NEW DELHI: In a major development, Delhi police on Saturday (September 12, 2020) appointed CPI (M) Secretary General Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh, professor and activist from the University of Delhi Apoorvanand, and documentarian Rahul Roy as co-conspirators in the February Riots case in Delhi on their supplemental charge sheet.
They have been accused of asking anti-CAA protesters to go “to any lengths”, of spreading discontent in the community by calling the CAA / NRC anti-Muslim, and of organizing demonstrations to “smear the image of the Government of India. “.
According to PTI, the names appeared on a supplementary charge sheet filed by police on the riots in the northeast district between February 23 and 26, which claimed 53 lives and left 581 injured, 97 of them with gunshot wounds.
These eminent personalities have been charged based on the confessions of three students – members of the women’s collective Pinjra Tod and JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, and Gulfisha Fathima of Jamia Milia Islamia – in the violence of Jafrabad, from where the riots they spread to other parts. northeast of Delhi.
All three face charges under various sections of the Illicit Activity (Prevention) Act.
In the charge sheet, which was released just two days before the start of the monsoon parliament session, Delhi police claimed that Kalita and Narwal admitted not only their complicity in the unrest, but also named Ghosh, Apoorvanand and Roy as their mentors, who allegedly asked them to carry out protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and go to “any lengths”.
Their similarly worded disclosure statements, mentioned in the charge sheet, claim that the two JNU students said they organized the Daryaganj protest in December and the Jafrafad chakka jam (barricade) against the CAA on February 22, 2020 at instances of Ghosh, Apoorvanand and Roy.
The student activists also told police that the three coordinated with the Islamist Popular Front of India (PFI) group and the Jamia Coordination Committee to guide members of Pinjra Tod to carry out their campaign against the CAA, according to the charge sheet.
The police have used the statement of Fathima, Jamia’s student, to corroborate subsequent events.
The charge sheet states that apart from Yechury and Yogendra Yadav, Fathima’s statement mentions Bhim’s army chief Chandrasekhar, United Against Hate activist Umar Khalid, and some leaders of the Muslim community, such as the former- MLA Mateen Ahmed and MLA Amannatullah Khan.
The document claims that they aided the conspirators of violence.
In his statement, Fathima said he was told to organize the protest to “smear the image of the Government of India,” police said. In his statement, included in the charge sheet, he says that “great leaders and lawyers began to arrive to provoke and mobilize this crowd, including Omar Khalid, Chandrashekhar Ravan, Yogendar Yadav, Sitaram Yechury and lawyer Mahmood Pracha, etc.” .
“Pracha said that sitting in the rally is his democratic right and the rest of the leaders filled the feeling of discontent in the community by calling CAA / NRC anti-Muslim,” he said, according to the charge sheet.
According to the charge sheet, Kalita added, “Umar Khalid had also given some advice for making a protest against CAA / NRC. Following the instructions of these people, Umar Khalid United Against Hate Group and JCC (Jamia Coordination Committee) and members of our Pinjda Tod (we) together started protesting in different parts of Delhi. ”
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