Several students and activists who were allegedly picked up by Delhi Police earlier this month have alleged that they were assaulted and harassed in custody.
Nine of the 10 individuals who were allegedly detained without due process were released “barely 12 hours” before the Delhi High Court took up habeas corpus petitions filed on their behalf in an unusual sitting on Sunday.
The court directed the police to preserve CCTV camera footage from the places where they were allegedly picked up on March 12 and 13.
The police maintained that these individuals were issued notices, after which they had joined an investigation voluntarily.
Two individuals – DU student Ilakkiya and labour rights activist Shiv Kumar – were allegedly picked up on March 12 outside Dyal Singh College, where they had gone to meet a professor to discuss a program that had been planned by the Forum Against Corporatisation and Militarisation (FACM), a platform of student groups, teachers’ collectives, and labour unions, on March 31.
This program would cap the observance of “Anti-Imperialism Week” marking the sacrifice of the revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru.
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“When we stepped out [of the college]…, three men and one woman, all in civil clothes, put Shiva inside [a vehicle]…and they pulled me also inside,” Ilakkiya said.
Abinash, 21, a third-year student of Mathematics at SGTB Khalsa College, said he had been picked up on March 13 from a room in Vijay Nagar, where worried friends of Ilakkiya and Shiv had assembled.
“Around 8 o’clock, the Special Cell barged in. They broke the door…and took about seven of us,” he said.
Abinash, who is associated with the student organisation Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch (BSCEM), said he was harassed and beaten.
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“There was less questioning and more harassment,” he said. “They asked, why do you use the name of Bhagat Singh… Then they said Bhagat Singh was a terrorist, and you also are a terrorist,” he said. “They assaulted us quite brutally,” he alleged.
Abinash said he was released around 1 am on March 15, without his phone, bag, and money. “I am traumatised,” he said.
Ilakkiya said the officers pressed her on the March 31 event. “Why are you doing this program…how dare you do a program in Delhi? “Don’t do the program. Don’t call the activists,” she claimed she was told.
She also alleged that she was not given food on the first day, and that her belongings, phone, a diary containing notes on the program, Metro card, watch, and money were taken without documentation.
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Shiv Kumar said: “I feel they are following us… They told us that they would kill us.” He added that he is “not getting any sleep and is very nervous”.
Akshay, 24, is a fifth-year student at DU’s Faculty of Law, alleged he was assaulted by the Special Cell.
“They didn’t ask anything. It was torture,” he said. “One of the officers kicked my leg, which has an injury,” he said.
