22 people died in violence during anti-CAA protests: UP govt to HC

In a compliance report, the UP government told Allahabad High Court that eight complaints were made against police personnel over alleged atrocities on people protesting against the new citizenship law on December 20 and 21 last year.

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Police lathicharge protesters against CAA and NRC in Lucknow on December 19. The police had been claiming that 20 deaths occurred during the violence. (Express file photo)

A TOTAL of 22 persons died in the violence across the state on December 20 and 21 last year during anti-CAA protests, the state government has informed the Allahabad High Court in a compliance report. 83 persons – public and protesters – and 455 police personnel were injured in the violence, the report said. The police had been claiming that 20 deaths occurred during the violence.

It added that eight complaints were made against police personnel over alleged atrocities on people protesting against the new citizenship law on December 20 and 21 last year have been made part of the investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the districts concerned. Two other complaints against police personnel filed in court for seeking direction to register FIRs are pending.

The compliance report was submitted by the state government on Monday to the Allahabad High Court, which was hearing a writ petition over alleged police excesses against anti-CAA protesters. Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Siddhartha Varma, hearing the matter, has slated the next hearing for March 18.

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Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal, appearing for the state government, pointed out that in the compliance report, they informed the court that a total of 22 persons died in the violence across the state on December 20 and 21.

Of the 22 deaths, one each death occurred in Varanasi, Rampur, Muzaffarnagar, two each in Sambhal and Bijnor, three in Kanpur, five in Meerut and seven in Firozabad, senior advocate SFA Naqvi, who was appointed amicus curiae to assist court in the matter. Postmortem reports of the deceased were handed over to their family members, the government told the court.

The government has also mentioned in the report that a total of 833 persons were arrested in the state in connection with the violence on the two days and of these, 561 have been released on bail. The remaining 322 accused are in jail and bail application of 211 persons have been rejected by the courts concerned, said Naqvi.

The government also said 113 persons were arrested over “links” to Kerala-based organisation Popular Front of India, he added.

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