Days after Asif Iqbal Tanha, a Jamia Millia Islamia student, was arrested by the Crime Branch in connection with the “violence” in the Jamia area in December last year, the Delhi Police Special Cell has booked him under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for being part of a “larger conspiracy” behind the riots that broke out here in February, police officers said on Thursday.
The police have alleged that Mr. Tanha is a member of the Students Islamic Organisation and was part of the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a public organisation, which spearheaded protests against the CAA.
“We have evidence and he was wanted in a case that we were investigating. So we arrested him on production warrant on Tuesday. We have been granted seven days of custody,” an officer said. A city court on Wednesday sent Mr. Tanha to a seven-day police custody.
Earlier, the Delhi police charged JCC members Safoora Zargar and Meeran Haider, Jamia Alumni Association president Shifa-Ur-Rehman and “suspended” AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain under the UAPA. The Crime Branch had arrested Mr. Tanha recently in a case registered at Jamia police station on December 16 last, in connection with “violence” in the Jamia area in which he was named an accused, a senior police officer had claimed.
On December 15, 2019, buses and police vehicles were torched as the police and protesters clashed in New Friends Colony during an anti-CAA demonstration, leaving at least 40 people injured.
Communal clashes had broken out in north-east Delhi on February 24 leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
