BSP team meets UP governor, seeks release of jailed anti-CAA protesters

“The BSP has opposed this law which grants citizenship on the basis of religion, making it divisive and unconstitutional… and had also voted against it in Parliament,” the memorandum signed by Mayawati said. “There was widespread opposition to this law all over the country and in UP there was violence. Earlier the police and state government held the protestors solely responsible for it and also acted in a vindictive manner, putting people in large numbers behind the bars,” it said.

It claimed media reports had brought to fore the attitude of the state government, police and administration which had been most barbaric and biased. The memorandum said that the BSP demanded judicial probe into the incidents of violence and police action, saying it would expose before the people the real attitude of the UP government and excesses of police and administration.

It said the state government should provide “justifiable” financial assistance to the kin of those who died during the protests and demanded that “innocent” people who were jailed be released immediately besides withdrawing the cases lodged against them. The BSP’s demand came against the backdrop of a local court, on Saturday, granting bail to social activist Sadaf Jafar and former IPS officer S R Darapuri, besides 13 others arrested in connection with anti-CAA protests in Lucknow. In a tweet, Mayawati had said, “In Uttar Pradesh, especially in Bijnor, Sambhal, Meerut, Muzzafarnagar, Firozabad, innocent people have been sent to jail for protesting against the CAA/NRC without an investigation. This issue has also been raised by the media and is highly shameful and condemnable.”

Accusing the Yogi Adityanath-led government of jailing anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters without any proper investigation, she had asked them to apologise to the public. Officials maintain that 19 people died in clashes during widespread protests across the state in December, though opposition parties claim a higher toll.

Around 1,200 people were arrested and 5,558 kept in preventive detention following clashes during the protests, the officials said. The act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains,Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. It has been called discriminatory as the legislation excludes Muslims from the three countries.