New Delhi: The People's Union for Civil Liberties has released a statement expressing "outrage and condemnation" at the recent arrest of renowned linguist and Associate Professor of Delhi University, Professor Hany Babu, in the Elgar Parishad Bhima Koregaon case by the National Investigative Agency (NIA).
The PUCL said, "It shows once again the Indian State's desperate and diabolic endeavor to continuously silence intellectuals and criminalise those questioning its actions and holding different views, by resorting to fabricated prosecutions using the UAPA, which is one of the most undemocratic laws in the statute books, where bail is denied. He is the 12th intellectual arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case."
The PUCL statement, signed by president Ravi Kiran Jain and General Secretary, Dr Vi Suresh, also condemned and expressed shock at the raids conducted at the premises of Hany Babu's wife, Dr Jenny Rowena, who teaches at the Miranda House College
here.
"Though conducted under cover of a warrant, the attempt seems to evoke fear and harassment to the family and also to plant materials to somehow implicate Dr Hany Babu, as there is no prosecutable case against him," the statement said, adding that it demanded the immediate release of Hany Babu and all other such prisoners.