Apologise for sending anti-CAA protesters to jail: Mayawati to UP govt

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to seek apology from the public for putting anti-citizenship law protesters behind bars without thorough investigation.

She dubbed it as "highly shameful and condemnable".

"In Uttar Pradesh, especially in Bijnor, Sambhal, Meerut, Muzzafarnagar, Firozabad and other districts, innocent people have been sent to jail for protesting against the CAA/NRC without an investigation. This issue has also been raised by the media and is highly shameful and condemnable," the BSP national president said in a tweet in Hindi.

Accusing the Yogi Adityanath led government of jailing anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters without any proper investigation, she asked them to seek an apology from the public.

Her statement comes in the backdrop of a local court granting bail on Saturday to social activist Sadaf Jafar and former IPS officer S R Darapuri, besides 13 others arrested in connection with anti-CAA protests in Lucknow.

Mayawati also demanded financial assistance to those killed in the protests.

Officials maintain that 19 persons died in clashes during the widespread protests across the state in December, though opposition parties claim a higher toll.

Mayawati also demanded immediate release of the innocent people and urged the state government to provide "justifiable" financial assistance to the kin of those who have died during the protests.

Around 1,200 people were arrested and 5,558 kept in preventive detention following clashes during the protests, officials said.

The party chief said a BSP delegation will meet UP Governor Anandiben Patel in Raj Bhawan here on Monday and submit a memorandum seeking a judicial inquiry into the clashes that took place in the state.

The Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. It has been called discriminatory as the legislation excludes Muslims from the three countries.