NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JULY 5
The Lucknow administration has attached three shops to recover the damages caused to public properties during violence in the wake of the anti-CAA agitation in the city on December 19 and 20 last year.
The properties belong to those who had taken part in the protest against CAA and the proposed NRC at different places in the state capital.
Meanwhile, the administration has also issued orders to auction two of these properties if their owners are not able to pay the amount of damages due on them by July 16.
According to administration officials, if they deposit the damages by July 16, their properties will not be auctioned and proceedings against them will be withdrawn.
Among the properties sealed are N Y Fashion Centre and a junk shop in upmarket Hazratgunj. While the notice for the damage amount to be claimed has been issued in the name of Dharamveer Singh in the case of Fashion Centre, the damages in case of junk shop has been claimed from its owner Maahenoor Chaudhary.
The owners of the two shops are among the 13 persons who have been asked to pay a sum of Rs. 21.76 lakh collectively for loss of public properties in Hasangunj police station area during anti-CAA protests on December 19, 2019. In Parivartan Chowk area, police had registered FIR against 24 persons and damage to public property by them collectively was estimated at Rs. 69.65 lakh. In old city area, another 10 persons were identified to have caused a loss of Rs. 47.85 lakh to public property. Similarly, six persons were found to have vandalized public property and cause loss to an estimated Rs. 1.75 lakh.
The administration has also sealed a welding shop in Khurram Nagar area. It is owned by one Mohammad Nafees. The police have alleged that Nafees was involved in damage to public properties in Hazratganj police station during anti-CAA protest on December 19.
According to officials in the Lucknow district administration, a total of 57 persons have been served notices for recovery of a total of Rs. 1.55 crores.
Human rights activist Mohammad Shoaib, former IPS officer S R Darapuri and Congress leader Sadaf Jafar are among 57 persons having been issued notices.
In the act of naming and shaming, the police had also put up photographs and addresses of these persons on hoardings all over the city in March this year that attracted lot of criticism from opposition parties and human rights activists.
While neither Darapuri nor Shoaib could be contacted despite several efforts, Rihai Manch general secretary Rajiv Yadav said that sealing of the properties si not only illegal but amounts to depriving people of their democratic right to stage a protest against certain actions of the government which the people feel it to be against the larger interest of the people.
“UP seems to have become a police state, instead of being a democratic state”, observed Yadav.
He said that people had gone to the Parivartan Chowk in Lucknow to protest against CAA and NRC on December 19 which is the martyrdom day of freedom fighters Ashfaqullah Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil. “A total of 20 persons were killed in police action on December 19 and 20, 2019. While the government arrested a large number of people having participated in the protest and has now initiated the process to recover damages for the public property, it took no action against the police who damaged private property”, said Yadav.
He said that recovery could be done only if the person concerned is found to be guilty by the court. “In the present case, all the accused have been bailed out by courts and the cases are still pending final adjudication and yet the government has issued orders to recover damages without going through the due process of law”, pointed out Yadav.
