New Delhi: Despite the Allahabad high court’s suggestion to stop arresting people or attaching properties during the COVID-19 crisis, the Lucknow administration on Thursday attached a welding workshop in Khurram Nagar area of Lucknow to “recover damages” allegedly made to public properties during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in December last year.
The police have accused Mohammad Nafees, who runs the welding shop, of vandalism at Parivartan Chowk under the Hazratganj police station during the protests against the CAA and countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC)
The additional district magistrate (ADM) of Lucknow (East) K.P. Singh passed an order on February 17 asking 28 people to pay Rs 63,37,637 for damaging properties in Hazratganj area.
Two days ago, the administration had sealed two shops – NY Fashion Centre and a junk shop in Hasanganj – and announced an auction. “We have fixed July 16 as the date for auction of the two shops that were sealed on Tuesday,” tehsildar Shambhu Sharan Singh told the Indian Express.
Singh added that if the owners pay the damages before the date of auction, their properties will be released.
On February 13, 2020, 13 people including the owners of these two shops have been ordered by the ADM (Trans-Gomti) Vishwa Bhushan Mishra to pay Rs 21.76 lakh on the charge of destructing public properties in the Hasanganj police station area during the anti-CAA protests on December 19, 2019.
Four police stations in Lucknow have served notices to a total of 57 people including Congress leader and social activist Sadaf Jafar (44), retired IPS officer S.R. Darapuri (77) and activist Mohammad Shoaib (73) to recover Rs 1.55 crore.
Earlier in March, photographs and addresses of the accused were publicly displayed on hoardings which caused an outrage.
While lawyers that The Wire spoke to have said that the UP government’s move to attach properties have no legal backing, the administration in March this year passed an ordinance to recover damages made to government and public properties during “political possession”.
