CAA: Protesters’ Property to Be Attached, Says Notice by Aligarh Police to over 1,000 People

After issuing notices to 153 people on February 3, the Aligarh district authorities have again issued notices to another 1,000 people in connection with a sit-in protest outside Shahjamal Eidgah in Delhi Gate area against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). The notices warned the recipients that they may lose their property if they do not give a satisfactory explanation on why they are violating prohibitory orders.

Furthermore, the Aligarh police are also sending out red notices to some local leaders, cautioning them against disrupting law and order in the city.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Aligarh Akash Kulhari said that the notices are being sent to about 1,000 people and if they do not give a satisfactory reply, the formalities for attaching their property will start.

The process of sending out these notices to identified individuals has begun, authorities stated.

“If they do not give a satisfactory reply to the notice within seven days, legal action will be taken against them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code,” City Magistrate Vineet Kumar Singh was quoted as saying by PTI.

Hundreds of women have been staging a dharna (sit-in) round the clock near Eidgah in Delhi Gate area for the past one week in protest against the CAA and the NRC in a peaceful manner.

Authorities have imposed prohibitory orders that ban assembly of people without permission.

While issuing notices to 153 people on February 3, the district authorities had asked them to sign a bond with a warning that if any kind of violence erupts near the protest site, the protesters will have to face legal action.

On Wednesday, there was chaos at the protest site when a stray bull barged into the crowd. Several women were injured, a 20-year-old woman was rushed to hospital for medical aid.

The women protesters had then alleged that with the help of cops, stray bulls had been let loose deliberately to harass the protesters. The police have refuted the charge.

Also read: MP Govt Urges Centre to Withdraw CAA-NRC, Cabinet Passes Resolution

Speaking to NewsClick over the notice being served to the protesters, Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, former AMU Students’ Union president said, “This is the third time in a row that the police have sent notices to the protesters who are protesting in a democratic way and in a peaceful manner. The Aligarh police is doing all this on the behest of the Yogi government. First, they killed several poor people during the protests to maintain the so-called law and order. Then, they sent hundreds of people to jail and now, they are sending notices to confiscate their property. Protests against CAA and NRC are taking place across the country, but the police were most brutal in Uttar Pradesh. This proved that the state is turning into a police state. But if police think that they can threaten people by sending notices, then it would be an error of judgment.”

Meanwhile, three FIRs have been lodged against the anti-CAA protesters in Aligarh under sections 145, 147, 188 and 341 of the IPC. The first FIR was lodged on January 24 against four identified and 150 to 200 unidentified people while the second FIR was registered against eight identified people and 250 to 300 unidentified people on January 30.

The third FIR was lodged on January 31. “No arrests have been made in this regard yet as the amount of sentence in charges slapped on the protesters are under seven years. However, chargesheet will be filed soon in this regard,” Aligarh SSP told the reporters.

Also read: CAA: Rampur’s Forgotten Protest Victims are Also its Poorest