UP Police Send Notices to Women Activists for Protest over Hathras Gang Rape Incident

Date:

Women Protests against Hathras incident

Uzma Parveen, Sumaiya Rana, Madhu Garg and Meena Singh are some of the activists who are at the receiving end

Waquar Hasan | Clarion India

NEW DELHI – The Uttar Pradesh Police have sent notices to several women activists who took part in protests against Hathras incident in which a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang raped, allegedly by four upper caste men, in September 2020. She died in a Delhi hospital two weeks after the incident.

The case and its subsequent handling received widespread media attention and condemnation from across the country. It was the subject of protests against the Yogi Adityanath government by activists and opposition.

During the last one month or so the police have summoned or visited the houses of the women activists for recording their statements, say reports reaching from Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh.

These women activists were also at the forefront of anti-CAA protests. They had attempted to gather at ‘1090 Crossing of Gomti Nagar’ in Lucknow on October 8 last year to register their protest against the Hathras incident. But their attempt was foiled by the police.

Uzma Parveen, Sumaiya Rana, Madhu Garg and Meena Singh are some of the activists who have received notices with regard to this particular protest. They have been charged under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and Section 56 in the Disaster Management Act, 2005, along with sections 188, 145, and 353.

Madhu Garg, who is a senior member of All Democratic Women Association, told Clarion India that last month, the investigating officers visited her house to question her about the protest. The officer accused her of violating section 144 and took her statement in this regard.

“This has become quite common, and it does not surprise us anymore. If you take to the street even for a while and raise your voice, cases are filed against you,” she said. Regarding the Gomti Nagar protest, Garg said, “The police had cracked down on us even before reaching the protest site. The police forces picked up all the women who gathered and put them in a garden which had been temporarily turned into jail.”

She said that this was not the first time when a case has been filed against her. Under the Yogi Adityanath government, no one is allowed to raise any kind of voice, she alleged.

“This is not a democracy. We can’t raise our voice in Uttar Pradesh. This is autocracy. We are heading towards the end of democracy. Democracy is being suppressed. Constitutional rights are being ended,” said Garg.

The UP Police are currently investigating 7,000 cases registered in Lucknow in connection with various protests against the government.

Regarding Hathras incident, the police have claimed that a group of 30 to 35 women under the leadership of Sumaiya Rana carried out an “anti-government procession” and violated Section 144 of the CrPC which had come into effect because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In its FIR, the police also alleged that protesting women were not wearing masks despite the pandemic and had a scuffle with police officials.

Uzma Praveen, who was one of the faces of anti-CAA protests at Ghantaghar in Lucknow, was also called by the police for participating in the protest against Hathras incident. Praveen said that she was manhandled and dragged by the police during the protest at Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar.

theclarionindia
theclarionindiahttps://clarionindia.net
Clarion India - News, Views and Insights about Indian Muslims, Dalits, Minorities, Women and Other Marginalised and Dispossessed Communities.

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