Shaheen Bagh protesters have written a letter to the Supreme Court, seeking an investigation into the alleged "forcible removal and destruction" of the protest site on 24 March, and have sought a direction from the SC for citizens' rights.
“We write to bring to your attention the forcible and vindictive removal of the protest site at Shaheen Bagh on the morning of 24.03.2020, and the subsequent detention of our peaceful, innocent protesters and volunteers,” the Shaheen agh protesters wrote through the court-appointed interlocutors.
In an early morning action amid the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus, the police on Tuesday removed anti-CAA protestors at Shaheen Bagh, more than three months after they had occupied a critical road connecting Noida and south Delhi.
A total of nine protesters, including six women, were also detained and taken to a nearby police station, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) R P Meena said.
‘Extremely Disheartening & Faith-Rattling’
"While we understand the need for the stricter imposition of curfew and enforcement of pertinent restrictions, the ruthless dismantling of the markers of our physical protest, especially the very structures whose placement is in question in a matter that is sub-judice in the SC," the protesters said in the letter.
"We would like to reiterate here on record that 23 March was designated as the next date of hearing in the SC regarding the road closure around Shaheen Bagh and a fair discussion around reaching some mutually convenient solution was to be expected," the letter stated.
The letter further said that it is “extremely disheartening and faith-rattling to see the unrestrained, almost vindictive force that has been used against our site and the legacy we struggled to create, in spite of these very matters being under the review and scrutiny of the Supreme Court,” the letter further stated.
The protesters claimed that the police brought young civilian men in large numbers to assist in forced dismantling and demanded a fair probe into the involvement of the unidentified, non-police personnel.
"We would also like to ask the Court whether it will grant us any protection during the proceeding of this case, seeing as how the Delhi Police has no regard for this matter being sub judice in the top court of our nation?" the protesters said in the letter.
The agitators at Shaheen Bagh, mostly women, had been on a sit-in at the site since 15 December against the newly amended Citizenship Act, the proposed National Register of Citizens and National Population Register.
Protestors were also cleared from anti-CAA protest site in Hauz Rani in south Delhi, Turkman Gate in Old Delhi and Jaffarabad in northeast Delhi on Tuesday morning, the police said.
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