Stone-pelting in Delhi's Seelampur over CAA; cops use tear gas
What's the story
Agitation against the Citizenship Act turned violent in New Delhi, again, after protesters allegedly pelted stones at cops and they used tear gas to disperse them away.
As per reports, two policemen were injured today.
This comes merely two days after personnel of Delhi Police barged into Jamia Millia Islamia University and assaulted students after a march took a violent turn.
Here's what happened.
What happened
Cars were damaged, small fires dotted roads; police retaliated
A senior police officer said the protest started around 12 pm. The protesters raised slogans against National Register of Citizens (NRC), Citizenship Act, and the BJP-led Centre.
But soon the protest got "out of hand", a resident named Azib Aman told Reuters.
Rocks and small fires dotted the roads. In a bid to push back protesters who were approaching barricades, police fired tear gas.
Twitter Post
Here are the visuals from the spot
Very disturbing visuals coming in from #seelampur in East Delhi where violent protests against #CitizenshipAmendmentAct has broken out. The yellow vehicle is a school bus. pic.twitter.com/srnaAhYzKL
— Nistula Hebbar (@nistula) December 17, 2019
Twitter Post
Watch: Protesters chase cops, throw stones
#WATCH Delhi: Earlier visuals of protesters targeting policemen in Seelampur. #CitizenshipAmendmentAct pic.twitter.com/JPJLub29ln
— ANI (@ANI) December 17, 2019
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Metro services also took a hit
As Seelampur remained tense, DMRC revealed entry and exit gates will remain closed at Welcome, Jaffrabad and Maujpur-Babarpu stations. Trains will not halt at these stations either. Similarly, entry and exit gates of Seelampur, Gokulpuri, Johri Enclave, and Shiv Vihar stations were closed too.
Protest
Just day before yesterday, cops thrashed students
To recall, protests against the Citizenship Act spilled to the national capital this weekend when students of Jamia participated in the agitation.
However, on Sunday, they had to meet with police excesses and nearly 50 of them were detained.
Police's condemnable act sparked another massive protest wherein thousands gathered at headquarters in ITO. Subsequently, the detained students were released from Kalkaji and NFC stations.
Defense
For Jamia violence, police arrested 10, none are students
Ridiculed after the Jamia episode, Delhi Police claimed it was only doing its job and had the motive of pushing back protesters.
Subsequently, two FIRs pertaining to property damage were registered. Notably, 10 people, none of them students of Jamia, have been arrested.
Reportedly, three of the arrested men have criminal backgrounds and all of them would be handed over to the crime branch.
SC
Meanwhile, on Jamia matter, SC didn't take any action
While Jamia's incident enraged students across India, Supreme Court said the petitioners should have approached high courts first.
To recall, senior lawyer Indira Jaising mentioned the matter yesterday, and the top court gave today's date.
After hearing the allegations of police brutality, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde commented, "We don't want to spend time knowing facts, you should go to courts below first."