Jamia student leader Asif Iqbal Tanha arrested, sent to judicial custody

New delhi: In yet another crackdown among students, a Jamia Millia Islamia scholar Asif Iqbal Tanha has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. This has sparked an online protest among students from various universities.

Tanha was arrested by the Delhi Police Saturday evening from his residence. "He was summoned by the police on the pretext of interrogation and was later arrested the same day in context to the Delhi riots," said a source from JPC.

Asif, a student of BA (Persian) was associated with the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), which organised protests in the capital against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Condemning the move Jamia Coordination Committee called this a witch act and said: "Instead of enquiring the north-east Delhi violence and arresting the real culprits, Delhi police is shamelessly witch hunting Jamia student leaders.

When all the conspirators and perpetrators of northeast Delhi violence is roaming free, it is our leaders who are being sent to jail and slapped by draconian laws. We request all the democratic forces to raise in protest to stop this illegal and revengeful police action and demand the arrest of real culprits behind Northeast Delhi violence."

A source closely associated with the case told the correspondent that there will be more arrests in the coming days. "This is like a crackdown, where they are going to associate these students to Delhi riots somehow," said the source.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has said that about 1,300 accused persons had been arrested in 750 cases concerning the recent communal violence in north-east Delhi.

The police have said that "in terms of proportion of the arrested accused, the numbers from two communities are almost identical to each other".

Responding to a comment piece published, the Delhi police PRO M.S. Randhawa stated: "The police actions in all such situations are guided by the twin principles of providing relief to the victims and ensuring legal action against the perpetrators."

"Each arrested accused was produced before the judicial magistrate as mandated in law where legal aid was available to him/her in the form of private counsel or a legal aid counsel from the Delhi Legal Services Authority," he said.