‘No legal action against CJP protestors, arrests to be reviewed’: Delhi government
New Delhi: The Delhi government on Thursday said that no action will be taken against those arrested for the recent NEET question paper leak protests. The protests were held at Jantar Mantar and were led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). The announcement came after the Centre assured the CJP representatives that they would withdraw all cases against the protestors if the agitation was called off.
The government however said that the cases against people with “criminal antecedents” would not be withdrawn. This is in line with the Supreme Court order, passed on July 28, said the notification issued by the Delhi government.
Delhi Police registered 13 cases till July 29 evening: Government
A notification issued by the Delhi government on Thursday evening said that the Delhi Police had registered 13 cases in the anti-NEET protest matter, till July 29. Now the relevant authorities will review all these cases and detentions made following the protest. There will be no further action against the protestors, they added.
The matter, and the case would now be considered as closed and the release process would start soon, said the government notice.
Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood said that the government stands with the students and therefore the order was issued. He further said, “Our government has honoured its commitment to them. However, if any anti-social elements with criminal antecedents used the student protest as an opportunity to spread violence, action will be taken against them.”
Most of the arrests were made after the July 20 march to Parliament was announced and later stopped by the Police. The student protestors clashed with the police on July 20, during the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march and later based on camera footage, the Delhi Police arrested several students.
Following the massive protest, the Centre was forced to accept the students demand. The major demand was the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Education Minister and they had also demanded that cases filed against the protestors be withdrawn.
Two days after calling off the protest, when the cases were not withdrawn, CJP warned the government that they would launch another agitation if the promise to withdraw criminal cases was not fulfilled.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that the government release protestors with no prior criminal record. The bench also asked them to not take any coercive action against protesters. The Lok Sabha passed a Bill for stricter punishment in case of paper leaks.