Lucknow: After serving notices to dozens of anti-CAA protesters in Lucknow last week for recovery of damages done to public and private properties in December violence, the Yogi Adityanath government went a step ahead and put up roadside banners with photographs and addresses of the people accused of vandalism.
The banners came up at major road crossings in Lucknow late on Thursday night on the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, an official said. The posters say that property of the accused will be confiscated if they fail to pay the compensation which is in the tune of Rs1.5 crore.
The banners include the names and residential details of activist Sadaf Jafar, Theatre artist Deepak Kabir, former IPS SR Darapuri among others. They had attended the protests 19 December last year against the Citizenship Amendment Act which was followed by violence.
A government spokesman said the posters have been up on the chief minister’s directive at important intersections, including the main crossings of the State capital such as in front of the Assembly building.
The activists planned to challenge the government’s move to “publicly humiliate” them when the charges against them are yet to be proved.
Sadaf Jafar says, “How can we be publicly humiliated for something that has not yet been proved in court?”
“Why are we being targeted like this? Did they put up posters of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi at all airports? We are not even absconding like them,” she said referring to the two absconding businessmen.
She was arrested after the violence in Lucknow and granted bail after a month as the police failed to produce any “substantial proof” of her involvement in the violence.
Former IPS officer, S R Darapuri, who was also jailed and released on bail as cops failed to prove the charges against him, claimed that the move is illegal.
“Our life, property and freedom have been put in jeopardy by putting up these posters. I am writing to the state home secretary, director general of police and police commissioner, telling them that if they faced any trouble because of the posters, it would the administration’s responsibility,” Darapuri says.
