AMU Violence: Allahabad HC Asks Govt to Take Action Against Policemen, Pay Compensation to Students

The Allahabad High Court has ordered the director general of the police of the Uttar Pradesh government to identify and take action against the policemen who were involved in “stray incidents of damaging motorcycles and unnecessarily caning the apprehended students” of the Aligarh Muslim University, reported LiveLaw.

According to Leaflet, the court has also asked the government to comply with National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC’s) recommendation to provide compensation to six injured AMU students.

The order was passed by a bench comprising justices Govind Mathur and Samit Gopal.

In response to a PIL filed by Mohd Aman Khan, the HC had directed the NHRC last month to probe the allegations of police violence in AMU on December 15, 2019, when the police, along with the paramilitary forces, had entered the varsity campus and allegedly resorted to firing tear gas shells, rubber bullets and pellets on the AMU students.

Khan, in his PIL, had alleged that the police had resorted to violence even when AMU students were protesting peacefully against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

A six-member team of the NHRC was to complete its investigation within five weeks and submit its findings to the high Court.

The LiveLaw report said that today’s HC order comes following the recommendations of the NHRC. Read the detailed list of NHRC recommendations here.

Amid the wave of the anti-CAA protests across the country, the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh saw wide-scale violence and a large number of allegations of police violence, intimidation and subjugation. Prominent public figures like activist Sadaf Jafar and former IPS officer S R Darapuri were also picked up by the police.

According to reports, in December 2019 itself, over 1,000 people were arrested and at least 5,000 people were put under preventive detention in the state.

Also read: Violence Against Dalits: Uttar Pradesh Tops List, Followed by Gujarat