Congress leaders from a traffic intersection in south Mumbai.
Police stopped senior leaders, including state Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal, CLP leader Vijay Wadettiwar, and former state minister Naseem Khan, at the Regal Cinema Chowk when they were headed towards the Maharashtra BJP office in south Mumbai. They were forcibly evicted and taken to Colaba police station in vans.
The Congress leaders wanted to present the copy of the Constitution of India to BJP leaders.
Protesters raised slogans such as ‘Modi Hato, Desh Bachao during the protest.
During the day, hundreds of people assembled at multiple locations in Mumbai and protested against the alleged NEET paper leak in violation of the prohibitory orders, leading to detention of several protesters.
According to an official, hundreds of protesters gathered at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Garden in Chembur amid heavy police deployment. Police detained several protesters, dragging some of them into police vehicles before taking them to the local police station, eyewitnesses alleged.
The protesters in Chembur were carrying placards demanding reforms in the education system and action over the alleged paper leak.
After detaining several protesters, police dispersed the remaining crowd from the protest site. Some protesters alleged that they had been stopped by police while on their way to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Garden.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Amit Thackeray reached the protest site and later visited the police station.
Following their intervention, detained protesters were released, sources said.
At Shivaji Park in Dadar, a woman wearing a burqa was stopped by police personnel while she was protesting. MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s wife Sharmila came to her support and sat beside her during the protest.
A large number of people gathered outside Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar and raised slogans against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Police maintained a heavy deployment at all protest sites to prevent any untoward incident.