On August 3, 2020 the Special Branch of the Delhi Police questioned Professor Apoorvanand, who teaches Hindi at the University of Delhi for 5 hours in connection with the Northeast Delhi riots. The police have reportedly seized his phone.
Prof. Apoorvanand said in a statement “On Monday, August 3, 2020, I was asked by the Special Cell, Delhi Police to appear before it in the investigation into FIR no 59/20 related to the violence that happened in NE Delhi in February 2020. I spent five hours there. The Delhi Police also considered it necessary to seize my phone for the purpose of investigation.”
According to a press release, Prof. Apoorvanand has been summoned under section 43F of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA. The summons mentions 19 sections of the IPC; two sections each of the Prevention of Damage of Public Property (PDPP) Act; two sections of the Arms Act and four different sections of the UAPA.
A senior police officer told Indian Express, that the professor “was asked about his association with a WhatsApp group formed in December 2019. We have not found incriminating posts from his side, but he was asked about his association with other group members and how he had met them. He was also asked where he was during the Northeast Delhi riots and the violence in and around the Jamia campus in December, and about his association with Pinjra Tod and the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC).”
Over the past several months, students, activists, writers, artists, journalists and other public persons who participated in the anti-CAA protests have been questioned and many have been arrested.
According to official sources, about 15-20 members of the WhatsApp group have been questioned so far — most recently former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, whose phone was also seized.
Under the omnibus FIR 59 of 2020 alone, more than 17 arrests have taken place already under the UAPA, and over two hundred have been arrested under sections of the IPC.
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