The Mumbai Police on Sunday detained several Aam Aadmi Party members who were protesting against the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha and six other AAP MPs merging with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s legislature party in the Upper House of Parliament.

The AAP’s Mumbai leader Ruben Mascharenhas, who was among those detained ahead of the planned protest on Sunday, alleged that this was done to prevent the demonstration.

Mascharenhas told Scroll that he had written to the police a day earlier, informing them of the party’s plan to protest outside Chadha’s Mumbai home and had received an acknowledgement on Sunday morning.

However, he alleged that police personnel arrived at his house at about 1.45 pm, ahead of the planned protest at 3.30 pm, and prevented him from leaving. He was later detained.

“I am not being allowed to leave [my house],” Mascharenhas said on social media earlier in the day. “This is illegal and unacceptable.”