“It Is You They Want to Capture”: Umar Khalid

ICF Team

[Umar Khalid was arrested by the Delhi police on Sunday, September 13, and was subsequently remanded to police custody for the next ten days. The Delhi police crime branch had previously questioned him in August, and again on September 3, when his phone was also seized. Co-founder of the activist group United Against Hate, Khalid joins 17 other people arrested so far on the basis of “FIR 59” filed with the Delhi police in February. The arrested students and activists, including Safoora Zargar, Natasha Narwal, Gulfisha Fatima, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal Tanha, and Sharjeel Imam, have been charged under a variety of provisions of the UAPA.

On Wednesday, September 17, a brief address on video by Umar Khalid was shared with the public. The following is a translation of what he said in Hindi.]

If you are watching this video, that means I have been arrested; I want to use it to say something important to you.

Since the riots [of February], the Delhi police have not acted against the rioters, those who committed violence and openly incited others to do so—in the presence of the police, even of TV cameras. We are all witness to this. Far from registering FIRs against these people, the Delhi police have shown no interest in calling them in even for questioning. At the same time, critics of the government and its policies, especially opponents of the CAA-NRC, are being trapped in false cases, based on no evidence whatever. Many students and young people are under arrest. For several months now, the attempt has been on to arrest me. Dishonest statements and analyses have run on TV. A 20 or 30-second clip extracted from a 17-minute speech of mine was turned viral; the attempt was to frame me as an instigator of rioting, a conspirator behind the violence. When I uploaded the full 17 minutes of my speech, in which far from riots and violence, I spoke of Gandhi, ahimsa and satyagraha, yet more falsehoods against me were spread via television and the media, along with false testimonies forced out of people. The ongoing attempt is to lock away every critic of the government.

What is my crime, my mistake? Is it saying this country is mine as much as it is yours? In this beautiful Hindustan of ours live the speakers of many languages, the followers of many faiths, people of diverse kinds who are held to be equal under the law, their equality guaranteed by the Constitution. Today an attempt is being made to violate this guarantee, to divide us from one another. If someone speaks out against the politics of divisiveness that person starts receiving threats. The aim is to shut the mouths of such people, lock them up, along with their voices. While the authorities mean to frighten us—their critics and opponents—they also want you to be fearful. By imprisoning us and removing our voices from your hearing, it is you they want to capture in their web of lies, and stifle into silence.

My appeal to you is, don’t give in to fear. Raise your voice against injustice. Demand the release of all those being framed under false charges. Speak out against every instance of abuse.

Thank you very much.

(Courtesy: India Cultural Forum.)

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Witch Hunt by Delhi Police’: JNU Teachers, Intellectuals Flay Umar Khalid’s Arrest

Newsclick Report

Several academics, activists and eminent intellectuals, including Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA), on Monday condemned the arrest of former JNU student leader Umar Khalid under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in a case related to the riots in Northeast Delhi in February, which left at least 53 people dead.

The JNUTA condemned Khalid’s arrest under the “draconian” UAPA. “This is yet another instance of the never ending witch hunt being conducted by the Delhi Police in the name of inquiring into the February 2020 riots in Delhi, an inquiry with which Umar Khalid had been voluntarily cooperating,” the statement by JNUTA said.

Calling the recent summon and arrests of academics and activists by police in the Delhi riots case “not merely a process of criminalisation of dissent but also a de facto criminalisation of law enforcement,” the JNUTA demanded an end to use of laws like the UAPA “to persecute those opposing the CAA and to suppress peaceful protest.”

“The JNUTA demands withdrawal of all the motivated false cases and release of all who have been unjustly incarcerated,” the statement read.

The JNUTA statement also notes that since 2018, when Khalid survived an attack on his life, he was supposed to be under police protection. “Yet he is accused of having been part of a ‘conspiracy’ for instigating the violence in North-East Delhi,” it added.

Another group of academics, activists and intellectuals demanded Khalid’s immediate release while asking Delhi police to stop “witch hunt”.

