The Delhi High Court has sought a status report from the Delhi police on allegations that civil rights activist Mohammad Wasiq Nadeem Khan was illegally confined in south-east Delhi to prevent him from attending a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar on September 29.
A Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma issued notice on Mr. Khan’s petition, which also alleged continued police surveillance and repeated calls seeking information about his whereabouts. The petition was filed after the alleged incident and came up before the court on Monday.
According to the plea, police personnel attached to the Shaheen Bagh police station confined Mr. Khan at the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind headquarters in Abul Fazal Enclave from about 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. The petition alleged that two police personnel entered his residence-cum-office and restricted his movement for the day.
Mr. Khan, the national secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights and founder of the United Against Hate initiative, had planned to attend a demonstration organised by the APCR, the Monitoring Committee of Indian Muslims and other civil society groups. The protest was against what the groups described as repeated attacks on places of worship.
During the hearing, the Bench questioned how authorities could restrict an individual’s movement when the police could instead deny permission for a protest. The court orally asked how personnel could enter the petitioner’s premises and confine him, and where the legal basis for such confinement lay.
The police disputed the allegations through its counsel, who submitted that Mr. Khan had not been detained and pointed out that he had travelled to Kolkata the previous week. The counsel sought time to place the police’s position on record and assured the court that Mr. Khan would not receive further phone calls from the police.
The petition alleged that Mr. Khan was neither formally arrested nor given written grounds for his confinement. It also claimed that no arrest memo was prepared, no family member was informed and he was not produced before a magistrate. These allegations have not been adjudicated by the court.
The plea further alleged that police personnel continued to contact Mr. Khan about his whereabouts in relation to protests scheduled for October 2 and 5. His counsel described the alleged conduct as harassment and arbitrary action, while referring to directions issued by the Supreme Court to the police and the Union government on Sunday concerning the free movement of people.
The Delhi High Court’s status report will set out the police’s formal response to the allegations. The court has not yet ruled on whether the alleged confinement occurred or whether the conduct violated the petitioner’s rights.
