Later, as a leader of dock workers, he demanded a war bonus owing to greater profits and an end to casual employment.

But on the night the strike began, D'Mello was arrested under Preventive Detention Act and was jailed in Vellore.

[7] He was released on 6 October 1950 and returned to Bombay where he was received by around five-thousand dockers at Victoria Terminus.

While still in jail, he was put up as a candidate by Socialist Party in 1951 Bombay assembly election for Mazagaon Ghodapdeo constituency.

[9] After one year of arrest, two-hundred dock workers led by George Fernandes walked from Bombay to Poona to meet Chief Minister Morarji Desai for the release of D'Mello.