UP Govt Names & Shames CAA Violence-Accused On Hoardings In Lucknow

Hoardings have been put up by the Uttar Pradesh government in prominent intersections in state capital Lucknow, with names, addresses and photos of some of those who were accused of violence during protests against the citizenship law in Lucknow in December last year.

NDTV reported that the hoardings mention that the people named on there have to pay compensation for damage to public property in Lucknow during the violence, in which one person died. If the accused fail to pay up soon, their property will be attached.

Since individual property attachment notices to many of the accused have already been served by the government, it is not clear why public hoardings with names and addresses have been put up.

Activist-politician Sadaf Jafar, lawyer Mohammed Shoaib, theatre personality Deepak Kabir and former IPS officer SR Darapuri are some of the people named in the hoardings.

All of these people are out on bail and have said they will contest in court any move by the government to attach their property.

According to the courts, the police failed to back up their claims about the accused with enough evidence to deny bail.

In February, Allahabad High Court had stayed a similar property attachment notice given by the government to a man in Kanpur, for his alleged role in the destruction of government property in large-scale violence over the Citizenship Amendment Act in the city in last December.

Saying that the Supreme Court was already looking into the validity of such notices in a separate case, the high court had provided Interim protection was provided to the accused.

According to a source in the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's office the hoardings in Lucknow were put up on the instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Reacting to the protests that turned violent over the contentious Citizenship Act and NRC in Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had said his government will take "revenge" on those involved in the violence by auctioning their property to compensate for the losses.

"We will be very strict. I am monitoring this myself. We will attach the property of all those involved in the violence and many such faces are identified in videography and CCTVs. We will attach their property and take revenge against them," the Chief Minister had said after the December violence.

Anti-citizenship law protesters had hurled stones and damaged police outposts in some areas of Lucknow. The violent protesters set multiple vehicles ablaze, forcing police to use tear-gas shells to bring the situation under control.

UP Police arrested thousands of people across violence-hit districts and registered serious charges like rioting and attempted murder against them.

According to the police at least 60 of their personnel had bullet injuries across the state while trying to control mobs that were indulging in vandalism, arson and firing.

A court in west Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor had earlier granted bail to 48 people accused by the state police of rioting and attempted murder during the December violence.

"The police FIR says the mob fired at the cops, but no evidence has been presented in court to show any recovery of weapons. The government lawyers have failed to produce any evidence in court that shows that any one part of the mob fired at the police," the judge was quoted as saying in his bail order.

The Logical Indian Take

Since individual property attachment notices to many of the accused have already been served by the government, naming and shaming them in public is unnecessary.

As independent citizens of India, everyone has the right to express disapproval with the government's action in the form of rallies and protests.

It is important that no state government disregards the constitutional rights of a citizen.

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