27 days after being arrested from his residence, senior lawyer and Rihai Manch President, Mohammad Shoaib has been granted bail by a Lucknow court. He was arrested from his residence on the night of December 19, 2019 and taken to an unidentified location a day after he was put under house arrest amid the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Speaking to The Hindu, his wife Malka Bi confirmed the news alleging foul play in the police version of the matter asking, “When a person was at home, how can he be part of a riot? Police said they found him near Clark Awadh. If he is in police custody, how can he reach Clark Awadh?”
Shoaib was charged under several serious charges like rioting, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy by the Uttar Pradesh police even though his name did not appear on the chargesheet.
Along with Shoaib, other activists including another member of the Rihai Manch, Robin Verma, were also detained the same day, attacked and wrongly framed by the UP police, but they all were released on bail after a significant passage of time.
But why was Mohammad Shoaib such a threat and a thorn in Yogi’s flesh?
Mohammad Shoaib, runs rights group called Rihai Manch and had shot to prominence after six blasts that rocked the courts in Lucknow, Varanasi, Faizabad and Gorakhpur on November 23, 2007 took the lives of over 15 people.
When angry lawyers across the state went on a strike and refused to appear in terror-related cases, it was Shoaib who decided to take on the cases of terror suspects; a move that didn’t go down well with protesting lawyers.
After Shoaib fought for Aftab Alam Ansari who was accused in the serial bomb blasts case and successfully got him acquitted after days of torture, the UP police claimed their arrest to be a case of mistaken identity.
He then took up the causes of such terror accused who couldn’t garner the means for legal help and in the course of time, with his legal expertise, Shoaib helped 18 people falsely charged with accusations of terrorism, walk free.
However, the road ahead was not easy and he did face his share of attacks for his brave actions.
The Telegraph got in touch with some of his colleagues about the work Shoaib did and believed in.
Senior journalist Anil Chamadia said, ““Jab terrorism ke naam par jo begunahon ko jab phasaya jaane laga woh pehli awaaz the jinhone isko lekar courts me jakar ladai ladi (When innocent people were being trapped in cases in the name of terrorism, he was the first person who took the fight to the courts and fought for them).”
Rihai Manch’s General Secretary Rajiv Yadav, then a journalism graduate working on new stories of terror cases said he got acquainted with Shoaib and his work at the time he used to cover cases of victims and their families’ inability to get help and get themselves acquitted.
He said, “Shoaib sahab used to say that our objective was not only to fight these cases but to counter the terror politics. We need to put together a social democratic movement so that innocent people are not harassed in the name of terror.”
It was due to Shoaib who removed the stigma of working for the terror accused. Court judgments over the years have also proved that many of such young men have been falsely implicated under grave charges.
Over the years, Rihai Manch, synonymous with helping the wrongly booked in terror cases, took on various other causes. One of the most famous of its campaigns was questioning the custodial killings of people under the Mayawati government after the 2012 communal violence incidents and 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Not only this, it also raised its voices for the concerns of the socially marginalized Dalits afflicted with problems like mob lynching and farmers who are caught in a spire of land grabbing issues.
The organization has also started its campaign against the dangerous National Security Act which allows the detention of people simply on the assumption that they could compromise national security, alleging that it is only the poor and marginalized who are exploited under this act.
However, what seems to have got UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s goat, says Rajiv Yadav, is the Rihai Manch raising its voice against the more than 3,000 encounter killings under his government, an issue they have highlighted in a documentary called ‘Saffron War’.
Journalist Anil Chamadia and former IPS officer Vikas Narain Rai told The Telegraph that the governments before that of Yogi’s did have some semblance of logic and the law. However, since Yogi’s term as CM, the Rihai Manch has become a favorite target of the government.
In 2018, the members of the Rihai Manch had received threats of being ‘encountered’ by the UP police whom the Manch had accused of being complicit in a fake encounter case.
However, now that Mohammad Shoaib has been granted bail, what is to be seen is whether the UP police and the government will launch a crackdown on his organization or back off in light of public support that has accumulated for Shoaib and other activists like him.
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