Dwarika Prasad Mishra, one of the lieutenants of Pt. Shukla at Raipur, informed him that the district administration planned to arrest him if he would oppose their forced entry into the conference. He decided to stand guard along with his volunteers and to block the entry of the officials. Sh Waman Rao Lakhe, Madhav Rao Sapre, Sh. Raghvendra Rao and Dwarika Prasad Mishra all stood behind him at the entrance gate. The two Raipur district officials, Ali Hassan Rizvi the magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, decided to enter the meeting by force, but when blocked by Pt. Shukla, they arrested him by handcuffing him and took him to city kotwali. As soon as the news of Pt. Shukla's arrest spread in town, it was as if the entire town had come out of their houses and surrounded the city kotwali: it was like a sea of people in all directions.