A 24-year-old Kota-based advocate Mohammad Faizal who was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police during an anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protest says that he was booked under a false case and tortured in the jail.
Faizal is a part of National Confederation of Human Rights organisations (NCHRO) and he was asked by NCHRO to go to UP to offer legal aid. Police arrested him along with a few relatives of the protestors who were seeking help from Faizal.
While addressing a press conference in Jaipur, Faizal said, "I have been practicing law from last three years. I was fighting for the innocents not protesting. But police kept me in custody charged me by linking me to Popular Front of India (PFI), a Muslim organisation".
"I will fight the case and appeal to higher authorities. Moreover they connected me with PFI, which is baseless. Just because I was providing legal aid to protesting students, they had arrested me and put fake charges on me", Faizal added.
The UP police had registered an FIR against Faizal under Sections 145 (Joining or continuing in an unlawful assembly, knowing that it has been commanded to disperse), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 153A (Promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the Shamli police station, Faizal along with three other men were involved in inciting violence and distributing objectionable messages on paper. Earlier, his family members had also claimed that the UP police had registered false cases against him. The family had also appealed to National Human Rights Commission in Delhi for immediate intervention for the release of Faizal.