Full of energy after spending 17 days in jail, S.R. Darapuri has dared Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to prove that those who have been arrested for arson and damaging public property during the protests against the amended citizenship act were guilty.
The 77-year-old retired IPS officer, who is now a social worker, said he would continue opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens,
The septuagenarian was put under house arrest on December 19, when an anti-CAA procession was taken out at Lucknow’s Parivartan Chawk and violence broke out. He was shifted to Hazratganj police station the next day and later sent to jail.
“Those who had resorted to violence were members of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP. I saw with my own eyes that a large number of them were rounded up and brought to Hazratganj police station in the night of December 20. But they all were let off one by one as someone kept calling the police,” Darapuri told The Telegraph soon after his release from Lucknow prison.
“They were RSS and BJP members who had resorted to violence and started burning vehicles and damaging property. My friends told me that the police were mute spectators when violence was taking place. The cops sprang to action and started firing tear gas shells and baton-charged the protesters when the RSS and the BJP men left the spot after burning vehicles and police stations,” Darapuri said.
He added that the Sangh parivar had planned it in advance to defame the anti-CAA and NRC protesters.
“I dare Adityanath to show to the people of the country the CCTV footage to prove that the over 250 people who were sent jail between December 19 and 21 were committing violence. The CM will never be able to do so because his entire gameplan is based on lies,” said the 1972-batch IPS officer, who is now a member of the All India People’s Front. Darapuri had contested the Lok Sabha election on this party’s ticket from Lucknow in 2014.
He said the police did not record his statement under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure but submitted a false statement in the court.
“I don’t know what is there in that statement cooked up by the police. “The policemen refused to give me a blanket when I was kept in the lock-up of Hazratganj police station on the night of December 20. They didn’t beat me but I saw the policemen mercilessly beating many protesters.
“More than 99 per cent of those who have been arrested are innocent and we have decided to contest their cases in court and expose the brutal face of Adityanath,” said Darapuri.
“I and other anti-CAA and NRC protesters will chalk out a fresh strategy soon. The CAA, clubbed with the NRC, insults every Indian whose forefathers were born and lived here. We will make the government bow before us,” the social worker said.
He said the over two dozen Bengalis, who were arrested and charged with rioting during the protests, were non-vegetarian cooks who work in different restaurants near Parivartan Chawk.
“We know many of them personally. Adityanath’s police dub them as anti-nationals from Malda. We are collecting more details about these people and will try to prove that they are cooks whose chicken and mutton preparations are loved by the food connoisseurs of Lucknow. We will give them legal assistance, along with others who have been put in jail,” Darapuri added.
