Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad at Jama Masjid. (Photo Credit: ANI)
New Delhi :
A day after being released from Tihar Jail on conditional bail, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad defied a court order and joined anti-CAA protesters at historic Jama Masjid on Friday. Chandrashekhar Azad even addressed protesters over there and urged people of all religions to join the ongoing protest against the new Citizenship law. “Peaceful protest is our strength. People from all religions who support us should join us in great numbers to prove it to the govt that these protests are not led by Muslims alone,” he said.
Flanked by his supporters and locals, he also read out the Preamble to the Constitution. Calling for repeal of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which he termed as a "black act", he said nothing is more important than keeping the country together.
Delhi: Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad reads the Preamble of the Constitution, at Jama Masjid. https://t.co/ksSDK3uLKk pic.twitter.com/XF230k0CDB
— ANI (@ANI) January 17, 2020
For the uninitiated, a Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to Azad, who was accused of inciting people during the protests against the Citizenship Act at Jama Masjid. The court also restrained Azad from visiting Delhi for four weeks and directed him not to hold any dharna till the elections in the national capital.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau had granted the relief to Azad on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 25,000.
While granting bail to Azad on Wednesday, the judge recited Rabindranath Tagore's famous poem 'Where the Mind is Without Fear' and said citizens have a fundamental right to peaceful protest which cannot be curtailed by the state.
Bhim Army chief claimed that police invoked ‘boilerplate’ charges against him and arrested him ‘mechanically’ without following the due process of law.
Azad claimed he has been falsely implicated as the allegations levelled against him in the FIR were not only "ill-founded", also "improbable".
Azad's outfit had called for a protest march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar against the amended Citizenship Act on December 20, without police permission.
With PTI Inputs