“Umar Khalid was one of the hundreds of voices that spoke up in favour of the Constitution across the country during these anti-CAA protests, always foregrounding the need for peaceful, non-violent and democratic means,” said the statement which included signatories like noted filmmaker Saeed Akhtar Mirza, lawyers Mihir Desai and Prashant Bhushan, former member of Planning Commission Syeda Hameed, historian Ramachandra Guha, author Arundhati Roy, Ravi Kiran Jain and V Suresh of the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), academics Satish Deshpande, Mary John, Jayati Ghosh, Apoorvanand, Nandini Sundar and Shuddhabrata Sengupta; and rights activists Harsh Mander, Farah Naqvi and Biraj Patnaik, singer and activist TM Krishna and so on.

“As citizens deeply committed to Constitutional values, we condemn the arrest of Umar Khalid who has been subjected to a malicious investigation targeting peaceful anti-CAA protestors,” the statement said, adding, “With deep anguish we have no doubt in saying that this investigation is not about the violence in February 2020 in the national capital, but on the completely peaceful and democratic protests across the country against the unconstitutional CAA.”

“It is very significant that of the 20 arrested, 19 are under the age of 31. Of which 17 have been charged under the draconian UAPA and have been imprisoned on charges of a conspiracy for the Delhi violence whereas those who actually instigated and participated in the violence has not been touched,” the statement said while strongly condemning the arrest of Khalid and other young activists.

On Twitter, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called for standing with people like Khalid citing imperilling of civil liberties and democracy. “….When democracy & civil liberties are imperilled by the actions of the Govt, whether it is [Sitaram] Yechury, Umar Khalid or Kafeel Khan, we must all stand with them.”

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan said Khalid’s arrest was “a conspiracy by the police to frame peaceful activists in the guise of Investigation”.

In his tweet, Bhushan referred to a charge sheet related to the riots and filed last month carrying an accused’s statement claiming CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, Proferssor Apoorvanand, former lawmaker Chaudhary Mateen and advocate Mahmood Pracha instigated CAA protestors. The Delhi police later issued a clarification saying these individuals have not been named as accused in the case.

Actors Swara Bhasker, Zeeshan Ayyyub and Prakash Raj also tweeted supporting Umar Khalid.

The Delhi Police on Monday sought 10-day custody of Khalid after producing him before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat through video conferencing, PTI reported. He was arrested on Sunday night.

The police said he needed to be confronted with huge amount of data. Moreover, In the FIR, the police has claimed that the communal violence was a “premeditated conspiracy” which was allegedly hatched by Khalid and two other students. The students have also been slapped with charges of sedition, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Khalid’s lawyer, Trideep Pais, told the court that the police must clarify the place where the former JNU student gave the speeches and show the proof that he asked people to come and protest. He also said that Khalid was against the CAA and he was not ashamed of it.

(Courtesy: Newsclick.)

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Nine Former Police Officers Call Delhi Riots Investigation ‘Flawed’

The Wire Staff

Nine former IPS officers have written an open letter to the Delhi Police Commissioner, S.N. Shrivastava, attempting to draw attention to the many ways in which they believe that the investigation into the Delhi riots of February, 2020, are ‘flawed.’

The letter is signed by Shafi Alam (former Director General, National Crime Records Bureau), K. Saleem Ali (former Special Director, CBI), Mohinderpal Aulakh (former Director General of Police (Jails), Punjab), A.S. Dulat (former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office), Aloke B. Lal (former Director General (Prosecution), Uttarakhand), Amitabh Mathur (former Director, Aviation Research Centre and former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat), Avinash Mohananey (former Director General of Police, Sikkim), P.G.J. Nampoothiri (former Director General of Police, Gujarat) and A.K. Samanta (former Director General of Police (Intelligence), West Bengal).

The nine former top cops are all part of the Constitutional Conduct Group, under the aegis of which retired officers belonging to the various services often take up matters of public interest and welfare. The policemen begin the letter by saying that their fellow CCG-member, and famed former IPS officer Julio Ribeiro’s letter to Shrivastava is one that has their endorsement.

“Kindly revisit the actions of the police under your command in Delhi to determine if they have been true to their oaths taken at the time of their induction into service,” the Ribeiro had written in the letter.

The police officers have called the investigation into the riots “partisan and politically motivated.”

