New Delhi: Chandan Kumar, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia has been summoned by the Delhi Police Special Cell in connection with riots that broke out in Northeast Delhi in February. He was booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
UAPA was invoked last month against former JNU student Umar Khalid, Jamia student and RJD’s youth wing President Meeran Haider, JCC media coordinator Safoora Zargar, Danish, a resident of Northeast Delhi’s Bhajanpura, and Alumni Association of Jamia Millia Islamia (AAJMI) president Shifa-ur-Rehman.
In connection with the riots, six people have been arrested since the lockdown was announced, including Zargar, Haider, former Congress councilor Ishrat Jahan, activist Khalid Saifi and Shifa.
According to the Indian Express, AISA national president N Sai Balaji accused Delhi Police of targeting and witch-hunting the students. Citing concerns about Covid-19 and its spread in Delhi, lack of transportation, and one of the head constables of the special cell contracting Covid-19, Chandan had expressed his willingness to join the investigation through video conference or any other method that doesn’t put his health and life at risk during the pandemic. But the Delhi Police paid no heed and insisted on him coming in physically to the Special Cell headquarters, where a case of Covid-19 had been found.
Claiming that Chandan has been falsely accused of burning buses at NFC and an FIR was registered against him, Balaji alleged that police had earlier assaulted Kumar in Jamia near the library on December 15. “It was Delhi Police who was the aggressor and not Chandan,” he said.