Prateek Tanmay
3 min readAhmedabadJul 20, 2026 06:20 PM IST
Several people who had come out in a show of support for activist Sonam Wangchuk were detained from two protest sites in Ahmedabad on Monday.
The police action came on a day when the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) supporters marched towards Parliament and the crackdown on them in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
Police here came down strongly on the protests, detaining people still walking to the protest sites and sending them to several police stations.
The two protests in Ahmedabad took place at Ellisbridge, located in the city’s west, and Sarangpur in the east.
Activists involved in the Ellisbridge protest said, “About 100 people gathered around Law Garden and were moving towards Happy Street, where the protest was going to be held. Police were present at the location from 8.30 am. After a point, they started detaining people in vans and jeeps. Some of the detainees were left at a distance, and some were taken to police stations in Sarkhej, Vejalpur, Paldi, and Sarkhej. While some were released soon after, many are still in detention.”
Advocate Subodh Parmar, one of the principal organisers of the Law Garden protest, was detained at Paldi police station.
On what the protest aimed to achieve, he told The Indian Express: “The protest was called in solidarity with Sonam Wangchuk, as well as to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. We want a strong law against paper leak offences and answers from the Gujarat government as to what stringent actions have been taken against the accused of 22 paper leak incidents reported in the state. We also seek reforms in the education system and more government-run English medium schools.”
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The other protest site was at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Circle in Sarangpur. “The stir was in support of the Cockroach Janta Party and Sonam Wangchuk, and to demand reforms in the country’s education system and the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan,” said Rakesh Maheria, who led this protest.
About 70-80 protestors were detained by the police and kept at JD Nagarwala Football Ground in Shahibaug.
Maheria added, “We believe in democracy and constitutional rights. It is the right of every citizen to raise their voices peacefully. Our resolve cannot be stopped by detention. This struggle is not for any person, but for the future of students, a transparent education system, and responsible governance.”
The Indian Express attempted to reach out to Inspector KM Bhuva of the Ellisbridge police station and JH Sindhav of the Shahibaug police station. Both remained unavailable for comment.
