Twelve prominent persons, including three former Supreme Court judges, slammed the demolition of houses of the alleged accused in Friday violence in Uttar Pradesh and dubbed the action "repression by state authorities against Muslims."
According to NDTV, they wrote a letter to the apex court, asking it to take suo motu cognizance of the issue, and pointed out that the manner in which the demolition was carried out leads to the conclusion that it was a "form of collective extra-judicial punishment."
The Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) on Sunday demolished the house of Javed Ahmad, the alleged mastermind of the June 10 violence in Prayagraj. A day earlier, properties of two other accused of rioting—Muzammil and Abdul Vakir—were demolished in Saharanpur.
Uttar Pradesh police had said their houses were illegal.
"Videos of young men in police custody being beaten with lathis, houses of protestors being demolished without notice or any cause of action, and protestors from the minority Muslim community being chased and beaten by the police, are circulating on social media, shaking the conscience of the nation," NDTV quoted the letter as saying.
Noting that the in the past, judiciary had emerged as the custodian of the rights of people, the letter pointed out that such actions, sanctioned by the government, will embolden the police to torture protestors.
The former SC judges who are signatories of the letter are B. Sudarshan Reddy, V. Gopala Gowda and A.K. Ganguly.
—With PTI inputs