CAA Protests: Another Lucknow Activist Allegedly Held, Beaten Up

Kabir was allegedly arrested and slapped with serious charges on Friday, a day after Lucknow witnessed protests.

Deepak Kabir

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Deepak Kabir)

A couple of days after The Quint reported on former teacher and Congress spokesperson from Lucknow Sadaf Jafar being arrested and ‘brutally beaten’ for participating in an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest, news of another activist from the UP capital being subjected to similar treatment has now emerged.

Deepak Mishra (alias Deepak Kabir) was allegedly arrested and slapped with serious charges on Friday, 20 December, a day after Lucknow witnessed protests against CAA.

On 23 December, social activist Yogendra Yadav tweeted saying Kabir joined the protests on 19 December and was arrested the next day, when he "went to police station to look for missing protesters."

“He was detained, brutally beaten up, jailed on severe criminal charges,” Yadav said in his tweet and attached photos of documents which show Kabir’s original name added, in handwriting, to the list of those held.

Deepak Mishra’s (Kabir’s original name) mention in the FIR highlighted (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@_YogendraYadav) 

‘When He Asked for Painkillers...’: Kabir’s Wife

On 20 December, Kabir’s wife Veena Rana put up a post on Facebook saying she had not heard from him since morning that day.

A couple of days later on on 23 December, she wrote a longer post saying she visited him in jail.

“He would endure long spells of coughing and fever without medicine. But yesterday, when he asked for painkillers, I could make everything out,” she wrote.

Narrating the series of events, she wrote that Kabir went to Hazratganj police station on 20 December to get details about the others who had been arrested.

Kabir was then made to sit at the police station, his phone was taken away and beaten up, she wrote, adding that she came to know about his arrest the after.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Veena Rana)

Ramchandra Guha, Swara Bhasker Tweet on Kabir