The People’s Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL) has condemned the ‘harassment’ and lodging of an FIR by the Delhi Police against human rights activist and Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) secretary Nadeem Khan.

PUCL national president Kavita Srivastava and general secretary V Suresh have expressed shock over the activist’s harassment and termed it a ‘targeted witch-hunt’.

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Srivastava and Suresh alleged that this was being done at the instigation of certain social media accounts on Twitter.

“At 5 pm on Saturday (November 30), four police personnel, including the SHO of the Shaheen Bagh Police Station in Delhi, visited a private residence in Bengaluru where Nadeem was staying and attempted to detain him without a warrant or notice,” they said.

From 5 pm to 9 pm, they sat in the hall on the first floor of the house and coerced Nadeem into coming to Delhi ‘voluntarily’ with them under ‘informal custody’.

The said FIR was filed at 12.48 pm in Delhi, and the concerned Police Station officer arrived at Nadeem’s brother’s house in Bengaluru at 5 pm, as if in hot haste, without first issuing a notice under Section 35(3) or having any authority in the form of an arrest warrant to demand that he accompany them to Delhi, the PUCL functionaries stated in a release.

It was only at 10.45 pm, after 5 hours and 45 minutes of badgering Nadeem, that the officials pasted a notice under Section 35(3) of the BNSS, asking him to appear at the Shaheen Bagh Police Station. For nearly six hours, they continued to harass and intimidate Nadeem and his family members, as well as trespass on his brother’s residence in Bengaluru, the PUCL alleged.

The offences under the FIR are Sections 196, 353(2), and 61. The 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 from the current FIR, since the punishment is less than 7 years, Kavita said.

On Friday late evening, around 20-25 officials arrived at the APCR office in Delhi without providing any notice, without an FIR copy, and without any attempt to contact through publicly available numbers or providing legal justification for their actions.

Since the office was closed at night, they enquired with the office security guard about Nadeem and other members and employees of the organisation.

The fact that 20 police officials arrived at the APCR office even before the FIR was filed shows their malicious intent. They were targeting the constitutional work that APCR does, especially fighting cases of mob lynching and hate crimes, the PUCL chief alleged.

On Sunday morning, a few police officers returned and inquired about the office bearers. When asked about the basis for this inquiry, Head Constable Yogesh of Shaheen Bagh police station refused to share the details with the lawyers present at the office.

The Head Constable misbehaved with the lawyers. APCR’s lawyers also went to Shaheen Bagh Police Station to inquire about the reasons for the police raid but received no answer.

The cause and grounds for this FIR are that Nadeem was involved in organising an exhibition highlighting recent incidents of hate crimes and hate speeches in India. The exhibition also displayed recent Supreme Court judgments, such as Tehseen Poonawala vs Union of India.