The Aligarh district administration banned Arif from entering the district for a period of 6 months labelling him as “dangerous” and “threat to society”.
by Md Sabeeh Ahmad, TwoCircles.net
Aligarh: After Aligarh district administration in Uttar Pradesh banned Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) student Arif Khan from entering the district for six month, Khan told TwoCircles.net that “the charges against him are false.”
“I am being targeted for dissent and I have appealed against the order at the Commissionary,” said Arif, a M.A. Human Rights student at AMU.
The Aligarh district administration banned Arif from entering the district for a period of 6 months labelling him as “dangerous” and “threat to society”. The order issued by Additional District Magistrate Rakesh Kumar Malpani on January 21 says that Arif falls under the definition of “Goonda” under Section 2 of the U.P. Control of Goondas Act, 1970.
Arif has been booked under at least 16 different sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 which include 147 and 148 (Rioting), 149 (Unlawful assembly), 153A (Promoting enmity), 307 (attempt to murder) to name a few. The charges filed against him are related to protests and incidents at AMU since 2018, including the Jinnah portrait protest, the protests against the Hathras rape incident and most importantly the December 2019 protests against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
AMU spokesperson Prof. Shafey Kidwai told TwoCircles.net that the University has nothing to do with the ban.
“It is purely a matter between the student and the district authorities. The AMU administration has nothing to do it. There was no complaint from our side against the student. We are not involved here,” Prof. Kidwai said.
In October last year, another student of the University, Sharjeel Usmani was banned from the district citing similar reasons.
Talking to TwoCircles.net, Sharjeel said that the Goonda Act is being now used to suppress critical voices.
“Neither I nor Arif fall under the category of Goonda. We do not have any criminal history. The first case against me was registered on December 7, 2019. I have no cases before that. Currently, I have 4 different cases against me in Aligarh and all of them were registered within a period of two weeks,” said Sharjeel.
In Arif’s case, the district authorities had served him the show cause notice officially on July 6 last year. Arif replied to the notice on January 6, 202. There were two hearings and during the third hearing, the ADM decided to serve the order banning him from the district.
On being asked whether the University administration has been active in quashing charges against the students and taking up their cause, Arif said the University has time and again promised the same but not acted upon it.
“They have tried to maintain a balance between the district administration and the students. They have said they would ensure that all the charges against the students are quashed but no charges against any student have so far been withdrawn,” Arif said.
At least 150 students of AMU have been named in different FIRs and charges have been filed against them in the past. Students like Farhan Zuberi, Sharjeel Usmani and ex-student Amir Mintoee were also arrested and jailed during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Arif said that the Commissionary will hear the appeal on February 5. “If the order is not withdrawn, I will appeal against it in the Allahabad High Court.”