Hours after being detained by the Mumbai Police on Saturday for attending a protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over vote-theft allegations, actors Imran Khan, his partner Lekha Washington and cousin Zayn Marie Khan were released.
Lekha shared a video on her Instagram from a cab and said, "I am trying to say that we are all safe and we are on our way home," Zayn also butted in into the video to say "Hi."
The trio was picked up from Mumbai’s August Kranti Maidan on Saturday afternoon where they were part of many people who had assembled to protest against the CEC. Videos and pictures showed the three of them being dragged into a police van and being taken to an undisclosed location. Imran even put up a selfie from inside the vehicle with a cheeky caption: “Apparently I’m going for a drive.”
On Saturday night Lekha shared a reel confirming that they have been released from detention. In her latest Instagram Story, Lekha, Imran and Zayn are seen sharing a group hug after reaching home. In an earlier reel, Lekha also mentioned that even after being released, they were not being allowed to take a cab back home since Mumbai Police continued to threaten the cab drivers.
Zayn also shared moment by moment updates of their detention on her Instagram Stories. She reposted a video of Mumbai Police aggressively dragging them inside the van. She was also seen chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, from inside the police van, only to be joined by a few passers-by walking on the road.
In another story, Zayn faced the camera and told her followers that when the officials at Yellow Gate police station were asked why she, Imran, and Lekha are being detained, they had no response. So, they decided to walk out of the station, only to be chased by a police officer. “I’ve been asking him why we were detained, but he has no clue either. He just says, ‘Two minutes,’ and then goes on the phone for hours,” Zayn added, with a shrug of shoulders.
In more reels shared by other protesters at the site, Imran is seen telling one of them that he, Lekha, and Zayn were moved around in the police van for at least a couple of hours without offering any reason for detention. In another video, when Imran and Zayn confront a group of police officers on why they are being detained, with the latter even recording the lack of their reactions on her phone camera, the police officers just walk off — only for Imran to bid them goodbye with a “Jai Hind!”.
In a funny moment, Zayn shared a reel from inside the police van, asking Imran if he’s ever ridden a horse, gone to jail, and bashed someone up, a callback to his 2008 debut film, Abbas Tyrewala’s cult romantic comedy Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na, in which his character Jai Rathore is a non-violent heir of violent kings and warriors from Ranjore in Rajasthan, who has to fulfill the above three conditions in order to be truly called a “Ranjore ka Rathore”.
Imran chuckles and responds that while he has ridden a horse, he has never beaten anyone up in real life and isn’t entirely sure whether he is going to jail. “Aajtak toh nahi, par jaana pad sakta hain (Maybe I will have to go),” he says.
