Joseph Maliakan
The Delhi Police has been excelling in lawless behavior for quite some time now .They cleverly facilitated the brutal attack on Jawaharlal University Students earlier this year, wearing face masks; ironically this was before the lockdown. They attacked Jamia University students inside the campus, seriously injuring many and destroying university property.
The actions of the Delhi police have been so blatantly unconstitutional that ten retired Indian Police Service (IPS)officers led by Julio Ribeiro, former Mumbai Police Commissioner and Director General of Punjab and Gujarat Police, in a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner , S.N .Srivastava on September 18 described the police investigation into the February 2020 Delhi communal riots as totally flawed .This, I consider a very mild indictment because an analysis of their latest actions reveal absolutely colonial mindset, totally opposed to constitutional values of freedom and democracy.
As a reporter who has covered communal riots in North India in the 1980s and 1990s for the Indian Express, I can say with certainty that communal riots and killings take place in India only at the instigation of political leaders and with the connivance of the police and even the local administration. The February North East Delhi riots were no different. The police actively schemed with the rioters or completely ignored the riot.
The riots were as is now, a well established propoganda directed against the Muslim community. The proof is the vast majority of those killed in the riots were Muslims. Initially the Muslims did retaliate but were soon outnumbered. The police openly sided with the Hindus and even obstructed movement of ambulances carrying injured Muslims to the hospitals.
There is nothing unusual about the narrative so far. Total marginalization of Muslims has been the aim of instigating communal disturbances even during previous Congress regimes. But what is different this time is the weaving of a conspiracy theory and the arrest of young individual activists under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The UAPA has been on the statute books from 1967. But what has made it a lethal weapon against all kinds of dissent, free speech and protest is the 2019 amendment. Prior to the latest amendment, only organizations could be designated terrorist. After the new amendment any individual without prior notice could be designated as terrorist and arrested.
As against a maximum of 15 days police custody arrests according to other laws under UAP, an individual arrested under the same can be kept in police custody for 30 days. Similarly, judicial custody under UAPA can stretch up to 180 days as against a maximum of 90 days in other cases.
Though the act does not bar the grant of bail by the courts Zafoora Zargar of Jamia University is the only one booked under UAPA, who has been given bail. Yet she had been given bail by the Delhi High Court on humanitarian grounds, not on merit.
Initially eighteen people, mostly young activists were arrested by the Delhi Police in the conspiracy case .An offence under the UAPA has been charged against all of them who are mostly PhD students from JNU and Jamia to ensure that they remain in jail for a long period which reminds those booked under the UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case in Pune.
As the time limit of 90 days for filing a charge sheet in the conspiracy case approached, the police on September 13 arrested Umar Khalid, JNU scholar and charged him for offences under UAPA, sedition and several others. This has been done to keep those who are being investigated in custody for 180 days pending the filing of the charge sheet. Thus the police have intentionally subverted the intent of the law.
Investigations and trials take too long. Cases are not even sent to trial for a long time. At the end 2018, among the 2005 cases under UAPA only 317 have been sent to trial. Under these circumstances, even an acquittal at the end of the trial will mean very little to the arrested young students some of whom are women.
Now the question is can the courts remain silent spectators when basic freedoms of the citizens are being blatantly trampled upon by the police? The courts must step in without any further delay.
