Read Time: 05 minutes
PFI members claim that a group of police officers in civil dress barged into their homes & detained them unlawfully
A group of 14 men recently arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with being members of the banned radical organization, Popular Front India (PFI) have approached the Delhi High Court seeking the issuance of the Writ of “Habeas Corpus”. The alleged PFI members have sought directions for release and compensation for the violation of their fundamental rights.
While hearing a batch of petitions by the arrested PFI members, a division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma noted that some of the members were in Judicial Custody and some were on Bail, and inquired the counsel for the petitioners as to how was a case of Habeas Corpus maintainable.
Advocate Mujeeb ur Rehman appearing for the petitioners mentioned precedents of the Apex Court on the same.
The division bench directed the counsel time to make his submissions on the precedents, and submit additional documents that can be relied upon. Accordingly, the bench listed the matter for November 21, 2022.
The plea filed by the 14 men stated that on the mid-night of September 27, 2022, around 3 am to 4 am, huge police forces in civil clothes as well as in uniform barged into their houses and without informing anything to their families unlawfully picked and detained them without following the procedures established by law and took them to some undisclosed location.
All the 14 petitioners were booked under Section 107 and 151 of the CrPC, and seven men namely Mohammad Shoaib, Mohammad Jabir, Abdul Rab, Abdullah, Salahuddin, Habeeb Asghar Jamali, and Shaikh Gulpham Hossein were illegally kept in police custody for 14 hours.
After that, all the 14 men were produced before Special Executive Magistrate (SEM), South East Delhi, and sent to Judicial Custody (JC) for unknown reasons, and for an unknown duration without a copy of the kalandara.
The plea alleges that the respondents while arresting the petitioners have violated the guidelines of arrest settled by the Supreme Court in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal and that they have violated the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 21, and 22 of the Constitution of India.
The petitioners have also sought an independent inquiry against the investigating agency and its erring officials.
Case Title: Mohammad Shoaib and Ors. v. Commissioner of Delhi Police and Anr., and other connected matters
Please Login or Register
