4 women's organisations demand judicial probe, FIRs be made public in Delhi violence

Four national women's organisations have sought a judicial inquiry into the violence that rocked parts of North East Delhi in February apart from demanding that the FIRs registered by the police in the case be made public.

New Delhi: While rejecting the claims of Delhi Police of conducting an impartial inquiry into the violence that rocked parts of North East Delhi in February, four national women's organisations have sought a judicial inquiry into the incident apart from demanding that the FIRs registered by the police in the case be made public.

The four organisations include Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan, National Federation of Indian Women, Swastik Mahila Samiti, and Centre For struggling women.

"The DCP is openly saying that the people of the country will have to trust the investigation into the incident. We would like to make it clear that we reject all the claims made by the Delhi Police," said Poonam Kaushik, General Secretary, Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan, in a video message.

Accusing the Delhi Police of using the Covid-19 induced lockdown to target anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters, Kaushik said, "We want to ask them as to why is it that they are using the Covid-19 induced lockdown to arrest the anti-CAA protesters. Why is the Delhi police lying in the Delhi courts? Even the Union Home Minister has accepted only two inquiry reports. While one report was prepared by RSS, the other report has simply been copied from the first report, and both the reports accuse the anti-CAA protesters as being behind the Delhi violence."

Continuing her tirade against the Delhi Police, Kaushik accused it of arresting anti-CAA protesters to "malign the women-led non-violent protests in the country".

"It is only to malign the women-led non-violent protests such as the one at Shaheen Bagh in the country that anti-CAA protesters are being pushed into jails and are being charged under draconian laws such as UAPA including pregnant student Safoora Zargar, Umar Khalid, Devangana, among others, " said Kaushik.

All four organisations had begun a signature campaign in the month of April this year stating similar demands and have collected 350 signatures so far. "Signatures were made by prominent individuals such as Indira Jaisingh and organisations including Indian Federation of Trade Unions, Saheli, who extended their support to the demands, " said Kaushik.