Delhi Riots: Salman Khurshid, Prashant Bhushan Among Politicians Who Gave Provocative Speeches, Accused Tell Police

Several politicians from various parties have been named by the Delhi Police in the Northeast Delhi riots chargesheet for allegedly delivering inciting speeches during Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests.

Among them, some prominent names are former union minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid, Udit Raj, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M)'s Brinda Karat, and advocate Prashant Bhushan, India Today reported attributing news agency PTI.

According to the report, the Delhi Police said former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan, and a protected witness and accused Khalid Saifi told about the provocative speeches and impact in their disclosure statements during the interrogations.

Saifi, under section 161 (examination by police) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, told the investigators the names of some politicians such as Udit Raj, Salman Khurshid and Brinda Karat who had come to the a protest site in Delhi's Khureji and delivered "provocative speeches", according to the chargesheet.

"Several big names used to come to the Khureji site to give speeches against CAA/NPR (National Population Register)/NRC (National Register for Citizens), like Udit Raj, Salman, Khurshid, Brinda Karat, Umar Khalid (former JNU student leader)," he alleged as quoted in the chargesheet.

In her disclosure statement, Ishrat Jahan said that various personalities such as former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, advocate Prashant Bhushan, activist Harsh Mander and activist-turned-politician Yogendra Yadav took part in the protests.

On 16 September, the police filed a voluminous charge sheet against the accused under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Arms Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. The copy of the charge sheet was supplied to their counsels on Monday.

The charge sheet was filed in little less than 200 days of the filing an FIR to investigate the conspiracy angle behind the riots that rocked northeast Delhi in February this year.

Clashes between the citizenship law supporters and protesters had spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

The charge sheet names Tahir Hussain, Safoora Zargar, Gulfisha Khatoon, Devangana Kalita, Shafa-ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Ishrat Jahan, Meeran Haidar, Shadab Ahamd, Talsim Ahmad, Saleem Malik, Mohammed Salim Khan and Athar Khan.

Tahir Hussain has been named as a main accused in the charge sheet. The charge sheet, however, does not name Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Mohammed Pervez Ahmad, Mohammed Ilyas, Danish and Faizal Khan.

Their names will be added in the supplementary charge sheet.

(With inputs from IANS)