The former student leader of the Aligarh Muslim University had talked about the police encounters carried out during the Yogi Adityanath government and killing of anti-CAA protesters in police firing
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
LUCKNOW — After the Pune police, the Lucknow police have also booked well-known Muslim activist Sharjeel Usmani under sedition and other charges for speaking against the government in his speech delivered at the second edition of Elgar Parishad on January 30.
On Thursday, Shyambabu Shukla, SHO of the Hazratganj police station where the FIR was lodged against him, told Clarion India that Usmani was booked for speaking against the Uttar Pradesh government.
“The charges against him are that he was giving a statement against the government, in Pune. He was giving provocative statement against the Uttar Pradesh government and the nation. He was making communal and casteist remarks. The case was filed in relation to such statements,” said Shukla.
He was booked under IPC Sections 124 A (sedition), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 505 (intent to incite any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community), 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings) along with sections of the IT Act, according to Shukla.
He said the sedition charge was invoked because Usmani spoke against the government. “You cannot speak against the government anywhere. It’s not only in UP but all over India. You can’t challenge the government. You can express your feeling in a democratic way,” said Shukla.
The FIR was lodged on a complaint by one Anuraj Singh.
Talking about the Uttar Pradesh government, Usmani, a resident of UP and former student leader of Aligarh Muslim University, talked about the police encounters carried out during the Yogi Adityanath government and killing of anti-CAA protesters in police firing.
“I come from Uttar Pradesh whose Chief Minister says that he will definitely do encounters. Encounter is a mishap that if someone opens firing, the police have to shoot back. But our Chief Minister says that he will definitely do encounters. After coming to power, he killed 19 people within a year. All of them are Muslims or Dalits. These police forces, who have carried out encounters, shot in the chest of people during anti-CAA protesters. They told us to go to Pakistan. Somebody should tell us how we should trust the police,” he said.
Apart from Usmani, prominent author Arundhati Roy, former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, journalist Prashant Kanojia, Dalit activist Satyabhama Suryawanshi, student activist Aysha Renna, family members of Payal Tadvi, Sanjiv Bhatt and Rohit Vemula, retired High Court judge BG Kolse Patil and retired Indian Police Services officer Should M were the key speakers at the event.
Only two days ago, on Usmani’s speech, a case was also filed in Pune under section 153(A) of Indian Penal code at Swargate Police station.
The Elgaar Parishad was organised in Pune by Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyaan on the birth anniversary of Dalit student leader Rohit Vemula, who committed suicide. The Parishad has come in the limelight three years ago after the Maharashtra Police accused its organisers–a coalition of 250 anti-caste and human rights organisations –of allegedly instigating violence in Pune’s Bhima Koregaon area on January 1, 2018. Several prominent activists have been jailed under the draconian UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
