New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) legal wing head Ratna Singh has moved a Delhi court alleging her wrongful confinement by police from outside her residence Saturday, as protests demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation led to detentions in the Capital. She has sought an FIR against those responsible.
She is currently under detention at her house amid the CJP protest.
Advocate Ratna Singh moved the Saket District Court, filing an urgent application under Sections 175(3) and 174 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) seeking the immediate registration of an FIR and a status report concerning her alleged wrongful confinement.
According to the legal filing before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Saket District Court, Singh was detained outside her residence at Jangpura Extension awhile she was preparing to head to the Supreme Court to participate in a lawyers’ protest alongside fellow advocates.
Wrongful confinement, lawyer alleges
“…the applicant was sitting with Advocate Tara Narula in the latter’s car. However, she was not permitted to move. Two cars blocked the applicant from front and back, and policemen were present outside the car doors,” the application moved in the Delhi Court said.
Singh, in her application has said that a PCR call was also made from the number of Shivangi, another advocate, who was seated in the car along with the applicant.
“The applicant is being wrongfully confined/restrained, the applicant apprehends a threat to liberty, safety, bodily integrity, and threat to life,” said the application.
Further, the application said, the applicant has continuously asked the “policemen situated outside the car as to under what power such detention/restraint/confinement and blockage of public pathway is being conducted, and neither has any order been shown in this regard, nor is any authorisation demonstrated by such personnel”. It added that such “blockage to access public pathways is illegal and wrongful”.
After having no other remedy, Singh said, she was moving the present application, seeking registration of FIR against the “errant persons”.
“The present application is bona fide, and is in the interest of justice. Due to paucity of time, and urgency associated with the matter, the applicant is not in a position to approach higher police officers, who may in fact themselves be complicit in the illegal and wrongful acts described above,” the application further states.
What Ratna Singh wants
The application asks for the court to register FIR/NCR against “errant persons who have wrongfully restrained/confined the applicant. The applicant fears escalation, including loss of bodily integrity, health, and life.”
The application also calls for “a status report of the situation in Jangpura, which is within the territorial and administrative jurisdiction of the court”.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)