Congress leader slapped with Rs 1 crore recovery notice for anti-CAA 'dharna'

Poet and Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi has been slapped with a recovery notice of a little over Rs 1 crore by the Uttar Pradesh police for taking part in an indefinite 'dharna' in Moradabad town, about 350 kilometers from here, against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The police, in the notice, have claimed that they have been spending more than Rs 13 lakh every day over deployment of the security personnel at the site of 'dharna'.

The dharna by hundreds of people have been going in the town since January 29.

According to the sources, the police had served notices to around 145 people asking them to pay the cost incurred on the deployment of the forces.

Similar recovery notices have been sent to the people, who had taken part in the anti-CAA protests elsewhere in the state as well. In the state capital of Lucknow also, dozens have been served such notices.

The Allahabad high court had a few days back stayed the recovery notice issued to an anti-CAA protester in Kanpur stating that the matter was pending consideration in the supreme court.

In the earlier recovery notices, the police had included the cost of lathis and helmets, broken in the violence during protests against the CAA, besides other things while calculating the loss of public properties.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, soon after the violence in Lucknow, said that the government would 'avenge' the loss of public properties from the protesters.