Delhi Police has booked Jamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Haider and Zargar have been booked under UAPA for conspiring and instigating the Delhi violence. Zargar is the media coordinator of Jamia coordination committee and is 3 months pregnant while Haider is a member of it.
Haider is a PhD student and the president of RJD youth wing’s Delhi unit, while Zargar is an MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university. Haider was involved in providing rations and essentials to migrant workers during the COVID-19 crisis and the Modi government is busy arresting Muslims student activist and leader under false charges rather than tackling a global crisis.
Civil society groups had issued a statement on April 16 calling for the release of the two students.
The police have also booked Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid under the UAPA in the case.
In the first information report Khalid has been arrested allegedly for delivering a provocative speech calling for people to block the roads during the US president Donald Trump’s visit in India in order to spread “propaganda” at the global level about how minorities in India are being mistreated and discriminated in India.
The students were also booked for sedition, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting.
Over 20 film personalities, including Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Mahesh Bhatt and different civil society groups had released a statement raising their voice against the arrest of the students and activists by Delhi Police for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and demanded their release.
The Delhi police responded by saying that the investigation was run impartially and that the arrests were made after thorough examination and analysis of forensic evidence.
The Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a group comprising students and alumni from the varsity, had condemned the arrest and demanded his immediate release.
“The country is facing a massive health crisis; however, the state machinery is busy harassing and framing student activists in false cases to suppress voices of dissent,” they said.
