CAA Protest: AMU Student Sharjeel Usmani Arrested, Sent to Custody

The family said plain-clothed men who said they were from UP police arrested Sharjeel Usmani from his Azamgarh home.

Sharjeel’s father, Tariq Usmani, said he refuses to believe this was an arrest. “They did not tell us what charges were being pressed, they did not allow us to have any conversation with him,” he said.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Aligarh Muslim University student Sharjeel Usmani was sent to 14-day judicial custody on Thursday, 9 July over cases related to the 15 December anti-CAA protests in the campus, Aligarh SP (Crime) Arvind Kumar confirmed to The Quint.

He was arrested by the UP police on Wednesday from his house in Azamgarh, Kumar added. There are multiple FIRs against Usmani for the violence that erupted in AMU campus on the night of 15 December 2019, but the main charges included attempt to murder, rioting and causing hurt to public servants.

Speaking to The Quint, Sharjeel’s father Tariq Usmani said that he was picked up by five policemen, dressed in civil clothes.

“Around 6 o’clock in the evening, five people dressed in civil clothes came and picked him up from his maternal uncle's house in Azamgarh. They also took the laptop that he would use,” said Tariq.

Since Thursday night, multiple UP police departments including Azamgarh SSP PRO, Aligarh SP PRO, ADG of anti-terrorism squad, Lucknow had been denying any knowledge of Sharjeel Usmani. However, Aligarh SP (Crime) Arvind Kumar, on Thursday evening, said, “Azamgarh police with the help of ATS had arrested Sharjeel from his house.”

Usmani’s father said the family only got to know about his whereabouts after he was sent to judicial custody.

“On Thursday, we got a call from the Civil Lines police station asking us to take back Sharjeel’s belongings. We don’t even know the lawyer who helped him. Apparently, somebody recognised him in the court premises and volunteered to represent him.”

Tariq Usmani, Sharjeel Usmani’s father

“They confiscated his laptop, all his books, and a solitary set of clothes. Each of us was made to stand and be photographed, stating our relation to him,” Usmani’s brother Areeb told The Wire.

Usmani was involved in the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in December 2019.

“They picked up Sharjeel because he is a "very vocal" person. He was among the 52 people named in the CAA-NRC protest FIR in December. However, he put forward his views when the NHRC team visited AMU,” his father Tariq told The Quint.

A protest against CAA and the police crackdown in Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University had taken a violent turn at the AMU campus on 15 December with many students and policemen getting injured.