The Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday filed a first information report (FIR) against more than 100 persons for violating prohibitory orders and participating in a demonstration here on Friday.
The FIR, filed at the Thakurganj station, has named 10 persons, including Kalbe Sibtain, son of prominent Shia cleric and All India Muslim Personal Law Board vice-president Kalbe Sadiq. It invokes several Sections of the Indian Penal Code and Section 7 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act.
According to the FIR, around 6 p.m. on Friday, hundreds of persons suddenly assembled at Hussainabad Clock Tower, the site of the “illegal dharna” being staged by the women against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The men were wielding sticks and raised slogans against the CAA and a pan-India National Register of Citizens.
It said they held up traffic by parking their cars near the site and took out a march around the clock tower, raising “provocative” slogans. When the police ordered them to stop, they raised “provocative and inflammatory” slogans and pressed ahead.
On Saturday, policemen marched around the site and dispersed men standing there, as seen in videos circulated on social media. A senior police officer was heard ordering bystanders through a loudspeaker to leave the site or face action.
A woman protester told presspersons that they were protesting “peacefully” when the police came to the site and detained several of the male volunteers.
The police allegedly detained Samajwadi Party youth leader Pooja Shukla, who was named in an earlier FIR for the protest, when she intervened.
Mr. Kalbe Sadiq visited the site, despite his ill health, to express solidarity with the protesters. Talking to presspersons, he cautioned the protesters against the “people planted” to tarnish their protest.
Additional DCP (West) Vikas Chandra Tripathi said eight persons, including a woman, were arrested from the protest site on the charge of obstructing official work and leading an “illegal” march on Friday. Some of the arrested persons were booked on Friday for leading a march at the site of the protest, he said.
The police were scanning videos and CCTV footage to identify people booked for leading the march, he said. Among the arrested was a resident of Delhi’s Jamia Nagar.
