The Uttar Pradesh government’s allegations against Popular Front of India (PFI) stands exposed, after 19 members of the organisation, including its state president Wasim Ahmad, was released on bail. The police failed to produce any substantial evidence against the activists.
The UP Police had arrested 25 PFI members, accusing them of orchestrating the violence that erupted in the state in the wake of the anti-CAA-NRC protests. The police had charged the activists with possession of anti-CAA literature, posters, CDs and banners.
The Ajay Singh Bisht (Yogi Adityanath) government had even sent a proposal seeking a ban on PFI accusing the organisation was involved in anti-national activities.
Speaking to reporters after his release, PFI state president Wasim Ahmad, who was accused of masterminding the violence, said that, “The government is merely trying to malign the organisation but without any concrete proof. As many as 19 of the 25 PFI members, arrested by the police, have been granted bail because the police had no evidence against us.”
40 people, including 18 of the 25 PFI members, were arrested from Shamli district. However, according to the police’s own admission, “there was no violence in the city”. “The arrests were mostly of preventive nature after pamphlets containing inciteful messages were discovered from them. Twelve of them were arrested under Section 151 of CrPC and six for violating Section 144 — both minor charges. They have now been released on bail,” an ET report quoted Shamli SP Vineet Jaiswal as saying.
PFI’s Assam State President Aminul Haque and Office Secretary Muzammel Hoque, who were arrested last month, after the police accused them of similar allegations of conspiring, planning and facilitating the anti-CAA violence in Assam were too released, after the police failed to produce any evidence against them.
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