Anti-CAA protests: 317 arrested, over 70 cases registered in UP's Meerut for violence

Additional Director General (ADG) Prashant Kumar on Thursday said that 317 people have been booked and 79 cases registered in connection with the violence that erupted in Meerut city of Uttar Pradesh during the anti-CAA demonstrations.

"79 cases have been registered and 317 were arrested. 108 police personnel are injured in which 10 sustained firearm injuries. Ten administration officials and 7 people including some journalists also sustained injuries. Five people lost their lives in the violence," Kumar told the media.

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Kumar added that the administration is educating people about CAA and they are also keeping an eye on social media. He said that two men belonging to the Popular Front of India's wing SDPI were arrested. One of them is the state chief of the organization.

Police are said to have seized objectionable literature from them. People from the same organisation have been arrested earlier in Shamli. Similar literature was also recovered from their office in Meerut. ADG Kumar said that they are investigating the organisation's role.

Protests have broken out across the country against the act which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities who faced religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

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498 arrested for damaging public property 

The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday have identified a total of 498 people for creating havoc and damaging public property during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. The police have issued a press note regarding the same. The government has also sent pay-up notices to all 498 people involved in violence in the state.

In Lucknow 82 people have been identified, 148 in Meerut, 26 in Sambhal, 79 in Rampur, 13 in Firozabad, 50 in Kanpur Nagar, 73 in Muzzafarnagar, 8 in Mau and 19 in Bulandshahr. Earlier, the UP police had informed that as many as 879 people have been arrested while 5,000 were 'bound down' as a preventive measure in the state in the wake of the violent protests. 

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(With inputs from ANI)