By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, April 22. 2020: A group of activists, academics, and others on April 22 condemned the Delhi police for falsely implicating “innocent students” in the Delhi riot cases.

The police have booked them under “the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA),” says a press statement signed by 25 prominent citizens such as Ram Puniyani, a writer and activist, Harsh Mandar, a former Indian Administrative Service officer, John Dayal, a writer and activist and Kavita Srivastava, a human rights activists.

“This suppression of civil rights and liberties and targeting of our young democratic voices is reprehensible. We find it utterly shameful that Delhi police is using the COVID-19 lockdown, and the enormous humanitarian crisis of hunger confronting our country, as an opportunity to trample on the democratic rights of innocents,” the statement says.

This is a time to unite as a nation, not to isolate and target students, the activists assert.

The press statement alleges that the Delhi police have abused its powers to file “concocted cases” against Umar Khalid, a student of Jawaharlald Nehru University, Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar of Jamia Milia University.

Under the act, which is usually reserved for terrorist activities, the students could be held for six months.

They have been accused of conspiring to incite the recent riots, the worst religious violence in India’s capital for decades, and in which the police were accused of being complicit.

The charges related to an alleged “premeditated conspiracy” to stir up communal hatred through a series of speeches, which police say led to the deadly religious riots in Delhi.

The students, who were taken into custody on April 1, have also been charged with sedition, murder, possession of arms, incitement of violence, attempt to murder, and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting.

Six others were arrested connected to the same charges in early April but were released on bail.

According to the police report, officers collected firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones from the students’ homes. Lawyers representing the men say they have seen no evidence or documentation.

The riots, which raged through the streets of north-east Delhi in late February, resulted in homes burned and destroyed, thousands of people injured, and at least 52 deaths.

Hindu and Muslim groups clashed in the capital but, primarily, Muslims were the victims of violent Hindu mobs. Thousands of Muslim families were left homeless and destitute and three-quarters of those killed were Muslim.

The riots are widely acknowledged to have been sparked by incendiary comments made by Kapil Mishra, a leader from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, about Muslims peacefully protesting against a controversial new citizenship law.

Video evidence and witness accounts pointed to police allowing Hindu mobs to roam the streets freely to target the Muslim community.

The police investigation into the causes of the violence has, however, focused on the Muslim and student activist community, particularly those who had been previously known to the police for involvement in mass student protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December. Police entered the Jamia Millia University campus in December, beating activists and detaining students.

Akram Khan, the lawyer representing Haider, a PhD student at Jamia Millia University, said: “There is no evidence to substantiate these allegations or even to connect my client to these riots at all. He was not even present.

He was participating in the peaceful protests against CAA at Jamia Milia University so he was known to the police, but that’s all. But we still have not even been given the full charge sheet and I have seen no evidence.”

Umar Khalid, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader, who was among those leading the anti-CAA protests in December, has also been named on the police report on the alleged conspiracy to cause riots, but has not been arrested.

Shehla Rasheed, a former JNU student union leader, tweeted: “Yet another bogus case! It’s shameful how the government of India is exploiting the lockdown (no protest) to target progressive activists, intellectuals, journalists. Stay strong.”

The Jamia Coordination Committee, a student and alumni group, also condemned the arrests. “The country is facing a massive health crisis. However, the state machinery is busy harassing and framing student activists in false cases to suppress voices of dissent,” it said.

The total number of arrests made in connection with the Delhi riots remains unclear, with official figures ranging wildly from around 50 to over 3,000.

Delhi police said in a statement: “All the arrests made have been based on analysis of scientific and forensic evidence, including video footage, technical and other footprints.”

The civil society statement says the police narrative of the student involvement in the Delhi riots “is so absurd, and citizens of this country will see through these lies being peddled by the police.”

“We ask why the real culprits, who actually incited or took part in the violence, continue to enjoy impunity despite ample evidence available against them, including on social media? We ask if Delhi, India’s capital city, whose police force comes directly under the Union Home Ministry, is rapidly becoming a police state, giving the police powers that are unfettered, even by the law of the land?”

The group “implored” all citizens of India, political parties, the judicial system and media to oppose “this injustice” and “brazen abuse of state power to stifle democratic voices.”

They want these groups to pressure the BJP government to stop targeting and vilification of its critics. They also demanded that these charges be immediately dropped and release those arrested under cover of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The signatories are:
1. Prof. Ram Puniyani, Writer & Activist
2. Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Chairman,Delhi Minority Commission
3. Ravi Nair, Convener, Alliance against CAA, NRC and NPR
4. Eng. Syed Sadatullah Hussaini, President JIH
5. Prof Apoorvanand, Delhi Univ
6. Ms. Farah Naqvi, Writer & Activist
7. Harsh Mandar, Ex IAS, Activists
8. Dr. M. Manzoor Alam, Gen. Sec., AIMC
9. S. R. Darapuri, IPS(Retd), Spokesperson, AIPF
10. Syeda Hameed, Ex Member, Planning Commission
11. Dr. John Dyal, Writer @ Activist
12. Labeed Shafi, President SIO
13. Tapan Bose, H Rights Activist
14. Ms. Kavita Srivastava, HR Activist
15. Prof Ghazala Jameel, JNU
16. Ms. Aishe Ghosh,President JNUSU
17. Mujtaba Farooq, Asst Convener Alliance Against CAA, NRC, NPR
18. Ms Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA
19. Dr. S.Q.R. Ilyas, President WPI
20. Ms. Manisha Sethi,Writer,Activist
21. Nadeem Khan, United Against Hate
22. Raghvan Srinivasan, President Lokraj Sangathan
23. Ajit Yadav, Political Activist
24. Javed Naqvi, Writer & Activist
25. Mohd Sulaiman, President INL