'Deaths in UP's anti-CAA stir due to police bullets'

Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said that all the deaths during protests against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Uttar Pradesh were caused by police bullets.

Akhilesh also declared that his party would provide Rs. 5 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the violence.

''All the deaths were caused by the bullets fired by the cops....the police are lying....we demand a thorough probe into the police excesses,'' the SP president said after meeting the family of Mohammed Vakil, who had been killed in alleged police firing in the state capital during the CAA protests last month.

While the police claimed that Vakil had taken part in the violent protests, his family said that he had gone to bring some items, when he was struck by a police bullet.

Akhilesh slammed the police brutality and said that his party leaders would be meeting the families of the deceased in different parts of the state in the next few days and hand them over the cheques of Rs. 5 lakh.

The SP leader alleged that the state police did not want the opposition leaders to meet the families of the victims. ''They are trying to prevent us from meeting the kin of the deceased,'' he said.

Akhilesh had earlier declared that neither he nor his party members would be filling the forms of the NPR (National Population Register)