The Delhi Police has booked Umar Khalid and two Jamia Milia students, Meeran Haidar and Safoora Zargar, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to the violence that took place in North-East Delhi in February 2020.
According to the sources, Haidar and Zargar have been said to allegedly have hatched a conspiracy theory to incite violence and are currently in judicial custody. The three have also been booked for sedition, murder, attempt to murder and promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion.
Among the three arrested, Umar Khalid, a JNU student leader, had given speeches at two different venues where he had asked students to take the streets during the US President Donal Trump’s visit. The FIR claimed he aimed to spread international propaganda about how minorities were being treated in the country. It also said that along with the conspiracy, many assault weapons such as firearms and stores were allegedly collected from many homes.
As per a report, another co-accused, Danish was responsible for gathering people to participate in the violence.
However, these arrests were seen as partial, and many took to social media to voice their displeasure. On Sunday, Bollywood personalities such as Anurag Kashyap, Ratna Pathak Shah, and Vishal Bharadwaj along with many others released a joined statement on their accounts condemning the arrests, especially during these testing times. The statement called the arrest a “witch hunt of students for exercising their constitutional rights” and stated that the protesting against CAA is not a crime even during the lockdown.
Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha opposed the arrest tweeting, “Delhi Police called him for investigation and then received orders from above and arrested Meeran Haider, who has been helping people during the time of coronavirus outbreak.”
The Jamia Coordination Committee consisting of current students and alumni of the institute defended Haider saying that he was diligently working to provide ration to the poor and demanded his immediate release.
The communal violence took place in North-East Delhi in February and resulted in over 50 deaths and 200 injuries.