Innocent should be released: Mayawati

LUCKNOW, Dec 23: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday demanded that the innocent people, who had been arrested in the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, be released.
Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, she said that numerous people have been arrested following violent protests against the CAA in Uttar Pradesh. Those who are innocent should be released after a probe.
Ms Mayawati said that BSP had always been opposed to violence and there have been several violent incidents in the past days in maximum parts of the country, especially Uttar Pradesh, while protesting against the CAA and the National Register for Citizens, which was extremely unfortunate.
She added that the state government should release those who are innocent. As many as 164 cases, pertaining to violence during protests against the CAA, have been registered in the state so far while 880 people named in these cases have been arrested in this connection. Alongside, large scale efforts are underway to ascertain the identities of others by releasing pictures taken through CCTV cameras, drone cameras and mobile phones on social media. Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar said that the law and order situation was completely under control in the state with no reports of any untoward incidents anywhere on Sunday. He said that so far, 5312 people have been taken into custody to take preventive action. (UNI)