Arrest Of Journalist In UP Illegal And Highly Condemnable – SDPI

Yogi ruled Uttar Pradesh has now become the true manifestation of dictatorship. Opposition leaders are manhandled using police, dissenting voices are stifled, protests are suppressed and people seeking justice are arraigned in fake cases and incarcerated. Hathras has literally perturbed the UP dictator. The latest, but not the last of course, in the anti-democratic activities of the dictator, post-Hathras protests is the arrest of Malayalam journalist and Secretary of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) Siddique Kappan, Atiq-ur Rehman, National Treasurer or Campus Front of India and social activists Masood Ahmed and Alam who were on to visit the bereaved family of the 19 year old Dalit girl who succumbed to injuries inflicted by four upper caste youths after brutally gangraping her in Hathras. The arrest of the journalist and the social activists is highly condemnable and illegal, said KH Abdul Majeed, General Secretary of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).

The police version of the arrest is that these youths were stopped at a toll after the police received information that some “suspicious people were on their way to Hathras from Delhi”. Their mobile phones, a laptop and some literature, “which could have an impact on peace, and law and order in the state”, have been seized, a police statement said. These youths are alleged to have links with Popular Front of India, a legally working organization in the county, which has become a thorn in the flesh of the Sanghis in general and Yogi in particular, since its forefront involvement in the anti CAA-Citizenship protests in the beginning of the year.

The arrest of these youths exposes the cowardice of Yogi, who is afraid of the world outside knowing about the lawlessness, atrocities and anarchy in his state. From expeditiously cremating the dead body of the gangrape victim without even allowing the family to perform the last rights, Yogi has been nervously trying to hush up the incident and save the culprits. The beastly gangrape and murder has aroused strong outrage all over the country. The opposition leaders who were on their way to Hathras victim’s house was blockaded and manhandled by the UP police the other day. Yogi is vainly trying to save his face by alleging conspiracy behind the protest and slapping sedition charges against the protesters.

Social Democratic Party of India strongly demands the immediate release of the arrested youths, and to end the witch-hunt of the UP government to divert attention from the actual issue by tinging it with sedition.