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The Allahabad High Court (HC) has asked the Uttar Pradesh government and the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) administration to file their replies on a plea filed by Mohammed Aman Khan alleging unwarranted police brutality on the students of the AMU with regards to the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Khan, the petitioner and an alumni of AMU, sought a judicial inquiry by a ‘Court Monitored Committee’ against the police for arbitrarily detaining students and violently injuring many. In his plea, he alleged that on Sunday, December 15, the paramilitary force and State police for no just reasons resorted to lathi charge and tear gas shelling, apart from firing rubber bullets and pellets on the AMU students. It also reads that the injured students have not been given adequate medical attention and their condition has continued to worsen since the incident.
According to the plea, on Sunday, the students gathered at Maulana Azad Library to march from there to the university gate. However, when they reached the gate, the police deployed there started ‘provoking’ the students, but the students did not respond. Soon, the police started firing tear gas shells at students and charged them with batons, injuring at least a 100 of them.
The petitioner has also alleged that the police and paramilitary forces entered into Guest Houses 2 & 3 where students were hiding. He said that the evidence of the same was recorded on CCTV cameras but alleged that the evidence was destroyed by the forces.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Vivek Verma passed the order hearing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by Khan regarding police brutality, but refused to pass any order on the release of the detainees citing that the parents / guardians of the detained students, if any, could approach a competent court for their release and that the same cannot be done in a PIL by way of general order. The matter will now be taken on January 2, 2020.
After violence erupted in Jamia Millia Islamia University against the CAA in which scored of students got injured due to state sponsored violence, many students from the AMU came together to protest against the police action and to oppose the citizenship law.
The complete order of the Allahabad High Court may be read here.
In Delhi too, multiple petitions have been filed seeking judicial enquiries into the police brutality on the students protesting against the CAA in Jamia Millia University in case of which the Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Hari Shankar issued notices to the Central government, the Delhi government and the Delhi Police, seeking their replies.
On Tuesday this week, the Supreme Court of India had expressed its unwillingness to hear petitions alleging police atrocities on students agitating against the CAA citing that the Supreme Court wasn’t a ‘trial court’ and that petitioners approach the High Courts in the cities the incidents took place. Senior advocate Indira Jaising who was representing the students had said that the students had been violently attacked.
“What are the officers supposed to do if the students behave like this? Won’t FIRs be filed if students pelt stones?” the Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde had said in response.
A fact-finding report had been put together by the Citizen Bureau based on interviews with the students. The facts were ascertained by Advocates Aman Khan and Fazal of the Human Rights Law Network and Fawaz Shaheen of the Quill Foundation who visited them.
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Fact finding reports:
This report has been put together by The Citizen Bureau based on interviews with students of Aligarh Muslim University with facts ascertained by a team who visited AMU comprising Advocates Aman Khan and Fazal (HRLN) and Fawaz Shaheen (Quill Foundation) pic.twitter.com/LqDVDeJhxj
— Saqlain Quadri (@ImSaqlainQuadri) December 17, 2019
The report consists a list of detained students and gory details of what happened on the intervening night on December 15 and 16, 2019 in the wake of the CAA protests there.
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