Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Monday called Delhi University (DU) professor Apoorvanand for interrogation in connection with the February north-east Delhi riots that left 53 dead and more than 200 injured.
“I was asked by the Special Cell, Delhi Police, to appear before it in the investigation into FIR no 59/20 related to the violence that happened in North East Delhi in February this year”, the intellectual said in a statement circulated on social media.
The special cell grilled the DU teacher for five hours and his phone was seized for investigation. “I spent five hours there. The Delhi Police also considered it necessary to seize my phone for the purpose of investigation”, he said.
Prof. Apoorvanand said that while cooperating and respecting the right of police authorities to conduct a full, fair and thorough investigation, one could only hope that the probe would focus on the real instigators and perpetrators of the violence against a peaceful protest by citizens and the people of Northeast Delhi.
Emphasising on the fair conduct of the probe, the widely-respected professor hoped that investigations would not lead to further harassment and victimization of the protesters and their supporters who asserted their democratic rights through constitutional means, while expressing their dissent to the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) and the decision of the Government of India to operationalise the National Population Register (NPR) and the National register of Citizens (NRC) all over the country.
“It is disturbing to see a theory emerging which treats the supporters of the protesters as the source of violence. I would urge the police and expect their probe to be thorough, just and fair so that truth prevails”, said the professor, a vocal critic of the government crackdown on universities, and has been outspoken about the rising hate and bigotry in India.
Prof. Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University and has been part of several movements in the past, including the anti-CAA-NPR-NRC movement that took place across the country. He has contributed articles against the partisan role of the state machinery, to different publications. He is an intellectual and Gandhian and has been preaching his teachings.
