New Delhi: The Delhi High Court held a hearing Sunday to look into the case of 10 student activists allegedly detained illegally from various places in the national capital by the Delhi Police.
The hearing was held after families of the missing students Saturday filed a total of three habeas corpus petitions in the court through their counsel. According to the lawyers representing the case, 10 student activists—Shiv Kumar, Manjeet, Ilakkiya, Drishti Baishya, Rudrabikram Roy, Abhinash Satpathy, Gaurav Kumar Akshay, Ehtemam and Lakshita Rajora—were detained illegally by the Delhi Police earlier this week.
On Sunday, a special bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja issued notice to the Delhi Police, asking them to submit details of the “circumstances and authority” under which the students were detained.
Accepting the pleas, the court also ordered preservation of CCTV footage from cameras installed near Jahangirpuri and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium metro stations, and Dayal Singh College, from where the students were allegedly picked up on different days.
Representing Delhi Police, Advocate Sanjeev Bhandari submitted to the court that all 10 student activists had been released by the police Saturday night.
However, the claim was sharply rejected by Advocate Jadeep Dhillon, who claimed that his client Rudrabikram Roy was still not released and was not traceable. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, Shahrukh Alam, Deeksha Dwivedi who represented the other two petitioners sought the court’s permission to file additional affidavits documenting their clients’ journey in detention.
“In all these three, issue notice, notices accepted by Mr Bhandari, the Learned Additional Standing Council, obviously, we are informed that as far as the missing persons alleged to have been illegally detained by the police, they have since been released,” Justice Chawla observed orally.
“The respondent (Delhi Police) shall file an affidavit explaining the circumstances and the authority of law by which they were detained in the first place within a period of a week from today,” Justice Chawla said.
A detailed copy of the order documenting the judicial proceedings is yet to be released publicly.
The matter has been listed for hearing next on 27 March.
ThePrint has reached out to Delhi Police spokesperson for comment. The report will be updated if and when the spokesperson responds.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)