More than 200
educationists, filmmakers and authors, including Noam Chomsky and Mira Nair,
issued a joint statement on Wednesday demanding the Centre free Umar Khalid
arrested in connection with the northeast Delhi riots. The signatories include
actor Ratna Pathak Shah, authors Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie and Arundhati
Roy, and journalist P Sainath among others.

Also Read | Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid arrested over alleged role in northeast Delhi riots

“We call on the
Government of India to free Umar Khalid and all those falsely implicated and
unjustly incarcerated for protesting against the CAA-NRC that denies equal
citizenship rights and to ensure that the Delhi Police investigates the Delhi
riots with impartiality under the oath they took as public servants bound by
the Constitution of India,” the statement read.

Khalid has been
arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a case
related to the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February this year.

Also Read | Delhi riots: Charge sheet in ‘conspiracy’ case will be filed by Sept 17, says police chief

“We stand in
solidarity and outrage, with the brave young scholar and activist Umar Khalid,
arrested in New Delhi on September 14, 2020, under fabricated charges of
engineering the Delhi riots in February 2020,” the statement said.

The statement said
that Khalid “used the passion of his commitment to his country, marshalled
his education and his voice to join the movement for equal citizenship, against
the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)” which introduced religion as a
criterion for citizenship, and has no place in a secular nation.

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The Delhi Police had
on September 13 said it is investigating the role of all individuals who took
part in the February riots and were behind the larger conspiracy of organising
violence and inciting communal passion amongst communities.

Communal clashes had
broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between those
supporting the citizenship law and those opposing it spiralled out of control,
leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.