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Delhi Riots: Rahul Roy, Saba Dewan summoned for questioning

Last Updated 14 September 2020, 16:03 IST

Delhi Police has summoned documentary filmmakers Rahul Roy and Saba Dewan for questioning on Monday in connection with Delhi riots, a day after Umar Khalid was arrested.

Activists, writers, and academicians, including Arundhati Roy and Ramachandra Guha, condemned Khalid's arrest saying that the investigation is becoming "more vindictive and farcical" with every passing day.

Khalid was arrested on Sunday late night after almost 11 hours of questioning in an FIR in which he is charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The former student leader of Jawaharlal Nehru University has been accused of conspiring with other activists to utilise the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests for the riots.

Khalid was produced before a court here, which sent him to ten days police custody after investigators claimed that further interrogation is needed to confront him with huge technical data as well as material that has come during the investigation.

The FIR against Khalid claimed that he gave provocative speeches asking people to block traffic during the visit of United States President Donald Trump to attract the international community's attention. He had denied the allegations while police had seized his phone in July when he was questioned for the first time.

Khalid's arrest and the summoning of Roy and Dewan came days after Delhi Police filed a supplementary charge-sheet against three girl students in connection with the riots in which their names were mentioned.

The charge sheet also mentioned the names of CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan's Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh and Delhi University professor Apoorvanand as "mobilising" and "provoking" public against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Like the others, Roy and Dewan were also mentioned in the charge sheet though not as accused but as part of disclosure statements.

At least 36 academicians and activists condemned Khalid's arrest and said Khalid was one of the "bravest young voices" who spoke for the Constitutional values of the country.

They said it was “very significant” that of the 20 arrested, 19 are under the age of 31. Of this, they said, 17 have been charged under the “draconian” UAPA and have been imprisoned on charges of a conspiracy for the Delhi violence whereas “those who actually instigated and participated in the violence have not been touched".

Among others, the statement was signed by film-maker Saeed Mirza, former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, musician T M Krishna, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, AIPWA's Kavita Krishnan, activist Harsh Mander and academicians Prabhat Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, Nandini Sundar, Apoorvanand, and Satish Pande.

Demanding his immediate release and asking police to stop the "witch hunt", they said in a joint statement that Khalid has been subjected to a "malicious investigation" targeting peaceful anti-CAA protestors.

"With deep anguish, we have no doubt in saying that this investigation is not about the violence in February 2020 in the national capital, but on the completely peaceful and democratic protests across the country against the unconstitutional CAA," they said.

"The repeated attempts by the Delhi police to implicate Khalid in a number of fictitious cases of conspiracy for the Delhi violence are part of a brazen attempt to try to suppress his voice of dissent,” they said.

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(Published 14 September 2020, 09:41 IST)

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