Outrage over APCR man being ‘harassed’ by Delhi cops in B’luru

Nadeem Khan was in the city to deliver a talk on combating “bulldozer justice” with legal remedies

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru

Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) has expressed displeasure at their National General Secretary Nadeem Khan being grilled by South Delhi cops in Bengaluru. APCR said 20 to 25 Delhi cops paid a visit to Khan in Bengaluru and questioned him for nearly six hours from 5 pm to 10:30 pm. The party included the Station House Officer (SHO) of Shaheen Bagh Police Station in Delhi where a case against him was registered. Khan, a Delhi native was staying at his brother’s house in Bengaluru for a few days. Other like-minded organisations like Bahutva Karnataka, Campaign Against Hate Speech, Eddelu Karnataka, Jagruta Karnataka, Karnataka Janashakti, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) - Karnataka and Thamate have also condemned the arrest. APCR members said the case against Nadeem was the result of a social media campaign by right wing elements that were upset by Khan highlighting cases of hate speech in a recent programme.

They said a First Information Report (FIR) was registered at 12:48 pm at the Shaheen Bagh Police Station and the cops were at the house of Nadeem’s brother at 5 pm “as if in hot haste”. The cops allegedly “trespassed” on the property of his brother’s house and “coerced” him to return with them to Delhi. Only after 10:45 pm did they paste a notice Section 35(3) of Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), asking him to appear at the station. An APCR statement said as per Supreme Court’s judgement in the Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar, arrest is prevented for offences that attract less than seven years of prison time. Nadeem’s alleged offences merit less than three years of jail, they added. ‘Nadeem still in B’luru’ Tanveer, a volunteer for APCR said contrary to what some news reports say, Nadeem was still in Bengaluru at an undisclosed location. He added that APCR was mulling legal action against the people who had filed the FIR against Nadeem. “We suspect the timing and urgency shown by the Delhi police,” Tanveer said, adding that APCR’s factfinding report on Sambhal firing in which five Muslim youths were killed was being “subverted” by Nadeem’s attempted arrest. He was referring to the November 24 firing by cops in UP’s Sambhal in the backdrop of stone pelting amid a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid of the area. Khan delivered a talk titled “Bulldozing Injustice” in Bengaluru on Friday. The speech shed light on the legal remedies that can be taken to protect oneself against high-handedness of authorities who have taken to bulldozing houses of accused persons.

He said that the bulldozing of homes disproportionately affected Muslims. He added that conservative estimates put the number of bulldozed properties at 1,595. Khan said that writ petitions had pushed back against the feverish onslaught of “bulldozer justice”. He pointed to the mid-November Supreme Court judgement that held bulldozing of the houses of accused persons as unconstitutional and laid down guidelines on the same.