Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan on Saturday sent a legal notice to the Delhi Police for defamation and accused its personnel of weaving fabricated stories about him.
On May 9, the Delhi Police registered a first information report against Khan, an MLA from Okhla, for allegedly obstructing the demolition drive in Shaheen Bagh. Khan had joined a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled South Delhi Municipal Corporation, saying that there are no illegal structures in the area.
The Muslim-dominated neighbourhood was among the sites in Delhi where protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act were held in 2019 and 2020.
“Delhi Police is constantly targeting me,” Khan wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “This time Delhi Police has attacked my right to prestige and right to live with dignity along with defaming my family.”
The FIR registered against Khan was based on a complaint filed by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Notably, the complaint by the civic body came hours after the BJP’s Delhi unit chief Adesh Gupta wrote a letter to the South Delhi mayor asking him to do so.
On May 12, the Delhi Police arrested Khan for protesting against a similar demolition drive in Madanpur Khadar area. He is currently out of prison on bail, PTI reported.
In his legal notice to the police, Khan sought an “unconditional, written, public apology” to him as well as his wife and children for “causing unwarranted harassment, grave physical and mental agony”.
“Upload it [the apology] on the official website and Twitter handle of the Delhi Police for causing brazen infraction of our fundamental rights as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, including but not limited to Right to Privacy, Right to Reputation and Right to Live with Dignity,” the notice read.
Khan, who is also the chairperson of the Delhi Waqf Board, said he was peacefully protesting without arms against the anti-encroachment drive by the civic body “in the interest of the local public” on May 12.
The notice stated that a total of 18 FIRs were registered against him.
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