The Bihar police have allegedly arrested 13 minors and identified them as “adults” over the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests on December 21, 2019 in the town of Aurangabad, Bihar that had turned violent, reported Firstpost. All the arrested are Muslim youths.
The publication had earlier reported that the police had earlier arrested two youths, Ahmed and Syed from two different families, whose ages were 16 and 12 respectively. In the FIR, their ages were stated to be 28 and 19 respectively. The hearing for their case is scheduled for January 28, 2020 where the Juvenile Justice Board will decide on their age.
Meraj Khan, the lawyer appearing for the minors who are mostly between the ages of 14 and 17, the youngest being 12, said that he would apply for the bail plea after the decision of the Board.
It has been reported that out of the 13 only 1 has been sent to the juvenile home after sustaining serious injuries on his hands due to the lathi charge. The 12 remaining minors have been lodged in an adult prison for the past month, in the company of hardened criminals. He said, “It’s a straightforward case. We have their birth certificates, documents and we have presented them before the Juvenile Justice Board on January 16. On January 28, the Board will declare them juveniles.”
About the police wrongly charging the minors as adults, Khan said, “It has been done intentionally. There is no juvenile home in Aurangabad. It is under construction. The closest one is about 60 kilometers from here in Gaya. If the police had written their accurate ages, they would have had to hire a separate vehicle and travel to Gaya. The police did this to avoid extra effort.”
Currently, the probation officer is preparing a Social Investigation Report of the kids said Khan. “It includes their details, the families they come from, and whether they have had a criminal past. That would be considered when we argue for their bail. I hope the report is ready in time for the hearing and they understand the gravity of minors being in adult prisons.”
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had called for a bandh in Bihar on December 21, 2019 to protest against the CAA. At the time, Additional Director General, Bihar Police, Jitendra Kumar had told reporters that around 1,550 preventive arrests had been made in connection with the bandh.
Firstpost reported that the Aurangabad police blamed local councilor Sikandar Hayat for the violence that erupted in the FIR. The document noted that the bandh called by the RJD ended at around 12.15 p.m. when a mob of 200 people came to the site of the protest. The FIR read, “The mob started beating up shopkeepers, asking them to shut shop. When police tried to intervene, the mob chanted slogans against them and started throwing bricks and stones. A brick landed on a policeman’s head, and he got seriously injured. Hayat was egging the protesters on.”
However, eyewitnesses stated otherwise. They said that the violence broke out as a result of the scuffle that took place between people who wanted to enforce the bandh and people affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who were trying to get it stopped.
A fact-finding team that visited Aurangabad, Bihar where violence erupted, on their investigation found that the police ransacked homes, damaged private vehicles and assaulted men, women and children inside their homes.
The police were also caught on camera, picking up a minor and vandalising public property. Mohammad Enamul Rab, whose relatives were picked up from his home, included his younger brother Saddam (12), uncle Mukhtar and brother-in-law Rizwan and another brother Imran.
He told Firstpost, “The police raided our home, and accused them of hiding here. Ab ghar ka aadmi ghar pe nahi rahega toh kaha rahega? My brother-in-law had come to visit with my sister. There was no lady constable, yet the men in uniform dragged my mother and sister up to the road. The police said they are following orders, and asked us to shut up, while they continued to vandalise our home.”
Saddam, Rab’s brother, who is 12, as per his age recorded in his school certificate has been booked for launching a “life threatening attack on the police.” Rab is worried that his brother has already spent a month in prison with seasoned criminals. He said, “When police is patrolling the areas, parents tell their kids to get inside the homes. Now we don’t even feel safe in our own homes. They are supposed to protect us. And people are fearful of them. I hope my brother comes out unscathed but the administration should understand that a 12-year-old should not be kept with criminals.”
However, it isn’t just Bihar where minors have been detained and assaulted during the anti-CAA agitation. The Delhi Police too had detained 18 minors at the Daryaganj Police Station. The minors had visible head injuries and were seen in clothes soaked in blood. They had been stripped below the waist and were beaten up, with the police shouting communal slurs at them all the while during the assault. Their medical reports too clearly stated that their injuries were sustained due to lathi charge and being beaten up in police custody.
The UP police was also accused of allegedly torturing Maulana Asad Raza Hussaini and his students from the Saadat hostel and orphanage in Muzaffarnagar. It was alleged that police sexually tortured many of the minor detainees in custody after which some of the boys were admitted to the hospital with cases of rectal bleeding. The boys ranged from the ages of 14 to 21 and were reportedly abused through the night. A hostel resident told Newsclick, “While beating us, they abusively told us ‘this is the azadi (freedom) that you wanted’. Some of them asked us to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Har Har Mahadev’. Meanwhile, one student fell unconscious.”
The police that has been used as an agent by the State for spreading the fear of the regime in its people, has been allowed to use crowd-control measures like mass detentions, lathi charge, tear gas, bullets and stun grenades without the fear of being questioned. It is evident that most of those deceased in the firings by the police to quell the CAA protests have been from the Muslim community.
Is the state now sponsoring the retributive brand of justice to get its way and force people into toeing the line by giving a freehand to violence?
Related:
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