Those were the days!
Kurma das: Monday, 17 July 1972
“Civil authorities in Melbourne followed Sydney’s lead by arresting the devotees, albeit it under slightly different circumstances. In Sydney, devotees would be spontaneously arrested for street chanting. In Melbourne, however, although the police disapproved of the chanting parties, devotees were mainly getting charged for selling Back to Godhead magazines on the street. The charging would result in court cases with fines being imposed against the devotees. The devotees, of course, would neither show up for the court case nor pay the fines. These cases would end with summonses, subsequent arrests and jail sentences.
Having received news of Srila Prabhupada’s advice to Caru, the devotees in Melbourne were now clear on what they should do. On 28 September 1972, The Age accurately and sympathetically summed up the recent events in an article headed "Hare Krishna Song Goes on in Prison”: