At a time when the nation is facing an uphill task of fighting Coronavirus pandemic, Delhi Police is busy in filing cases, and arresting students and alumni of JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia who participated in protests against discriminatory citizenship law – CAA.
The protests started from North-East states, even before the bill was passed in the Parliament. In Delhi, students of JNU and JMI raised their voices. Then came the sit-in at Shaheen Bagh in South Delhi, later replicated in hundreds of Shaheen Baghs across the country.
Violence in NE Delhi erupted when self-proclaimed “nationalist” goons attacked the women at Jafrabad sit-in, the day US President Trump was given a huge public welcome in Ahmedabad. It did not stop even after the protesters had left as the protest site was vandalised. It continued for the next two days in neighbouring Maujpur, Kardampuri, Gokulpuri, and Shiv Vihar. It was officially admitted, that it was not action-reaction of locals, but the attacker came in tractor trollies from neighbouring areas of UP. Fifty-three persons, mostly Muslims, were killed, properties of billions, including mosques, motor vehicles, shops, schools, and houses were vandalised and burnt.
The trouble started just after a former BJP MLA, Kapil Mishra reached the site with his supporters near the sit-in, and warned the police officer there, “Either you break otherwise we will break the protest by force.” Visuals emerged in media showing that the people in police uniform were involved in violence and against their duty of safeguarding life and properties of citizens.
The day after, Delhi HC took the notice and asked the police to take note of Kapil Mishra’s ‘hate speech’ and register case against him. When the police pleaded not having seen the evidence, the judge played the videos in the court, resulting in midnight transfer of the judge.
The next day when the matter came before SC, the government took the stand that the “time is not ripe” for filing the FIRs. The other BJP leaders, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma had also made inflammatory speeches, inciting violence. Delhi Police is yet to take notice of open culprits, instead slapped ‘conspiracy charges’ against the students and alumni of JNU and JMI. In the last few days it has arrested 10 anti-CAA activists, including a pregnant woman.
The activities of these students remained limited by and large to their campuses. However some may have visited other places also. But it was loud that pan-India anti-CAA protests were strictly non-violent and organisers at every spot stuck to Gandhi’s strategy of ‘non-violent civil protest and no ill-will against anyone.’ There is recorded evidence that protesters behaved decently with the police and even with ill-intended infiltrators.
The Delhi violence, as is widely acknowledged, was pre-planned. The rule of the law demands to pin down the planners and executioners, who believe in ‘goli maro **’. Sure the police are capable to bring real sinners to book. Hundreds of live videos are available to identify them. But no! The hands of Police seem to be tied with the dictates of political bosses. Unfortunately the principle of rule of law has been replaced with rule by law to gag the dissent. And it is not new in India.
The investigating team, which was purportedly given the job to dig out the conspiracy, is now targeting anti-CAA protesters among the students/ alumni for allegedly ‘hatching a conspiracy’ for February riots and has booked some of them under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The ‘investigations’ are going on and more arrests cannot be ruled out.
As Mr Yogendra Yadav pointed out, “There is a conspiracy to hold CAA protesters responsible for the Delhi violence. FIRs are being lodged, arrests are being made but none against those who delivered hate speech in public and brought in goons from UP.”
The Delhi Police have conveniently ignored the fact that anti-CAA protests started from North-East states, even before the bill was pushed through the Parliament. Then the call came for JNU and JMI. And then emerged Shaheen Baghs in many parts. Except the votaries of Hindutva, vast sections of the intelligentsia, across the social and political spectrum, faiths, and affiliations have loudly appreciated the non-violent, non-communal, and essentially nationalist nature of the anti-CAA protests, the unique civil movement without the face of a leader. Sure some of student activists might have visited protest sites in NE Delhi, but none was reported to have enticed or endorsed violence, however, there is an undeniable fact that the violence broke out within hours of BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s provocative speech at a point close to where women were calmly sitting in protest. He threatened police to ‘remove them forcefully if the police did not do’.
Ignoring all these facts, the Crime Branch registered a FIR (59/2020) – on March 6, 2020 – naming JNU student Umar Khalid and Danish as the prime accused. Subsequently, Jamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar and others including Shifa Ur Rehman, Ishrat Jahan, Khalid Saifi, Gulfisa, and JNU student Sharejeel Imam were arrested in connection with the allegations stated in the FIR.
After the arrest of Haider (who is also president of the youth wing of the RJD in Delhi) and Safoora Zargar in the first two weeks of April, the Special Cell added UAPA charges to the FIR.
The FIR 59/2020
It was registered on the complaint of SI Arvind Kumar. It reads, “The SI has learned through his sources that the communal riot incidents in Delhi that took place on February 23, 24 and 25, were part of a pre-planned conspiracy. The conspiracy to spread the riots was hatched by JNU student Umar Khalid and his associates.” Umar Khalid was also framed and jailed with JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar.
As per the FIR, Umar Khalid gave provocative speeches at various places and appealed to Muslims to block roads and public places during US President Donald Trump’s visit to India. How this inference cited in the FIR is factually incorrect is clear with a quote from Khalid’s speech, which was also wrongly mentioned in Parliament. Khalid had said,
“…on the 24th (of February), when Donald Trump comes to India, we will tell that the Prime Minister and Government of India are trying to divide the country; they are destroying the values of Mahatma Gandhi; and that the people of India are fighting against the rulers. If the rulers want to divide India, the people of India are ready to work towards uniting the country. We will come out on the streets. Will you people come out?”
Umar’s sin seems to be invoking Gandhi, revered as ‘apostle of peace and non-violence’ of his time, and giving a public call ‘to work towards uniting the nation’.
To this end, the FIR says, “Firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles, stones, slingshots, and other dangerous items were collected in homes in Maujpur, Kardampuri, Jaffrabad, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, and Shiv Vihar and nearby areas.”
It was reported that most victims received fatal gun-fire. Police are duty-bound to recover fire-arms used in murder and arrest the killers. But the agenda of the investigation in this case seems to be different as had been in the investigation of various earlier communal riots.
Safoora Zargar, the Media Coordinator of JCC, was first arrested on April 10. The police accused her of instigating protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Jaffrabad in North East Delhi on February 22. The FIR filed in PS Jaffrabad on February 24 had named 14 people for allegedly instigating protesters to sit near the Jaffrabad Metro station and shout slogans against the government, vitiating the peaceful atmosphere. However Safoora Zargar is not mentioned in the FIR. She was awarded bail on April 13. Special Cell arrested her again under ‘conspiracy charges’. Though her name did not appear in the FIR (59/2020 of March 6), she is slapped with unbailable draconian law, UAPA. The bail application of the pregnant lady was rejected on April 21.
On one hand the government is taking steps to decongest jails and releasing criminals. On the other hand, young students, including a pregnant women (Zargar) are being jailed for raising their voice against CAA, a discriminatory law brought in to harm the community, under the chronology, unfolded in the public and Parliament, more than once.