“…[W]e would like to say that it indeed is a sad day in the history of Indian police that investigations and challans submitted in the court by Delhi Police in connection with riots of this year are widely believed to be partisan and politically motivated. It pains all those police officers, serving as well as retired, who believe in upholding the rule of law and our Constitution.”

The officers have also made mention of what the Indian Express had first reported and what Delhi police had later attempted to stymie: the fact that Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Praveer Ranjan has written to senior police officers heading probe teams that the arrest of “some Hindu youth” from areas in North-East Delhi, where the Delhi riots took place in February, has led to a “degree of resentment among the Hindu community”.

The officers write:

“We were sad to note that one of your Special Commissioners had tried to influence investigations claiming resentment among Hindus over the arrest of some rioters belonging to their community. Such a majoritarian attitude in the police leadership leads to a travesty of justice for the victims of violence and their family members belonging to minority communities. This would further mean that real culprits of the violence belonging to majority community are likely to go scot free.”

Notably, BJP leaders Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur are among those who have not been named in a single FIR. The former was found responsible for triggering the violence by a fact finding team of the Delhi Minority Commission.

The policemen also held that the practice followed by Delhi Police in investigating these crimes, that of basing investigations on alleged confessions, is violative of fair investigation practices.

“What pains us more is implicating all those who spoke and joined protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). They were simply exercising their fundamental rights of freedom of speech and peaceful protests as guaranteed by the Constitution. Basing investigations on “disclosures” without concrete evidence violates all principles of fair investigation. While implicating leaders and activists, who expressed their views against CAA, all those who instigated violence and are associated with the ruling party have been let off the hook.

“Such investigation will only make people lose faith in democracy, justice, fairness and the Constitution. A dangerous thought that may ultimately shake the pillars of an orderly society and lead to breakdown of law and order.

In the end, they request reinvestigation with fairness.

“We would, therefore, earnestly request you for reinvestigation of all riot cases fairly and without any bias based on sound principles of criminal investigations to provide justice to the victims and their families and for upholding the rule of law.”

The letter comes on a day when social activist and JNU scholar Umar Khalid was arrested in what is a controversial attempt to establish his link with the Delhi riots.

(Courtesy: The Wire.)

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Delhi Riots: ‘Stop Brazen Criminalisation of Peaceful Protests’

Newsclick Report

Following the reported inclusion of several social activists and as co-conspirators in the supplementary chargesheet of a Delhi riots case, the Polit bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has condemned the “brazen” criminalisation of peaceful protests in a statement released on Sunday.

The Delhi Police has named CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh and Delhi University professor Apoorvanand in a supplementary charge sheet in the February riots cases, accusing them of “provoking and mobilising” anti-CAA protesters, according to reports. Apoorvanand, too, in a statement today called this development a “discrediting exercise” to target the anti-CAA protesters.

The statement by the CPI(M) said, “The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is shocked by the brazenness with which the Delhi Police, acting under Home Minister, Amit Shah has tried to implicate prominent political leadership, academics, cultural personalities and activists in connection with the horrific communal violence in North East Delhi in February. No condemnation is strong enough for this act of crude partisanship and vengeance.”

“The names of these eminent personalities have emerged in the supplementary charge sheet filed by the Delhi police for FIR 50/20 in connection with the alleged role they played in motivating anti-CAA-NRC protesters. This is in line with the growing pattern of the most blatant abuse of the Police and other central agencies like CBI, NIA, ED to frame prominent opponents and demonise them. The pattern includes slapping of provisions of draconian NSA, UAPA and Sedition Act to harass and incarcerate those who vigorously oppose such blatant misuse of powers by the government contrary to that as ordained by the Constitution,” read the statement.

The party also accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of scripting their own narrative of the organised communal violence to portray Delhi riots as a “deep-rooted conspiracy” by anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters.

Asking the Delhi police to stop criminalising the anti-CAA protesters who were part of a “perfectly legitimate act of citizenship”, Apooravanand said, “The supplementary CS does not improve upon the legal case, but only seems to be furthering the political agenda of discrediting the protestors, and uses all our names as part of the discrediting exercise. Their act of having planned a protest is being treated as a conspiracy to violence, in which me, along with others, are projected as having abetted that cause, without any basis in law or facts.

We are still waiting for the Delhi police to start an investigation to find out the truth behind the actual act of the February violence.”