North-East Delhi Pogrom : Police name Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Jayati Ghosh, in supplementary charge sheet

New Delhi: The names of Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, Economist Jayati Ghosh and other prominent people have come up in the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police in one of the northeast Delhi pogrom cases.

The supplementary charge sheet filed by the police has accused them of "provoking and mobilising" anti-CAA protesters.

Apart from Yachury,Yadav and Ghosh, many other Prominent personalities have also been named in the 'disclosure statements' made by women's collective Pinjra Tod members and JNU students Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Gulfisha Fatima of Jamia Milia Islamia who are accused in the same case.

The trio is facing charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Names of Delhi University professor and activist Apoorvanand, documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy, former JNU student and United Agaist Hate activist Umar Khalid also have figured in the charge sheet.

In the charge sheet, which was made public just two days before the commencement of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Delhi Police has claimed that Kalita and Narwal admitted to not just their complicity in the riots but also named Ghosh, Apoorvanand and documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy as their mentors.

In the statement, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal said that they were asked by the three persons to protest against CAA and NRC and go to any extreme.

Their similarly-worded disclosure statements – mentioned in the charge sheet – claimed that the two JNU students said they organised the Daryaganj protest in December and the Jafrafad chakka jam (road block) against the CAA on February 22, 2020 at the behest of Ghosh, Apoorvanand and Roy.

Kalita and Narwal also told the police that Ghosh, Apoorvanand and Roy coordinated with the Islamist group Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Jamia Coordination Committee to mentor the Pinjra Tod members to carry forward their campaign against the CAA, according to the charge sheet.

The police have used Jamia student Fathima's statement to corroborate the ensuing events.

As per the disclosure statement, Gulfisha Fatima told police about the January 15 Seelampur demonstration and said, "The crowd had started growing according to the plan, big leaders and lawyers started coming in to provoke and mobilise this crowd, including Omar Khalid, Chander Shekhar Ravan, Yogendra Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, and lawyer Mahmood Pracha."

According to the chargesheet, she added, "Pracha said that sitting in demonstration is your democratic right and the rest of the leaders fuelled the feeling of discontent in the community by calling CAA and NRC anti-Muslim."

The charge sheet claims that apart from Yechury and Yogendra Yadav, Fathima's statement mentions Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Ravan, United Against Hate activist Umar Khalid and some leaders from the Muslim community including ex-MLA Mateen Ahmed, and MLA Amannatullah Khan.

The document, quoting statements of those arrested, indicated that these people aided the conspirators.

In her statement, Fathima said that she was told to organise the protest to "malign the image of the Government of India", the police claimed.

In her statement, included in the charge sheet, she says that ¨big leaders and lawyers started coming in to provoke and mobilize this crowd, including Omar Khalid, Chandrashekhar Ravan, Yogendar Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, and lawyer Mahmood Pracha, etc".

"Pracha said that the sit-in demonstration is your democratic right and the rest of the leaders filled the feeling of discontent in the community by calling CAA/NRC anti-Muslim" she said, as per the charge sheet.

According to the charge sheet, Kalita added, "Umar Khalid had also given some tips for doing protest against CAA/NRC."

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury lashed out at the central government after being named in the case. "Delhi Police is under the Centre and Home Ministry. Its illegitimate, illegal actions are a direct outcome of the politics of BJP's top leadership. They are scared of legitimate peaceful protests by mainstream political parties and are misusing state power to target the opposition."

Hitting out at the government through a series of tweets, Yechury questioned as to why the "hate speeches" made during the riots were not investigated.

¨There is a video of poisonous speeches, why are they not being processed? Because the government has ordered that the opposition be wrapped up, either way. This is the real face, character, tricks and thinking of Modi and BJP. There will be opposition,¨ he said.

After repeated attempts for his comments, Yogendra Yadav reacted, ¨I notice that the passing reference to me does not even contain one sentence from my speech. I find it surprising that the Delhi Police has made no effort to see the recording of my speeches all of which are in the public domain."

Delhi Police Additional PRO Anil Mittal said, "The names are part of the disclosure statement of one of the accused in connection with organizing and addressing the Anti-CAA protests. The disclosure statement has been truthfully recorded as narrated by the accused person. A person is not arraigned as an accused only on the basis of disclosure statement."

"However, it is only on the existence of sufficient corroborative evidence does further legal action is taken. The matter is currently subjudice," he said.

(With inputs from PTI and IANS)