Comedian Raunaq Rajani has alleged that Mumbai Police used excessive force during a protest last week, leaving his wife with a fractured rib. The couple had joined one of several demonstrations held across the country demanding the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Raunaq Rajani shares what happened at Shivaji Park
In a video shared on Instagram on July 26, Raunaq Rajani claimed that on July 22, he and his wife were detained by police while they were “illegally rounding up people” at a protest in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park. “My wife’s rib has been fractured because of the protests in Mumbai. It was fractured by a policeman,” he said in the video.Describing the detention, Rajani said, “On 22nd July 2026, my wife and I were detained by the cops while they were illegally rounding up people at the Shivaji Park protest. You might have seen pictures of both of us in the cop van. They have shoved us in with brute force. I ended up having a sprain on my neck. She ended up having pain on her ribs.”He added that they initially chose not to make a big deal of their injuries, given that others had faced worse police action. However, when the pain persisted for two days, a doctor’s visit confirmed the fracture.
Raunaq Rajani shares video evidence
Raunaq Rajani pieced together footage from the protest, claiming the situation escalated when he and his wife tried to stop police from detaining a minor. He shared a clip in which people can be heard shouting, “Chhodo isko! Chhodo isko!”According to Rajani, a policeman in khaki uniform pinned him to the ground and later assaulted his wife inside a detention bus. He also alleged that a plainclothes officer in a red shirt forcibly pushed his wife into a police van, despite a woman constable telling him, “Madam ko nikalo.”Rajani further claimed that footage from inside the bus shows the same khaki-uniformed policeman kicking his wife on the rib. “Now, the same cop who pinned me to the ground, the one in khaki, he enters… you will see how the man in khaki kicked my wife on the rib,” he alleged, adding that he was holding his wife’s hand when police separated them.
Raunaq Rajani slams police, files complaint
Concluding his post, Rajani criticised what he described as excessive force by Mumbai Police. “This nationwide protest has started only because the government has misused the police machinery and used it to beat up innocent protesters. And when we stood up for that exact cause in Mumbai, the police, instead of pulling back, tried to double down and do the same s*** on us,” he said.He added, “We don’t pay our f*****g taxes so the police can beat us up! They are supposed to protect us!”Rajani confirmed that he and his wife have filed a complaint at Shivaji Park police station and are awaiting a response to register an FIR. Mumbai Police had not issued an official response to the allegations at the time of writing.
