Police arrest Jamia scholar for alleged role in Delhi riots
The Delhi Police on Thursday said they have arrested a PhD scholar of Jamia Millia Islamia in connection with a case of rioting and criminal conspiracy pertaining to February’s communal violence in north-east Delhi that claimed 53 lives and left over 400 others injured.
His alleged “involvement in the conspiracy to instigate the riots, funding the violence and the agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in Shaheen Bagh” is also being probed, officers privy to the case said.
Joint commissioner of police (special cell) Neeraj Thakur confirmed the arrest of Meeran Haider but did not share further details.
Haider is also the president of the youth wing of the Delhi unit of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is currently being interrogated in the special cell’s Lodhi Colony office.
A senior police officer from the special cell, who did not want to be named, said a notice was served to Haider, a resident of Jamia Nagar, on March 31, asking him to join the probe in the case of rioting and criminal conspiracy that was registered by the crime branch after the northeast Delhi riots. Haider was asked to reach the special cell’s Lodhi Colony office at 10 am on April 1 (Wednesday).
“We arrested Haider in the case, as we have enough evidence to prove the charges against him. His role in funding the riots and anti-CAA protests are being probed,” said the special cell officer cited above.
Jamia media coordinator Ahmed Azeem said that the University has not been informed about the incident by the police and denied to comment further.
The Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a group of alumni, alleged that the charges against Haider were baseless.
“Yesterday around 10 pm, men in uniform had approached his local residence enquiring about him. He was taken into custody at around 10:30 pm on Wednesday. The JCC demands that he must be immediately released as all charges against him are baseless,” said the committee in a statement.
On March 9, the special cell had arrested Mohammad Danish, a 33-year-old member of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in connection with the case on similar charges.
Danish’s arrest came a day after the special cell arrested a couple – Jahanzaib Sami,36, and his 39-year-old wife Hina Bashir Beigh -- for alleged links with the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), instigating protests against the CAA and spreading hatred against India and between communities in the country.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) unit of RJD on Thursday issued a statement demanding Haider’s release.
“Delhi police had asked Miran Haider, the president of the youth RJD, Delhi, to join the investigation and then arrested him without giving any valid reason. Today, when the whole country and the whole world is busy dealing with this pandemic, the government is arresting Innocents like him. We demand his immediate release,” the statement read.
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