Comedian Raunaq Rajani has claimed that Mumbai Police used excessive force during a protest which left his wife with a fractured rib. Rajani and his wife had participated in one of the many demonstrations that took place across the country last week and resulted in the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Event Context
In a video shared last night, Rajani claimed that on July 22, he and his wife had joined a protest at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park when policemen began to illegally round up protesters. During the commotion that followed, his wife was shoved and kicked — which resulted in a fractured rib.
Rajani shared several video clips filmed during the protest as proof of police violence — including footage of his wife being kicked by a cop.
Mumbai Police had not issued a public response to the allegations at the time of writing.
“My wife’s rib has been fractured because of the protests in Mumbai. It was fractured by a policeman,” Rajani said in his Instagram video shared on July 26.
“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,” the comedian revealed.
He said that people across the country had endured much worse in terms of police brutality, which is part of the reason why they did not want to make a big deal of their injuries.
However, when his wife’s pain did not reduce over two days, they ended up consulting a doctor and learned that she had fractured her rib.
Finally, Rajani shared video evidence of another policeman assaulting his wife. Footage from inside the van appears to show the khaki uniform policeman, who had earlier pinned Rajani to the floor, now kicking his wife.
“Now, the same cop who pinned me to the ground, the one in khaki, he enters. Now, show this exact thing from inside the bus and then you will see how the man in khaki kicked my wife on the rib,” he alleged.
Team Analysis
This was followed by a video of a cop in a khaki uniform pinning Rajani to the floor. Rajani said that this same policeman would later assault his wife inside a bus where protesters were being detained.
The comedian shared clips that show a man in a red shirt — who Rajani claimed was a plainclothed officer — pushing his wife inside a police van.
“This was supposed to be done by a lady cop. He is using his entire body to shove her in,” Rajani said, adding video proof. He also claimed that a woman cop tried, in vain, to stop his wife from being shoved into the police van.
“As you probably heard, a lady cop even said “Madam ko nikalo”, but this man in red clothes came back and now see how he shoves my wife,” he explained in the video.
Match Outlook
The comedian said that he was holding his wife’s hand to protect her in the commotion, but the policeman separated them. He replayed the video twice so the assault could be seen by all his Instagram viewers.
Raunaq Rajani ended his post by slamming the excessive use of 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 pointed out.
“We don’t pay our f*****g taxes so the police can beat us up! They are supposed to protect us!”
Rajani said that he and his wife have filed a complaint in Shivaji Park police station. “We are waiting for them to call us back so we can do an FIR,” he added.
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Rajani managed to piece together the sequence of events that unfolded at Shivaji Park using videos from various sources.
According to him, things escalated when he and his wife noticed a “kid” getting detained by the police and tried to intervene. “Both of us were telling the cops that they do not have the right to do so,” he said, sharing a clip where one can hear people shouting “Chhodo isko! Chhodo isko! (Leave him! Leave him!)”
