Adityanath cracks down on CAA protesters with an iron-fist

Uttar Pradesh police and jail authorities’ crackdown on dissent seems to have gone a step further than the iron-fisted crackdown orchestrated by the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Environmental activists, 75-year-old ex-IGP and Dalit activist, a septuagenarian lawyer, Gandhian peace activist are among the 1,113 arrested and 5,558 in detention.

Appearing more loyal than the king, UP cops and jail authorities in Varanasi have done something macabre. On December 19, environmental activist couple Ravi and Ekta Shekhar were arrested with two dozen others while on a peaceful protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Varanasi.

Also read | Violence mars anti-CAA protests across country; 15 dead in Uttar Pradesh

Ekta, mother of a one-year-old daughter Champak, was denied bail after the police added several stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against her in the chargesheet.

While in jail, on December 30, she requested the authorities to be allowed to watch a news channel which was showing her infant daughter in its prime-time program. However, authorities denied permission.

75-year-old ex-IGP in jail for Facebook post

SR Darapuri, a 75-year-old retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and former Inspector General of Police (IGP) was arrested from his residence in Lucknow and sent to jail. The Ambedkarite and human rights campaigner was arrested for his Facebook post criticising CAA.

Darapuri had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Lucknow as a Lok Rajniti Manch candidate, the party was founded by the late Kuldip Nayar in 2004. Darapuri has also contested elections on behalf of All India People’s Front (AIPF), an organisation fighting for forest rights of the tribals in UP’s Sonebhadra district.

Septuagenarian lawyer in jail for rioting

Septuagenarian Mohammed Shoaib a lawyer and state president of Socialist Party (India) who was whisked away by police from his house in the wee hours of December 19, faces charges including rioting, criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder.

Shoaib is known for his help extended to those who find it difficult to engage a lawyer due to financial and political reasons. He also took up cases of youth who were implicated in terrorism or related cases.

Gandhian activist also not spared

Similarly, Nand Lal Master, a Gandhian who runs an NGO called LokSamiti, working in 25-odd villages in Varanasi, educating people about their rights and known for his campaign against child marriage, was arrested under serious charges and sent to jail for carrying out a peaceful protest against the CAA.

The list doesn’t end there. Cultural activist Deepak Mishra, lecturer Dr Pawan Rao Ambedkar, Deepak Kabir of Kabir Foundation and Professor Robin Verma are among the others who are facing Adityanath’s wrath.

Civil society condemn arrest

Magsaysay Award winner and vice-president of the Socialist Party (India) Sandeep Pandey has written an open letter to Adityanath imploring him to deliberate on his government’s action against the violence during CAA protests.

It says, “My friends Advocate Mohammad Shoaib and retired Indian Police Services officer SR Darapuri have been arrested, who like me were under house arrest in Lucknow on 19/12/19, the day on which maximum violence took place. Mohammad Shoaib was Secretary of City unit of Socialist Party when he was a student of LLB at Lucknow University in 1972 and at present is the State President of Socialist Party (India). He has been successful in getting 14 innocent youth, who were falsely implicated in terrorism related cases, acquitted from the court after contesting their cases. He was attacked inside court by advocates who didn’t want him to take up cases of the above mentioned youth but has not used violence against anybody in his life.”

Also read | Congress to provide legal aid for CAA protesters in UP

Sadaf Zafar, social activist, Congress spokesperson and actor, appealing for peace through Facebook, urging protestors at Lucknow’s Parivartan Chowk on December 19 to be peaceful. She is also acting in a film being made by Mira Nair.

Flmmaker Mira Nair has demanded the release of ‘A Suitable Boy’ actor Sadaf Jafar, who was arrested for participating in an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest in Lucknow.

Nair tweeted, “This is our India now – Appalling: our #SuitableBoy actress, Sadaf Jafar, beaten and jailed for peaceful protest in Lucknow! Join me in demanding her release.”

Noted human right activist Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi, one of the founding members of People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, a Varanasi-based NGO, slammed the state government machinery for using brute force against peaceful protesters.

Speaking to The Federal, he said that peaceful protest is a right of all Indians and those found violating prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC, should have been booked under the provisions of the same section rather than being arrested wrongfully under serious offences of the Indian Penal Code.

Dr Lenin of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) terms the arrests unconstitutional and against the spirit of the constitution. He adds that many cases, including five filed by him are under the purview of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and adds that the state government will be on the receiving end once proper trials begin in courts.