SP leader among six held at Clock Tower, granted interim bail
LUCKNOW: Police on Wednesday arrested six people, including former minister of state (designated) and Samajwadi Party leader Yameen Khan from the Clock Tower, where women are sitting on anti-CAA, NRC protest for the past 47 days.
The women protesters accused the police of using power and vandalising the protest site. They alleged that the cops arrested the men standing near the protest site while the police said some people were removed and arrested keeping the women’s safety in mind.
“Some of those arrested, including Yameen Khan, were already wanted in cases filed earlier. One person wanted in a case of unlawful assembly was present at the protest site, that too around 1:30 am. People were removed and some of them were arrested to maintain law and order,” said additional deputy commissioner of police, west Vikas Chandra Tripathi.
Tripathi said apart from Yameen,
Md. Raees, Abdul, Owais and Md Saif had also been arrested. All of them were booked for unlawful assembly and violation of prohibitory order, restraining cops from performing their duty.
Yameen is a Samajwadi Party leader and a practising lawyer. His arrest angered the lawyer community and many of them were present at the Thakurganj police station.
Alleging delay on the part of cops in producing Khan in court, they also entered into heated arguments with Thakurganj SHO Pramod Kumar Mishra.
Later, the court granted interim bail to Yameen Khan.
The protesters, however, said that the police were trying to quell the protest by using all tricks. “Police are scaring away the males from the protest site. They are our family members. What is wrong if a husband is around when the wife is at the protest site at night,” said Ameena Begum, a protester. “They want to dominate us. They think by not allowing male members of our family around, we will shut down the picket,” she added.
The protesters also alleged that some people arrived at their site and vandalized the hoarding and banners. However, they have not given any complaint to the police.
Yaseen Khan, family member of a woman protester said, “We live almost 500 metres from the protest site. Women from my family as well as the neighbours’ are protesting. We were sitting near the Clock Tower silently. We did not protest or create any ruckus. Still police violently chased us away and arrested a few of us.”
On Wednesday evening, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) south Pooja Yadav was also pressed in to talk to the women protesters at the Clock Tower.
A senior police official requesting anonymity said, “Women protesters had levelled some allegations so we deployed a woman official to talk to them.”