Journalism of Courage
Uttarakhand police detain activist going to Jantar Mantar protest, High Court asks: ‘Under what law?’
Prabhat Dhyani was detained by unidentified police personnel at Rishikesh Railway Station at 5.15 pm on Sunday, his colleagues informed his family
CJP supporters are marching to Parliament. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
Questioning the detention of an activist, allegedly by the Uttarakhand police, who was leaving for Delhi to join the Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar, the Uttarakhand High Court on Monday asked the state under what circumstances and provisions of law he was detained.
The president of Uttarakhand Parivartan Party, Prabhat Dhyani, had announced his intention to join the protests at Jantar Mantar to extend solidarity to Sonam Wangchuk and CJP through a Facebook post. Dhyani, along with his two colleagues, had boarded a train from Rishikesh to New Delhi.
“Our Uttarakhand Parivartan Party extends its support to the movement led by students and the youth; we will participate in the Parliament March at Jantar Mantar on July 20. Dharmendra Pradhan must be dismissed”, said Dhyani in the post. (Photo: FB/@Prabhat Dhyani)
However, his colleagues later informed his family that Dhyani was detained by unidentified police personnel at Rishikesh Railway Station at 5.15 pm on Sunday. As the family members could not contact him or determine his whereabouts, the outfit’s secretary filed a habeas corpus petition on Monday.
“Despite repeated efforts, no information whatsoever has been provided to the petitioner regarding the authority under which he has been detained, the place where he is being kept, the grounds of his detention, or his present physical condition. Such complete denial of information is arbitrary, contrary to the rule of law, and violative of his constitutional and legal rights,” the petition said.
Hearing the matter, the division bench of Justices Ravindra Maithani and Siddhartha Sah was informed by the counsel for the petitioner that they received a telephone call that the police were going to release Dhyani, and the document process was underway. The counsel for the state submitted that he had been released and was in the custody of his mother.
The court asked the state to place on record the entire document on the apprehension and release of the corpus. “The court would also like to know as to why an adult is given into the custody of his mother and why he was not set free? The first and foremost question would be, under what circumstances and under what provisions of law was Prabhat Dhyani detained?” the court said.
The matter is listed for Tuesday.
The petition stated that Dhyani was being held in custody by the Ramnagar police on the basis of a warrant. Dhyani’s wife, Uma Rani, through her legal representative, sent an email to the police requesting that they show where the detainee was. The petitioner also attempted to visit the Ramnagar police station, requesting that they disclose his whereabouts and the authority under which he had been detained.
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“However, the officials present at the police station neither accepted the representation by issuing any acknowledgement, nor received it, nor furnished any information whatsoever regarding the detainee. The conduct of the respondent authorities in refusing to acknowledge the representation and in withholding information concerning the custody of the detainee further demonstrates the arbitrary and opaque manner in which the detention has been carried out,” the petition said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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