The supplementary charge-sheet proclaims that the accused persons were ‘continuously poisoning the minds of common people against the CAA/NRC
Mohd Aasif | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – A day after the revelation of a new FIR registered by the Delhi Police, Delhi University’s Prof. Apoorvanand and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury confronted the allegation through a statement calling it an ‘discrediting exercise’ and an outcome of the politics of BJP’s top leadership.
“They are scared of legitimate political peaceful protests by mainstream political parties, and are misusing state power to target the Opposition”, Yechury said.
Along with these two, documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy, former JNU student Umar Khalid, Prof. Jayati Ghosh and leader of Swaraj India Yogendra Yadav are also under the lens.
“These names are mentioned in uncorroborated statements attributed to accused who are in custody, where it is claimed that they provided support in organising the anti-CAA protests”, said Prof. Apoorvanand.
The supplementary charge-sheet (CS) proclaims that the accused persons were ‘continuously poisoning the minds of common people against the CAA/NRC. ‘This is the government’s political position surprisingly being parroted in the supplementary CS as a legal offence’, wonders Prof. Apoorvanand.
The FIR 50/2020 was registered in connection with the death, from a gunshot injury, of one Amaan. The investigation seems to have focussed on delegitimising the protests and in trying to make the protesters indirectly responsible for Amaan’s death, believes Prof. Apoorvanad.
The three young women are accused of instigating some unknown shooter, though they are not directly linked to the murder. The investigation has not revealed who shot at Amaan, but it insists that whoever it was, the shooter was instigated by the anti-CAA stance of the accused individuals.
Prof. Apoorvanand brings to the notice that on September 1, the Delhi High Court, while hearing a bail application by Devangna Kalita, has categorically held that the police have not been able to give any evidence of any incendiary speech by her. The court also said that the statements of the witnesses were produced belatedly, as an afterthought by the police.
“The supplementary CS does not improve upon the legal case, but only seems to be furthering the political agenda of discrediting the protestors, and uses all our names as part of the discrediting exercise. Their act of having planned a protest is being treated as a conspiracy to violence, in which me, along with the others, are projected as having abetted that cause, without any basis in law or facts”, Prof. Apoorvanad said.
“We are still waiting for the Delhi police to start an investigation to find out the truth behind the actual act of the February violence. It needs to stop its exercise of criminalising the anti CAA protests which were a perfectly legitimate act of citizenship”, he further added.
In late February, riots broke out in northeast Delhi after the clear warning of BJP leader Kapil Mishra to vacate the protest site, or else he would take law into his own hands. The anti-Muslim carnage took the lives of more than 50 people and left more than 400 injured.
“Hate speech videos by those who instigated violence which led to the death of 56 persons in Delhi are on record. The person who led violent mobs in JNU is again on video. The BJP government, and the Delhi Police, cannot see those because it is hell-bent upon destroying our democracy”, said Yechury.