Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – A student activist of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Sharjeel Usmani has been named in five FIRs filed by Aligarh police in connection with the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He says the crude attempt of the police was to fix him and send him in exile.
Usmani, associated with student group Fraternity Movement, told Clarion India that he came to know about these FIRs and charges leveled against him through the news reports. The police did not communicate to him officially about the allegations so far. Nonetheless, he got the copy of one FIR which invokes serious sections of Indian Penal Code – 307 (Attempt to Murder), as also 147 (Rioting), 148, 149, 153, 188, 189, 332, 336, 504, 506, Section 4 and 7 of CLA.
All five FIRs are directly related to the protests held from 10 to 15 December at Aligarh Muslim University. Usmani is a student at AMU who wrote the final exams of the BA Political Science last year.
Usmani said that the first FIR was filed against him on 11 December when students at the AMU took out a torch rally (mashal juloos). “I could not believe that an FIR will be lodged for this. We came to know when it was reported in the newspaper next day that Section 144 was imposed on Aligarh and we have violated it. And we have been accused of beating up police personnel. However, students took it lightly as it was not communicated to them by the police,” said Usmani.
The second FIR was lodged on 13 December when students held protests after Friday prayers on the call of former AMU student union president Salman Imtiaz. “Soon after the protest, an FIR was lodged on that day despite the fact that the Aligarh SP was present in the protest and he also delivered speech there,” Usmani said adding that he does not know the present status of this FIR whether the police withdrew it or not.
On 12 December, the police warned Usmani’s father, a professor at AMU, that he should keep his son away from the protests. Otherwise, the police will take action against Usmani under the NSA (National Security Act). But his father kept quiet.
On 15 December, after the police crackdown on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus, the police attacked students entering the campus in the AMU, leaving dozens of students injured. As Usmani knew that he, among other students, was identified by the police for taking action on 16 December, he left Aligarh in a huff. In relation to the 15 December incident, three FIRs were lodged against him and other students, in one of which the police invoked all the above-mentioned serious sections of the IPC. He said that, in the second FIR related to the 15 December incident, the police alleged that he along with 27 named students and 1200 unknown people attacked and wounded 30 police personnel, attempted to snatch their pistols and were absconding with 5 cartridges.
Usmani said that the police has filed FIRs against around 6,000 students in relation to the Aligarh protests. In every FIR, names of scores of students including that of Usmani were mentioned.
“All FIRs are absolutely baseless. If you talk about the allegations of snatching pistols from the police forces and attacking them, the police were firing bullets and bombs on that day. They were using stun grenades, pellet guns, assault rifles. Students were 200 metres away from the police. Nobody could go so close to the police that one could snatch cartridges from the police. If they have any evidence, they should show us,” said Usmani on the allegations leveled against him.
He said that the police was trying to book him under the Goonda act with a view to sending him in exile from the city, and the District Magistrate wrote to the home ministry to book him under the NSA (National Security Act). He is astonished that the students are being termed a threat to the nation.
His organisation, the Fraternity Movement, has termed these cases “a witch-hunt by UP police” and demanded scrapping of “all the false cases” filed against him.
