New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The names of Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, former JNU student Omar Khalid and other prominent people have come up in the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police in one of the northeast Delhi riots cases.
The prominent personalities have been named in the disclosure statements made by accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Gulfisha Fatima in connection with the case. The trio is facing charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
In the disclosure statement, Gulfisha Fatima told police about the January 15 Seelampur demonstration and said, “The crowd had started growing according to the plan, big leaders and lawyers started coming in to provoke and mobilise this crowd, including Omar Khalid, Chander Shekhar Ravan, Yogendra Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, and lawyer Mahmood Pracha.”
According to the chargesheet, she added, “Pracha said that sitting in demonstration is your democratic right and the rest of the leaders fuelled the feeling of discontent in the community by calling CAA and NRC anti-Muslim.”
Names of economist Jayati Ghosh, Delhi University professor and activist Apoorvanand, and documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy also figured in the chargesheet. In the statement, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal said that they were asked by the three persons to protest against CAA and NRC and go to any extreme.
Yechury lashed out at the central government after being named in the case. “Delhi Police is under the Centre and Home Ministry. Its illegitimate, illegal actions are a direct outcome of the politics of BJP’s top leadership. They are scared of legitimate peaceful protests by mainstream political parties and are misusing state power to target the opposition.”
Communal violence broke out in North-East Delhi on February 24 after clashes between CAA supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
