New Delhi: A Varanasi court granted bail on Thursday to 57 of the 59 protestors who had been arrested from the Chetganj area during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests on December 19, according to an IANS report.
The arrested persons were released on Thursday.
Professor @Maheshpahirwar1 of the @VCofficeBHU has shared this pic. About 12 BHU students arrested during the Anti – CAA protests two weeks ago were released on bail today . They were welcomed by the professor and others at the BHU gates ….. pic.twitter.com/SZFnweryoX
— Alok Pandey (@alok_pandey) January 2, 2020
The Varanasi court of additional sessions judge S.K. Pandey ordered the release of each of the 57 applicants out of 59 protestors on the submission of two bonds of Rs 25,000 each.
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Among the arrested were activist couple Ravi Shekhar and Ekta who had been under arrest for nearly two weeks. Their case had been raised by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra last week after it came to light that the couple’s 14-month-old daughter was being looked after by relatives.
Activist Ekta Shekhar reunited with her 14-month-old baby, a day after a UP court gave bail to her and her husband Ravi Shekhar, in Varanasi on January 2, 2020. Photo: PTI
On December 19, students from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), who had been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and organising flashlight marches, were arrested while they were participating in a protest march to Beniabagh. The protestors included activists from CPI, CPI(M), other organisations and also 19 BHU students.
On December 25, 51 BHU professors released a press statement condemning the CAA and the NRC as “against the Indian tradition of inclusiveness and the idea of a pluralist democracy”. The professors soon faced a torrent of abuse on social media.
“When the students of Joint Action Committee stage protests, both the university and the district administration slap charges against them, but when other groups associated with right wing organisations do the same, nothing happens to them,” said Priyesh Pandey of the Joint Action Committee, speaking to The Hindu.
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Pandey had also staged a protest on campus demanding the release of the protestors.
“It has become brutal; the ABVP [students’ wing of the BJP] members in cahoot with the university and local administration go to any extent to intimidate us and suppress our voice. Despite being an ideological minority, we’ll keep raising our voice against the divisive policies of the university and the country,” students at BHU told the Hindu.
Referring to an atmosphere of fear on the BHU campus, professor Ahirwar told The Hindu, “Yes, fear psychosis is prevailing as dissenting voices are being regularly attacked on social media. Those who do not conform to their opinion are being targeted as urban naxals and are threatened with administrative actions in the name of central civil services rules as BHU is a central university.”