Delhi Police trying to 'falsely implicate' people in February riot cases: activists

New Delhi

They were speaking during an online briefing convened by former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav, student activist Kawalpreet Kaur, Delhi University professor Apoorvanand and activist and author Harsh Mander.

Later, over 1,000 citizens from all walks of life including, filmmaker Aparna Sen, former culture secretary Jawahar Sircar, historian Ramchandra Guha, former chairperson, Delhi Minority Commission Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, former governor Margaret Alva and others also issued a statement, objecting to the manner in which the "Delhi Police has been conducting the probe into the riots cases".

Citing "strong evidence of coerced confessional statements and manufactured evidence", the signatories have sought assurances from the Delhi Police that these "practices will be stopped" and urged the force to conduct a fair and impartial investigation to book the real culprits of the riots."

"Stop coercing confessional’ statements to manufacture evidence and stop falsely implicating people, including Umar Khalid. Stop wrongly invoking UAPA to give the colour of conspiracy against the state," they said. Communal violence broke out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after citizenship law supporters and protesters clashed with each other, leaving 53 people dead and hundreds injured.

In the online briefing, Mander, whose name also figures in some of the charge sheets filed by the Delhi Police in the riots, said, "Delhi police believes that there was a conspiracy behind the Delhi riots. We agree. But the real conspiracy is very different one from the one Delhi police is propagating."

He said there was a build-up to an atmosphere of hate during the Delhi elections when senior political leaders made hate speeches targeting anti CAA-NRC protesters. Former student leader Umar Khalid, who was booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to the riots, asked the Delhi Police why no action was taken against those leaders who gave hate speeches.

Yadav also asked 11 questions in the briefing, some of which pertained to the two firing incidents that took place at Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh and the hate speeches given by leaders.

During the violence, multiple videos emerged of people associated with the ruling dispensation openly inciting and participating in the violence and carnage. In one such video, which was streamed live on Facebook from Maujpur, a woman is seen openly asking people to kill or die, he said.

He also asked whether "the Delhi Police has ordered any probe to several accounts where their personnel allegedly were complicit in the violence, directing mobs pelting stones or looking the other way when mobs were indulging in violence in front of them."

"Many of those already arrested were initially in different FIRs. It was only after they secured bail in the cases for which they were initially arrested, that the police implicated them in the conspiracy case under UAPA. Is this a ploy to keep protestors in jail for longer periods," he asked. In its latest line of questioning, the Delhi Police has been grilling people about conversations in some WhatsApp groups with hundreds of their members, he said.
"Isn't it ridiculous to believe that riots of this scale were conspired for several weeks on WhatsApp groups with hundreds of people and the police never got to know about them? Or are the police pursuing this line of argument in order to safeguard real culprits?," he asked.

Raising these questions, Yadav said, "Is the Delhi Police inquiring into a conspiracy or is the investigation itself a conspiracy." Kawalpreet Kaur, Delhi unit president of All India Students' Association said there is an attempt to "scare" students and asked all of them to "remain united and refuse to be scared or silenced." "Today students are being forced to give exams during pandemic, and the student movement is exposing unemployment and recruitment scams that the government wants to divert attention," she said.