Friday 26 / April / 2024
Bengaluru: Police on Friday resorted to 'mild' lathicharge to disperse Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) activists staging a protest in front of the Amnesty International India office here demanding arrest of those who allegedly raised anti-India slogans at an Amnesty event.
Several ABVP activists were injured, with a girl student fainting in the commotion before she was rushed to a hospital, police said, adding they detained many activists during the crackdown on the protest.
Additional Commissioner of Police Bengaluru East P. Harishekaran said police had to disperse protesters as they tried to burn an effigy in a residential area.
"With two bottles of petrol they tried to burn an effigy in front of Amnesty International here. We had in prior warned them against any effigy burning as it is a residential area and from the security point of view," he said.
The protesters alleged that the police under the DCP's leadership behaved in an "inhuman" way and more than 10 ABVP activists were injured in the lathicharge.
Calling their protest "peaceful", ABVP National General Secretary Vinay Bidre said, "We demanded that police vacate Amnesty staff who were recording our protest from their office. We told police we won't cause any harm to them. We did not try to barge into their premises and tried to burn Amnesty's effigy, but police unnecessarily used force on us."
He accused the Congress-led Karnataka government and police of protecting those involved in anti-national sloganeering.
Stating that ABVP would continue its protest, Bidre claimed, "We will intensify our protest across the state after today's atrocity, we will show this government student power."
As a precautionary step, police have asked Amnesty International India to keep its office in Bengaluru closed until the ABVP protest subsides, following which the organisation had asked its employees to work from other locations.
Amnesty International had on Saturday organised the event as part of a campaign to seek justice for "victims of human rights violations" in Jammu and Kashmir, which took an ugly turn with heated exchanges and alleged raising of pro-Kashmir 'Independence' and anti-Army slogans.
ABVP activists had submitted a CD containing video recording of the event after filing a complaint with police, who have registered an FIR against Amnesty International.
IPC sections 142 (Being member of an unlawful assembly), 143 (whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) have been invoked against the organisation.
Meanwhile, former Supreme Court Judge N. Santosh Hegde has said slapping of sedition charges against Amnesty International for hosting an event in Bengaluru where anti-India slogans were allegedly raised is justified, even as he questioned the credibility of the NGO.
He said Amnesty International cannot "run away" from its responsibility by saying that none of its employees shouted slogans.
"What's the responsibility of Amnesty International? They should have known that when you bring these people and allow whatever they want to speak, (and) then to say I am not responsible. No, you have made a platform available to them... You are an abettor. You cannot run away from that," Hegde, also the former Solicitor General of India said.
"Raising pro-independence slogans amounts to sedition. It amounts to sedition according to me," he said.
"Let's take the institution's (Amnesty's) crediblity. What did Amnesty International do when soldiers were killed ? What did Amnesty International do when other terrorist activities were taking place in this country? Did they ever call a meeting like this? You try to get some popularity and when it backfires, you run away from it," he said.
"Taking into consideration what was spoken in the Bengaluru incident, I would say it certainly amounts to sedition," the former Karnataka Lokayukta said.
Amnesty, on its part, has rejected as "without substance" the allegations made by ABVP, which had also filed a police complaint in connection with the event and submitted a CD of the proceedings, and claimed that none of its employees shouted any anti-India slogans at any point.
