Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Mira Nair and others demand release of Umar Khalid

More than 200 eminent scholars, writers, academicians, and artists have expressed support for former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student and activist Umar Khalid, who is under arrest for his alleged role in the Delhi riots.

In a statement released on September 24, the signatories have called for an investigation into the "pre-meditated witch-hunt" and have said Khalid was falsely implicated by the Delhi Police, the Indian Express reported.

"We stand in solidarity and outrage, with the brave young scholar and activist Umar Khalid… He is charged with sedition, conspiracy to murder, and under sections of India’s stringent anti-terror law, the UAPA," the signatories have said in the letter.

"This process of criminalizing all dissent has been underway for a few years and even under the COVID-19 pandemic, relentless political arrests under fabricated charges are punishing the innocent long before they are brought to trial," they wrote.

The signatories include prominent personalities of national and international repute, such as writers Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy; filmmakers Mira Nair and Anand Patwardhan; historians Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib; linguist Noam Chomsky; and activists Medha Patkar and Aruna Roy.

They said the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in India were "the largest most peaceful democratic rights movement in independent India".

"(The protests) followed proudly in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and embodied the spirit of the Indian Constitution drafted under the leadership of Dr. BR Ambedkar," the statement said.

"Umar Khalid became a powerful young voice of truth in this movement, speaking at close to 100 meetings across India, in small towns and big cities, upholding the values of India’s Constitution; articulating the dreams of all young Indians – of freedom from hunger, deprivation, discrimination and fear. He staked his claim to the full measure of citizenship, he spoke for all marginal peoples, and above all Umar spoke for peace," the statement said, according to the report.

The statement also mentioned that several leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had given "hate speeches, inciting their supporters to 'shoot the traitors"- a reference to Union minister Anurag Thakur's 'Goli maaro saalon ko' remark during a rally - but "no cases have been registered against them".

"The role of BJP leader Kapil Mishra has shockingly not attracted the merest police scrutiny; even though he stood in North East Delhi on February 23, 2020, along with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, and threatened that his supporters would ‘take matters into their own hands’ if the CAA protesters were not removed," the statement said.