Lawyers who went to a police station in Delhi to get an anti-Citizenship Act protestor released were allegedly beaten up by police personnel on Wednesday. The protestor was detained from a demonstration area that was cleared by police in Khureji Khas area of North East Delhi earlier in the day.
The lawyers who went to secure the protestor’s release at the Jagatpuri police station were from the Indian Civil Liberties Union firm and the Human Rights Law Network. “We were waiting for people detained from the Khureji protest...when a cop started recording and taking pictures,” the ICLU’s Anas Tanwir told Scroll.in. “When we objected, a senior officer stepped in. We were soon ghearoed and lathicharged. Male police officials roughed up female lawyers.”
Tanwir claimed he was hit on the head.
As many as 24 people have died since Monday in North East Delhi in clashes between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. In some cases, the police have been accused of siding with the supporters and vandalising protest sites, including the one at Khureji Khas.
The Delhi High Court heard a plea on the violence on Wednesday and said that it could not let riots similar to the anti-Sikh violence in 1984 happen again. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the situation was alarming and that the Army should be called in as the police were unable to handle it. But National Security Advisor Ajit Doval claimed that there are enough forces on the ground, and that people should trust the Delhi Police.
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