CPI(M), Cong train guns on BJP after chargesheet names eminent academics

new delhi: Even as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday said the Delhi Police and the Central government were "criminalising peaceful protests, the Indian National Congress came out in support of Sitaram Yechury and other eminent activists and academics, who have been named in a supplementary chargesheet filed by police in one of the north-east Delhi riots cases.

While the Delhi Police clarified that Yechury, activist Yogendra Yadav, DU professor Apoorvanand and economist Jayati Ghosh were not named as accused or co-conspirators but their names were mentioned by one of the accused in their "disclosure statement"; senior Congress leaders said the BJP has "stooped to a new low" in its attempt to suppress peaceful dissent against its policies.

While their names appear to have been mentioned in some of the disclosure statements of the accused, the statements themselves are being questioned for their identical wording and in some cases even identical grammatical errors.

The CPI(M) Politburo also released a statement saying, "The CPI(M) condemns this obnoxious action by the Delhi Police to further the narrative of its political masters and urges the government to desist from such acts of criminalising peaceful political protests."

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, meanwhile, said, "If speaking truth to power is a crime, If exposing circle of hate is a crime, If standing up to rioters is a crime, If being righteous & just is a crime, Then, each one of us must be booked, chargesheeted & jailed. Only then will my Country survive. Jai Hind."

Several other Congress leaders such as P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh also trained their guns at the ruling party. Chidambaram said that the Delhi Police had brought the criminal justice system to ridicule by naming people like Yechury and the others in the chargesheet. Moreover, Ramesh said this was "worse than atrocious" and party general secretary KC Venugopal said the BJP had "reached new lows".

Furthermore, DU professor Apoorvanand also released a statement on Sunday, saying that the supplementary chargesheet "seems to be furthering the political agenda of discrediting the protesters, and uses all our names as part of the discrediting exercise".

He said, "Their act of having planned a protest is being treated as a conspiracy to violence, in which me, along with others, are projected as having abetted that cause, without any basis in law or facts." Apoorvanand added that they are "still waiting for the Delhi Police to start an investigation to find out the truth behind the actual act of the February violence".