Anti-CAA stir: Activist Sadaf Jafar, Ex-IPS officer SR Darapuri granted bail by UP court after 14 days of arrest

Lucknow: A district court in Uttar Pradesh's Hazratganj on Friday granted bail to activist Sadaf Jafar and former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer SR Darapuri after 14 days of arrest. They, along with scores of others, were taken into custody on December 19 while protesting at the Parivartan Chowk in Lucknow.

Jafar and Darapuri were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 and the Criminal Law (Amendment ) Act, 1932. Based on the gravity of charges, a sessions court had earlier dismissed their bail pleas. The district court, however, found merit in their petitions and decided to release them on bail.

A separate petition has been filed before the Allahabad High Court by Naheed Verma, a friend of Jafar, demanding the quashing of FIR against her. The plea claims that the charges against



Jafar, a Congress worker, are political motivated. The HC on Thursday directed the Yogi Adityanath-led government to respond to the petition within two weeks.

Uttar Pradesh has recorded the maximum violence over the protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). A total of 19 persons were killed in the stir, including those allegedly hit by police bullets. 61 others have been left injured, including police personnel. Over 1,100 have been arrested and around 5,500 were taken into preventive custody.

The Opposition parties have slammed the BJP-led ruling dispensation in Uttar Pradesh, accusing it of committing excesses against those marking dissent against the citizenship law. "The government is acting in an unjust manner. The police department is resorting to cruelty," Congress' general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had said on Sunday, after meeting the family members of Jafar.