Caravan News
ALIGARH— The Aligarh Police on Thursday assured a delegation of Aligarh Muslim University that the FIR lodged against 1,200 students for taking out a peaceful candle march on Tuesday would be withdrawn.
“A candle march was taken out by AMU students and teachers on Tuesday. They had also submitted a memorandum to ACM. A case was filed in contravention of Section 144 in Civil Lines Police Station. Today a delegation came from AMU, that included teachers and representatives. They told us that the march was peaceful and after the march, a memorandum was given to ACM, a government official, and CO was also present there. They, therefore, demanded that the FIR lodged at Civil Lines is withdrawn,” Akash Kulhary, Senior Superintendent of Police, Aligarh, said.
The SSP sought a report from the CO and assured the delegation that the FIR will be cancelled if it was lodged against a peaceful march.
“After hearing the delegation, I called for a report from CO. The delegation was given assurance that after getting the report from CO, the case lodged against the peaceful candle march for violation of section 144 would be withdrawn,” said the police officer.
The Aligarh police had lodged an FIR against 1,200 unnamed AMU students who took out a candlelight march against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and in solidarity with the students who faced police action at AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia.
Most of the participants of the candle march were non-resident students. All were charged with Sections 188 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code for violating Section 144 of CrPC.
On December 15 night, the AMU students’ protest against CAA had turned violent after media reports about Delhi police crackdown on students of Jamia Millia Islamia earlier in the day. Several students were wounded as police resorted to lathi-charge and teargas firing after the protest turned violent. Several cops were also injured in stone pelting.
CAA passed by the Parliament on December 10 grants Indian citizenship to only non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
For the last two weeks, there have been nationwide massive protest demonstrations against the discriminatory law and the central government plan to conduct Assam-like NRC across the country.
