CPI National Executive Member Annie Raja

The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (September 24, 2020) deploring the role of Delhi Police in investigating the North-East Delhi Riots, targeting leaders and activists including CPI National Executive Member Annie Raja:

The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India takes note of the manner in which Delhi Police is investigating the incidents of communal violence which took place in North-East Delhi in February 2020 in which 53 people lost their lives. The Party deplores the role of Delhi Police in investigating the North-East Delhi riots targeting leaders and activists including CPI National Executive Member Annie Raja, also General Secretary, National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW).

The peaceful and democratic protests against the CAA were a legitimate, constitutional expression of people’s dissent against the law and it was the effectiveness of the protests that shook the BJP which is now attempting to portray the protests as a conspiracy to cause riots in North-East Delhi. It is indeed shocking that the Delhi Police is trying to frame political leaders and activists who are critics of the anti-people policies and programs of the current regime. CPI leader Annie Raja, leaders of other political parties including Salman Khurshid, Brinda Karat, Kavita Krishnan and activists including Prashant Bhushan, Anjali Bhardwaj, Yogendra Yadav, Harsh Mander, Rahul Roy, Apoorvanand and Saba Dewan have been named in the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police in FIR 59/2020. Earlier, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was named by the Delhi Police. All these people extended solidarity with the peaceful protests led by Muslim women and now this is being twisted into a grand conspiracy.

In contrast, the glaring absence in the chargesheets on the role of leaders associated with the BJP, who gave inflammatory speeches, is unmissable.

There are very serious concerns about the impartiality of the probe. The CPI along with other opposition parties had even given a memorandum to the President of India highlighting these concerns and had asked for the institution of an enquiry into this investigation under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, headed by sitting/retired judge(s).

The investigation by the Delhi Police itself is a conspiracy and is aimed at criminalising those who speak against human rights violations and injustice, rather than catching the real perpetrators of the violence.

S/d

(Roykutty)

Office Secretary