Probe in Delhi riots biased, release wrongfully charged activists: HRW

New Delhi: Saying that law enforcement authorities in India are "wrongfully prosecuting activists and protest organisers under India's anti-terrorism law" in cases related to the north-east Delhi riots of February 2020 without impartially looking at the role of BJP supporters and police officials in instigating and being complicit in them, the Human Rights Watch on Monday asked for charges to be dropped against the over 18 activists and students in the UAPA case.

In a statement issued from New York, the global rights body said that the charges against the activists and students were "politically-motivated". It added that two years after the riots, while the Delhi Police had registered 758 FIRs in the riots cases, over half of them were pending investigation and just 92 had gone to trial.

"Indian authorities have been targeting activists for harassment and arrest instead of impartially investigating allegations that BJP leaders incited violence and police officials were complicit in attacks," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"The authorities should prosecute those responsible for the violence and stop using these investigations to silence critics of the government," she added.

Highlighting the number of times the Delhi Police had been pulled up for their shoddy investigations, HRW said that in contrast, they have filed politically motivated charges against 18 activists, students, opposition politicians, and residents — 16 of them Muslim. It said all of them were critical of the BJP government and the citizenship law and the case against them largely relied on "suspiciously similar" disclosure statements and chat groups about organising protests.