Lawyers and students protested against the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) recent action against lawyers Anand Grover and Indira Jaisingh, outside Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus on Friday evening.

The CBI has booked the two in a case related to foreign funding and on Thursday, searches were conducted at several locations in the country, including the residences of Mr. Grover and Ms. Jaisingh.

The protest was organised jointly by several non-governmental organisations, which united under the aegis of the Indira Jaisingh-Anand Grover Solidarity Committee. Several lawyers and students were in attendance.

Advocate Niranjani Shetty, one of the leaders of the protest, said, “Ms. Jaisingh and Mr. Grover have always fought for human rights, women’s issues, rights of tuberculosis patients and many others, and it is important for us to come out in their support. The current government is afraid of the work they are doing. The government chooses to focus on such cases rather than pay attention to the laundering of black money running into crores of rupees.”

The protesters stood outside Canon Pav Bhaji Centre near Azad Maidan and raised slogans in support of the lawyers and against the ruling government. The Azad Maidan police had deployed its personnel around the protesters and kept the stream of passers-by moving.

The protesters said anyone who speaks against the government is put behind bars. “The charges against the two lawyers are ridiculous. The government is scared of being exposed by the activists. Anyone who opposes the government is targeted as this government is not willing to face criticism,” a student from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who was at the protest, said.