Mumbai Police forced Umar Khalid documentary screening cancellation, activists allege

• Activists Shrishti Khanna and Prashant Pundir alleged that Mumbai Police pressured venues to cancel a documentary screening about jailed activist Umar Khalid

• They claimed officers visited several potential venues, sometimes in civilian clothes, even after the September 19 screening had been called off

• The CBFC has opposed public screenings of the uncertified documentary without a specific exemption under the Cinematograph Act

Activists Shrishti Khanna and Prashant Pundir have alleged that Mumbai Police pressured venues to cancel a planned screening of a documentary about former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid.

The film, Prisoner No. 626710 Is Present, was scheduled to be screened in Mumbai on 19 September as an expression of solidarity with Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, both of whom have been in custody since 2020.

In social media posts, the activists claimed that police personnel visited more than one venue connected with the proposed screening and pressured their managers to withdraw permission.

Khanna alleged that officers initially arrived at the second proposed venue in civilian clothes and later returned in a police van. She claimed that the venue manager was threatened and compelled to cancel the event.

Pundir said the organisers had publicly announced the cancellation but alleged that police nevertheless visited the original venue to ensure that no screening took place.

“Mumbai Police still raided the original venue today, which had already been cancelled on us due to fear, just in case, to make sure the truth about Umar Khalid and his unjust incarceration is suppressed,” he wrote on X on Saturday.

He also claimed that people in civilian clothes remained near the original venue to prevent the screening from being held.

According to Khanna, police personnel additionally visited a well-known venue in Bandra that the organisers had merely approached while searching for a suitable location. No agreement to host the event had been reached with that establishment, she said.

Khanna alleged that those who visited the Bandra venue already knew about the proposed screening and instructed its management not to host it.

Mumbai Police had not immediately responded to the allegations.

Directed by filmmaker Lalit Vachani, Prisoner No. 626710 Is Present focuses on Khalid, a former JNU research scholar who was arrested in September 2020 in connection with the alleged wider conspiracy behind the communal violence in northeast Delhi that year.

Khalid faces charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other legal provisions and has remained in custody since his arrest.

The Central Board of Film Certification has previously opposed public screenings of the documentary in different parts of the country. It has maintained that exhibiting an uncertified film publicly would breach the Cinematograph Act unless the organisers had obtained a specific exemption.

With PTI inputs