MEERUT: The Uttar Pradesh government will return Rs 22,37,851 that it had collected from the people who had allegedly damaged public property during the 2019 anti-CAA protests in the state.
Recovery notices were issued against 875 people in all, who were supposed to pay nearly Rs 2 crore as fine to the state.
This comes a day after the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the state government to refund recoveries made from anti-CAA protesters.
According to data accessed from the office of ADG (law and order), the total assessment of properties damaged during CAA protests was worth Rs Rs 1.9 crore.
The state police had issued recovery notices in 875 cases while the process of issuing notice in 73 cases was pending. The accused were identified on the basis of CCTV and video footage from the violence-hit areas.
“Among the total cases, 233 were sub-judice. In 16 cases, recovery amount of Rs 22.4 lakh has already been collected from the defaulters or by seizing their properties,” a senior police officer said.
The officer further said that the government will now have to refund Rs 22.4 lakh.
Notices issued against over 800 people will also be withdrawn, as per the SC order, he added.
Most of these recovery notices were sent out in Lucknow, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur, Sambhal and Moradabad.
In Meerut, the administration had issued notices to over 50 people for Rs 21 lakh. In Sambhal, 58 people were told to pay Rs 19.3 lakh while eight people were held responsible for damaging public property in Gorakhpur and were asked to pay Rs 90,000. The Rampur district administration issued notices to 28 people after damage of nearly Rs 25 lakh, whereas in Bijnor, 43 rioters were pulled up for Rs 19.7 lakh fine.
ADM Sambhal, KK Awasthi, said that notices were sent to 70 people there, a few of them were quashed later.
“The process to return the fine has been initiated, it will be completed soon, he added.