The activist has been booked for chronicling hate crimes and hate speeches in an exhibition during a recent gathering of Muslims in Hyderabad
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – A prominent civil rights group, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has claimed that the Delhi Police conducted a targeted witch-hunt and harassed human rights activist Nadeem Khan. It said the police wrongfully booked the activist and attempted to arrest him over chronicling hate crimes and hate speeches in an exhibition during a recent gathering of Muslims in Hyderabad.
According to a statement released by the PUCL on Sunday, police personnel including the SHO of Shaheen Bagh Police Station in Delhi, went to a private residence in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru where Khan was staying on Saturday and attempted to detain him without any warrant or notice. From 5 pm to 9 pm, they sat in the hall of the first floor of the house and coerced Khan to come to Delhi “voluntarily” with them under “informal custody”. This was purportedly for investigation in an FIR filed that very afternoon in Delhi.
The police have refused to share the details of the FIR with the lawyers of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR). Khan is the general secretary of the APCR. However, the PUCL stated that Khan was booked because he had put up an exhibition highlighting the incidents of lynchings, house demolitions and hate speeches made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including Union Minister Amit Shah during the Hyderabad event.
“The basis of this FIR is that Nadeem Khan was involved in putting up an exhibition highlighting recent incidents of hate crimes and hate speeches in India. The exhibition also displayed recent judgments of the Supreme Court like Tehseen Poonavala vs. Union of India where they have passed guidelines for dealing with cases of mob violence,” reads the PUCL statement.
It has come to the notice of Clarion India that the video of the exhibition wherein Khan is seen explaining the injustices towards Muslims is being circulated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters.
Ashok Singhal, a minister in the Assam government, posted the video of the exhibition calling it “vilification”.
“This is deeply concerning. A Muslim organisation has created a museum displaying individuals convicted for illegal activities, with an alarming exhibit targeting prominent leaders like our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Hon’ble Home Minister, and our Assam Chief Minister Hon’ble Dr. @himantabiswa dangoriya, along with journalists and social media activists. Such baseless attempts to vilify our leaders are unacceptable. Assam will not tolerate any efforts to defame them,” wrote Singhal on X.
The PUCL also noted that the FIR was filed “at the instigation of a few social media accounts on Twitter” under Sections 196, 353(2) and 61.
“The said FIR was filed at 12:48 PM in Delhi and the concerned police station officer arrived in Bengaluru at Nadeem’s brother’s house at 5 pm, as if in hot haste, without first bothering to issue notice under Section 35(3), or having any authority in the form of an arrest warrant to come to his house and to demand that he return to Delhi with them. It was only at 10.45, after 5.45 hours of badgering Nadeem, that the officials pasted a notice under Section 35(3) of BNSS, asking him to appear at the Shaheen Bagh Police Station. For nearly six hours, they continued to harass and intimidate Nadeem Khan and members of his family, as well as trespass on the residence of his brother,” said the civil rights group.
It pointed out that punishments for all of these offences are less than 3 years, and as per Arnesh Kumar vs. State of Bihar, as well as Section 35 of the BNSS, the law prevents Nadeem’s arrest arising out of the current FIR, since the punishment is less than 7 years. “Despite this the SHO along with the other police officials continued to criminally intimidate him and members of his family, forcing him to accompany them to Delhi without any due process,” said the PUCL.
According to the rights group, prior to this FIR, on 29 November, at approximately 9 PM, 20-25 officials arrived at the APCR office in Delhi without providing any notice, without an FIR copy, without any attempt at contact through publicly available numbers or providing legal justification for their actions. Since the office was closed at night, they enquired from the security guard about APCR National Secretary Khan and other members and employees of the organisation.
“The fact that 20 police officials came to the APCR office even before the FIR shows their malicious intent. They were going after the constitutional work that APCR does especially fighting cases of mob lynching, and hate crimes. They are using this FIR as an excuse to target one of the forces behind APCR,” said the PUCL.
Expressing shock over the police actions, PUCL condemned “the harassment and intimidation of Nadeem Khan by Delhi police personnel”.
“Their conduct violates all the basic norms of due process and established law. We are also extremely concerned at the manner in which this investigation has been initiated, where a clearly vitiated social media campaign has sought to create pressure on police and state officials to take criminal action against those who are fighting to uphold civil liberties and constitutional values,” it said.
Demanding the quashing of the FIR, the group said “It is obvious to us that this is clearly an attempt to punish and criminalise the exercise of freedom of speech, as well as the advocacy of civil liberties and constitutional rights”.
