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HomeIndiaActivist, Congress member Sadaf Jafar faces 18 serious charges in Lucknow anti-CAA...

Activist, Congress member Sadaf Jafar faces 18 serious charges in Lucknow anti-CAA violence

Sadaf Jafar was the only woman out of 150 persons arrested for the 19 December violence in Lucknow. Her sister has alleged she was beaten up mercilessly.

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Lucknow: On 19 December, when protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Lucknow witnessed massive violence, social activist and Congress spokesperson Sadaf Jafar was the only woman arrested, along with 150 others including former IPS officer S.R. Darapuri.

At the time, Jafar was streaming a Facebook Live video, and asking the police to arrest the stone-pelters. But now, she has been charged with 18 serious offences, including inciting violence and damaging public property.

Sister alleges brutality

Jafar is a well-known social activist in Lucknow, and a media panellist of the UP Congress. She taught at a private school in the city for a long time.

She has also been active at various protest demonstrations, while on social media, she keeps raising issues against the Yogi Adityanath government.

The day after the violence, Jafar’s sister Naheed Varma put up a Facebook post, giving the news of her arrest and alleging that the police was “complicit in sabotage”.

Speaking to ThePrint, Varma said she went to meet Jafar, who told her she had been beaten up. Varma said Jafar had told her that when miscreants started pelting stones at police personnel at Parivartan Chowk, she went live on Facebook. That’s when the police arrested her.

In one video, she could be heard saying that the police wasn’t taking any action against the stone-pelters.

She even asked the police personnel why they weren’t stopping the miscreants, why they were standing still and watching the drama, and what the use of their helmets was. In another video, as a policeman approached her to arrest, she asked why she was being arrested instead of those pelting stones.

Varma has been trying to bail out Jafar, but hasn’t been successful so far.

Meanwhile, UP Congress chief Ajay Lallu told ThePrint that the party’s legal cell is constantly trying to secure Jafar’s bail. “Her arrest is totally wrong. She was protesting peacefully,” he said.

Sadaf Jafar's name in the FIR
Sadaf Jafar’s name in the FIR

Another activist in the dock

Deepak Kabir, another social activist from Lucknow, has also been arrested. Kabir is a well-known theatre artist and poet, who organises an annual cultural programme called Kabir Festival.

Kabir’s wife Veena Rana put up a Facebook post on 20 December, saying he had been incommunicado since that morning and asking for information on his whereabouts.

But when the Lucknow police released pictures of the alleged miscreants accused of fuelling the violence Saturday, Kabir’s picture was also featured.

What the police say

Lucknow SSP Kalanidhi Naithani told the media that about 150 people have been arrested, adding that three FIRs have been filed in Hasanganj, two in Hazratganj, four in Thakurganj and two in Qaiserbagh. He said this number is expected to rise.

Explaining the basis of the arrests, Naithani said a team has been deployed to watch video recordings and CCTV footage, as well as photos and videos that have gone viral on social media.

Earlier, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered strict action against those who instigated it. He had told ANI: “All of them are being identified through CCTV footage and videos.”

He had also said such persons’ property will be confiscated to pay for the damage to public property, and given the administration a free hand to deal with them.


Also read: ‘You will forget all your journalism’: How UP Police detained a reporter covering CAA protests


 

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Police must deal strictly with political activists present among the arsonists being instigated by them. Government must set an example by confisticating the properties of the arsonists. Librandus who have now turned urban naxals. They must be dealt with as atinationals and imprisoned.

    • There are no political activists instigating arsonists! In fact if the government really wants to top the burning of public property, it can do so by simply rolling back the unlawful law CAA, and NRC! But it doesn’t want to do it!

      The government can’t confiscate an arsonists’s property unless the law allows it!

      There is no such thing as “urban naxal”! What are yo talking about?

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