The Delhi High Court on Sunday directed the Delhi Police to file an affidavit explaining the circumstances and legal authority under which several activists were detained last week, even as police told the court that all detained individuals had since been released.
The direction came during a special Sunday hearing before a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja, which was considering habeas corpus petitions alleging that a group of activists and students had been illegally picked up by police officials.
The court ordered the police to submit an affidavit within a week detailing the circumstances of the detentions and the legal basis for the action.
“We are informed that as far as the missing persons alleged to have been illegally detained, they have since been released. The respondent shall file an affidavit explaining the circumstances and the authority of the law by which they were detained within a week from today,” the bench said.
During the hearing, counsel for the Delhi Police informed the court that all detained persons had already been released but argued that the matter was “not so simple.” The police also told the court that the First Information Report (FIR) connected to the case was confidential in nature.
The bench directed the authorities to preserve relevant CCTV footage showing how the activists were taken away. However, it said the issue of preserving CCTV footage from the Special Cell office would be considered later and scheduled the next hearing for March 27.
The court also listed for hearing on Monday a separate petition concerning one of the detained activists after his counsel claimed that he had not yet been released. In response, the bench told the police, “You will have to trace him,” even as police maintained that all persons had been released.
Lawyers representing the petitioners alleged that the activists were picked up in violation of legal procedure, not produced before a magistrate and subjected to abuse and torture in custody.
According to the petitioners’ counsel, around ten activists, including students, were taken into custody from outside Dayal Singh College and the Vijay Nagar area.
Advocate Shahrukh Alam told the court that the police had picked up Lakshita Rajora, the sister of petitioner Sagrika Rajora, while officers were in plain clothes.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner Ehsanul Haq, described the situation as “alarming” and urged the court to direct the police to provide a copy of the FIR.
The petitioners’ counsel also argued that the activists were released only after news emerged that the High Court had constituted a bench to hear the habeas corpus petitions.
The court clarified that it was not closing the case at this stage.
“We are not closing the petition. We are issuing notice to find out what happened,” the bench observed.
During the hearing, Alam also sought protection for the activists and students. The court responded that it could not make any such direction at present, stating, “We don’t know what they are required for. We can’t say anything.”
In her petition, Sagrika Rajora sought the immediate production of her 22-year-old sister Lakshita Rajora, claiming she had been missing since the evening of March 13 and was being held in illegal detention.
The plea stated that Lakshita Rajora was last known to be at the office of the student organisation Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch (BSCEM) in Vijay Nagar near Delhi University’s North Campus.
It also alleged that around eight months earlier, Rajora and her associates had been subjected to unrecorded detention and severe custodial torture by officials of the Delhi Police Special Cell for more than a week.
