Over 900 booked for anti-CAA protests in U.P.’s Etawah

A case was lodged against more than 900 persons, including 150-200 women, in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district for protesting on the road against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, police said on Wednesday.

A case for violating Section 144, which prohibits assembly of more than four persons, was lodged against 12 named persons,

150-200 unidentified women and 600-700 unidentified men, the district police said.

The FIR was lodged even as videos of the incident showed police personnel chasing and pushing the women into narrow lanes and using the cane on them. The police action created much outrage on social media as users shared the videos of the lathicharge.

The protestors apparently wanted to emulate the protests held in other places like Shaheen Bagh in Delhi and Lucknow's Hussainabad Clocktower, where women are staging a sit-in against the CAA.

Etawah police said on January 21, around 150-200 women and children holding the national flag and other posters were raising slogans against the NRC and the CAA on the route to Pachraha near the Red Cross Society office.

Police and administration then reached the spot and tried to convince the protestors to vacate the road citing Section 144.

"Then, a crowd of 600-700 youths and middle aged men gathered and tried to block the road due to which vehicles including an ambulance were stuck in jam," police said.

After this the SP (City) and the City Magistrate reached the spot to convince the protestors, but "someone from the crowd pelted two-three stones" at the police and administration team, the police alleged in a statement.

Despite several warnings to the protestors they didn't move from the spot, following which "light force" was used to disperse the protestors from the spot, police said.

Nobody was injured in the police action, Etawah police said, adding that the women sitting on the road were sent to their homes by the women police personnel.