A top Indian police officer has resigned in protest against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) issued by the New Delhi's parliament, international media reported on Wednesday.
The inspector-general of police (IG) for Maharashtra, Abdur Rehman, stepped down from his post as protest against the CAB. Appointed the head of theMaharashtra Human Rights Commission's investigation wing earlier this year, Rehman left his job as it went against the "religious pluralism" and the "spirit of tolerance" in India.
On his Twitter account, the police officer said the CAB "is against the basic feature of the Constitution. I condemn this Bill. In civil disobedience I have decided not attend office from tomorrow".
He added: "I am finally quitting the service." He also underlined that the Bill was "against the religious pluralism of India. I request all justice loving people to oppose the bill in a democratic manner".
"It runs against the very basic feature of the Constitution," he added.
In his earlier posts, he had stressed that the CAB was "an anathema to the Constitution and if passed will be a black spot in the Parliamentary history of India".
He also spoke of how it violated the Indian Constitution and was "an act to demonize 200 million Muslims in India".
"The idea behind the bill is to stoke fear in Muslims and divide the nation," he said in another Twitter post.
Rehman, a police officer with21 years of experience in the field, has notably advocated for the challenged the Indian Muslim community faces. He has also penned a book on the anti-Muslimdiscrimination, called Denial and Deprivation: Indian Muslims after the Sachar Committee and Rangnath Mishra Commission Reports.
According to The New Indian Express, the now-formerMaharashtra IGP, who appealed to activists to challenge the CAB in India's supreme court, was expected to speak to media Thursday morning.