CPDR Protests against the Unjust Death Penalty to Yakub Memon
The Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) planned demonstrations to protest against the government's plan to hang Yakub Memon on 30 July at the Nagpur Central Jail. The demonstrations were planned today (28 July 2015) at 5 pm Near Dadar Railway Station (East). There was a significant support from youth organizations and students to the demonstrations and we expected a good turnout of activists and public support. During the entire day the Police repeatedly phoned up the CPDR activists, whose numbers were given on the CPDR pamphlet and kept asking the details about demonstration and about the police permission, clearly to spread scare among the activists.
The venue, the East side of the Dadar Railway Station was already filled up by police and media people. As the activists reached the spot with placards, pamphlets and banners, they were pounced upon by the police who whisked them away to the Matunga Police Station. The activists however managed to shout slogans and throw some pamphlets to people. In all they arrested about 50 people which included students of Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) and some other institutes, and were charged under Unlawful Assembly and Mumbai Police Act. They were detained for nearly three hours during which the police reverberated with various slogans denouncing the death penalty to Yakub Memon. Advocate Pradeep Mandyan of CPDR reached the Police Station and mediated their release on PR. Among the arrested were Maharukh Adenwala, Susan Abraham, Suresh Rajeshwar, Monica Sakhrani, Jyoti Punyani, Arun Fereira, Sudhir Dhawale and Feroze Mithiborwala of Bharat Bachao Andolan.
Other activists escaped the arrest and distributed pamphlets at various railway stations including CST.
Anand Teltumbde
General Secretary
Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights