Twenty-one persons, half of them women, have been booked for alleged rioting and assault during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) at Lucknow’s Hussainabad Clocktower.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police against 21 persons and hundreds of unidentified persons for allegedly raising “provocative” slogans and holding up traffic during the ‘Lucknow chalo’ event at the protest site on Sunday.
Several activists had given the call for the ‘Lucknow chalo’ rally and asked people from outside to attend the protests, which have been going on since January 17.
‘Provocative slogans’
The police said that the event was being publicised on social media, and personally by people, for the past four-five days. On the morning of February 9, hundreds of men and women turned up at the venue and started protesting against the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC), the police said in its FIR.
The protesters also distributed pamphlets saying “Hallabol Lucknow” and “Lucknow chalo”, and caused a traffic jam near the Clocktower by parking their vehicles randomly, police said.
The protesters raised “provocative” and “inflammatory” slogans, led a march around the Clocktower, and when the police tried to stop them, they pushed the police personnel and moved ahead, the FIR said.
Caused ‘chaos’
This caused “chaos” and a traffic jam near the Ghantaghar (Clocktower), said the police FIR lodged at the Thakurganj Police Station.
Among those named in the FIR are advocate Mohammad Shoaib, who heads the civil rights group Rihai Manch, Congress worker Sadaf Jafar and Dalit leader P. C. Kureel.
The FIR invoked Sections 147 (rioting), 145 (joining or continuing in unlawful assembly, knowing it has been commanded to disperse), 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act was also included.