46 protesting students detained in Delhi

Bail plea of 15 dismissed

A Delhi court on Monday dismissed bail pleas of 15 persons arrested in connection with the violence in Delhi’s Daryaganj area and extended their judicial custody by two weeks

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, Dec 23

As the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Jamia Millia Islamia entered its eighth day on Monday, the Delhi Police today detained as many as 46 youths, who had come to protest outside the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Bhawan against the police action on protesters in the state.

The protesters were demanding the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the issue. They were detained as soon as they reached the venue and taken to the Mandir Marg police station, they claimed.

Initially, former JNU Students’ Union president N Sai Balaji and All India Students’ Association (AISA) Delhi unit president Kawalpreet Kaur were detained the moment they reached. The AISA’s Sucheta De is reported to have said she was detained while she was still a few metres away from the UP Bhawan.

Some students, who reached the venue after the senior AISA members, were detained and escorted away by the police.

According to a senior police officer, male students were taken to the Mandir Marg police station while the women students were dropped off at their universities. He said prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC, which bans the assembly of four or more people, are in place in the New Delhi police district and the students did not have permission to protest.

Meanwhile, students from several schools in Noornagar, Batla House and Okhla also attended the protests near Jamia Millia Islamia here today. An alliance of civil society organisations and activists on Monday demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into the “police excesses” against students of the Jamia Millia Islamia and the Aligarh Muslim University.

Addressing a press conference here, members of the alliance also demanded that all cases registered against those protesting against the CAA be unconditionally withdrawn and those arrested be immediately released.