Prateek Tanmay
3 min readMumbaiJul 29, 2026 07:54 PM IST
Earlier this month, as student protests demanding education reforms spread across the country, several voices from the film industry came out in support of the demonstrators. Many actors condemned the alleged police crackdown on protesting students, while some also joined the protests in person, with a few even being detained. Among them was actor Ayesha Khan, who was detained by the Mumbai Police on July 22 while attempting to participate in a protest in Mumbai.
The actor, who recently gained widespread recognition after appearing in the song “Shararat” from Dhurandhar, later shared a series of videos from inside a police van and subsequently from Mumbai’s Worli Police Station. In the videos, she alleged that she had been detained despite not raising slogans or participating in any protest. The clips quickly went viral on social media, and Ayesha was released approximately three hours later.
CJP’s comment on Ayesha Khan’s post.
Now, days after the protests have subsided, Ayesha has shared a video of her workout routine on Instagram. The post drew attention after the official social media handle of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which spearheaded the student protests, left a comment thanking the actor for standing in solidarity with the movement.
The comment read, “Thank you Ayesha for standing with students and supporting their voice. Your courage and commitment to their cause show the importance of standing up for justice and education.” While the comment has received significant engagement from social media users, Ayesha is yet to respond publicly.
What Ayesha Khan had said after her detention
In videos posted on her Instagram Stories last week, Ayesha Khan appeared visibly shaken as she recounted the events leading up to her detention. She said she had reached the protest venue at around 4 pm to show solidarity and was standing by the roadside with two female friends after her brother and other male friends had been taken into a police van.
Also Read | The women of Omkara make it the crown jewel of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespeare trilogy
According to Ayesha, the group had not yet begun protesting. They had not raised slogans or displayed placards and were simply standing on the road. She also shared a video that appeared to show her being pulled into a police van while repeatedly asking officers why she was being detained. Ayesha alleged that nearly 15 police personnel, including women officers, surrounded her and her two friends and asked them to get into the vehicle. She said she repeatedly sought an explanation but did not receive one. “I kept asking why we were being detained. We were just standing on the road. We hadn’t even started protesting. Nobody answered us.”
Story continues below this ad
About the protests
The protests at Jantar Mantar, spearheaded by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), intensified after educator and environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk began an indefinite hunger strike, which concluded on July 23. Before that, on July 20, the opening day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, students from across the country gathered in New Delhi and marched towards Parliament as part of the ‘Chalo Sansad’ march. Several protests were carried out across the country after July 20.
