On Wednesday, fourteen PFI workers who were arrested in a massive crackdown by the Delhi Police moved to the Delhi High Court seeking their release from the case. They claimed that they were unlawfully detained by the Delhi Police and demanded compensation for their arrest.
According to the reports, three distinct petitions were heard before a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma, who allowed the petitioners’ counsel time to produce further papers and relevant judgments to back up their position. The bench has scheduled a hearing on the case for November 21.
The Delhi Police during the hearing raised a procedural query about the petitions’ maintainability, claiming that habeas corpus pleas cannot stand as most of the petitioners have been released on bail. Reports mention that a habeas corpus petition is filed to seek direction to produce a person who is missing or has been illegally detained.
A group of men arrested by the Delhi Police on allegations of being associated with PFI have filed a habeas corpus petition in the Delhi High Court. The alleged PFI activists have also sought compensation for their “unlawful” custody. #DelhiHighCourt #PFI #HabeasCorpus pic.twitter.com/NJNA0rYo99
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) October 12, 2022
The petitioners claimed that they were taken from their residences on the night of September 27 when police officers in civilian and military attire stepped in and took them up without alerting them or their families about the reason for their detention. They claimed that they were arrested without obeying legal processes and were taken to an unknown place by police. The petitioners have also asked for an independent, proper investigation into the authorities so that the allegedly misbehaving officers can face punishment.
This is a day after the Kerala Police detained MC Abdul Kabeer, the south district secretary of the extremist terrorist organization PFI in connection with the killing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader A Sreenivasan. According to the Police, Kabeer was arrested for his participation in the conspiracy and for assisting the accused in destroying evidence.
He is said to have assisted the accused in disposal of two of the three vehicles used by the assailants. Reports mention that Kabeer was not on the 39-person accused list but his involvement was eventually exposed.
Earlier, the PFI leaders issued open threats to the RSS members in the state of Karnataka ahead of the Hindu festival of Dussehra. “We will be back with a vengeance. Watch out for us”, the members of the radical Islamist group scribbled a message directed toward RSS workers on the streets of Dakshina Kannada district.
This was days after the Central Government banned the extremist terrorist organization and its associate organizations for 5 years. The government maintained that the organizations operated as unlawful associations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The affiliates banned along with the PFI include All India Imams Council, Campus Front of India (CFI), Rehab India Foundation, National Conf of Human Rights Org, National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.
The ban came following two rounds of searches by the NIA in a multi-agency investigation against the organisation for allegedly sponsoring terror operations in the nation. The initial series of raids occurred on September 22, with a follow-up on Tuesday, September 27 in multiple states, resulting in the arrest of at least 250 persons associated with PFI.
A huge amount of undocumented cash was also recovered from the PFI hideouts in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu and also documents on a ‘short course on how to make IEDs using easily available materials’. Meanwhile, pen drives containing videos related to ISIS, and documents related to the alleged objective of Ghazwa-e-Hind were found from the Uttar Pradesh PFI leadership and Marine radio sets from Tamil Nadu PFI leadership. Many other materials including wireless communication devices were also taken into custody by the officials.
