Delhi riots: Salman Khurshid, Brinda Karat gave provocative speeches, says chargesheet

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid, Udit Raj, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat and CPI leader Annie Raja were among prominent politicians who have been named in the Delhi Riots charge sheet for giving provocative speeches during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

According to a PTI news report, the Delhi Police has referred to former Congress Councillor Ishrat Jahan and a protected witness in a case related to the northeast Delhi riots and said that they told about the speeches in their disclosure statements.

The charge sheet mentioned that the protected witness stated, under section 161 (examination by police) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the names of several leaders including Udit Raj, Salman Khurshid and Brinda Karat. All of them had come to the Khureji protest site and gave “provocative speeches”, as per the charge sheet.

"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)," the witness alleged.

The chargesheet further stated that Ishrat Jahan, in her disclosure statement, alleged that in order to sustain the anti-CAA protests, several known persons like Khurshid, filmmaker Rahul Roy and Bhim Army member Himanshu were called by her and activist Khalid Saifi on the instructions of Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC).

"In order to sustain the protest for a long time, several known persons were called by me and Khalid Saifi on the instructions of JCC, like Salman Kurshid, (filmmaker) Rahul Roy, Bhim Army member Himanshu, Chandan Kumar... gave provocative speeches because of which all the people sitting in the protest used to get instigated against the government," Jahan said according to her disclosure statement.

Furthermore, the disclosure statement of Saifi stated that during the anti-CAA held in January 2020, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogender Yadav, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, Salman Khurshid also used to come to these speeches.

Saifi’s supplementary disclosure statement, which was a part of the chargesheet, stated that in order to sustain the protest for a longer time, several known persons like Salman Khurshid, JNU student Sharjeel Imam, JCC member Meeran Haider were called to the Khureji protest site.

"In order to sustain the protest for a longer time several known persons like Kurshid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider etc were called to the Khureji protest site by me and Ishrat Jahan," Saifi said in his disclosure statement, according to Delhi Police.

Northeast Delhi saw violent communal clashes on February 24 between citizenship law supporters and protests that spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and at least 200 injured.