Shaheen Bagh: Women protesters send defamation notice to BJP IT cell chief for saying they were being paid

The women protesters of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh have sent a defamation notice to Amit Malviya, who heads the Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology cell, it was reported by India Today. Malviya had tweeted alleging that the protesters were paid to demonstrate against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The legal notice sent from the office of the advocate, demanded an apology and Rs 1 crore in damages.

On January 15, Malviya had shared a video on Twitter, claiming that the women were paid Rs 500 per day. Since December 15, 2019, hundreds of protesters, mostly women, are in a sit in protest at Shaheen Bagh against the CAA. Many elderly women are also part of the protest and have said that they are looking to discuss the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he agreed to listen to them.

“By making and propagating false allegations against the protesters and casting aspersions on their motivations, you, the addressee, and other entities have not only played fraud on the general public but have also attempted to bring disrepute to the protesters who are bringing the attention of a large number of people on the issues being pressed by this extraordinary exercise of Constitutional freedom,” the notice said.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had dismissed a petition that appealed to the court to remove police barricades in the Shaheen Bagh area and to shift the protesters elsewhere. The petitioners had said that the protest was inconveniencing many people who wanted to travel from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh or Uttarakhand or to some hospitals in Noida and claimed that the barricades were preventing pedestrians to use the area.

On New Year’s Eve, thousands of protesters in Shaheen Bagh had welcomed the new year singing the national anthem during their protest against CAA while the rest of the country was busy in celebrations.