My problems with the Gujarat police started in August 2018 after I become closely associated with the human rights company Citizens for Justice and Peace. On the eve of Independence Day, scholar leaders from AISA had been sitting on a peaceful dharna to protest the cancellation of their candidate’s nomination within the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda Students Union (MSU) elections. The dean, in reaction to the nonviolent protest, called the police.
What passed off next can simplest be defined as police brutality. There turned into no caution before the police started a lathi charge, pushing college students and placing them with batons, notwithstanding there is no retaliation. Ashutosh Gupta, a juvenile, was struck inside the chest with the aid of a constable who maltreated him. The police failed to observe the Juvenile Act whilst managing him. Denish Kothadiya, a primary 12 months BSc student, was pulled with the aid of his hair and dragged to the floor.
The police then took Dinesh to the neighborhood police station. They allegedly requested him to write an apology letter that said that he turned into responsible for having violence with the police – a not unusual tactic hired by the police to compromise positive cases by fielding the sufferer as the culprit.
I despatched an e-mail to the commissioner of police worrying an explanation. I, in the end, received a notification on September 10 even though I had filed the complaint on August 14. No FIR became registered towards the police and vigilance officials even though the incident was recorded.
I then publicly released 10 questions to the Gujarat police, which placed me on their radar even though they could not do something to someone who had no immediate connection with the case. In reaction to my RTI, the police said that there had been no lathi rate at all. I turned into equipped to approach the excessive court, but the sufferers within the case became adverse underneath stress, as the police allegedly threatened to ebook them for rioting. The effort may have been wasted, but the rot inside the Gujarat police had been made visible.
Another yr, every other demonstration of the Gujarat police’s authentic face. This time, the demonstration fell properly inside a jurisdiction the Gujarat police is infamous for Islamophobia. Former NSUI Vadodara district president and MSU Baroda student chief Zubair Khan Pathan were arrested after right-wing student organizations. The media peddled propaganda tales of ways he was guilty of committing ‘Love Jihad.’ Pathanbecamee produced before a judge on April 27, but as not one of the sections attractedcustody requirements, he was given bail.
But he becomes once more asked to give himself on the Sayajigunj police station below Section 151 (meeting of 5 or extra humans after being asked to disperse). He was instructed that he would be produced before a govt Justice of the Peace, but that didn’t occur. Instead, two contributors of the Gujarat Crime Branch grew to become up. They took Pathan away without right sanctions to the crime department, where they allegedly bodily assaulted and humiliated him. The police also made him report a video in which he confesses to being a goonda. Pathan changed into allegedly compelled to make this confession at gunpoint. A video of his wherein he says he gained’t harass women was shared via the crime branch with the media, in opposition to the prescribed Supreme Court tips.
When his fitness deteriorated critically, he changed into taken to the SSG Hospital with the aid of a 108 EMRI emergency van that his legal professional referred to and became saved in the emergency ward.
Speaking to media persons after being brought to the hospital on April 29, Pathan stated, “I became picked up from the Sayajigunj police station by way of Crime Branch men and taken to a closed room on the Crime Branch. There I become crushed and asked to provide a passport. They accused me of being a terrorist. Then they compelled me at gunpoint to confess that I changed into a goonda and that I like harassing women.”
Pathan similarly accused the police of defaming the Muslim network. The policemen, he stated, kept saying,”Have million karse Ratnagiri, ane badha million lukhaj hoys the.” (Will Muslims do politics here now? All Muslims are like goondas.) The Justice of the Peace didn’t even permit scientific custody beneath CrPc 53,54,55. When the news unfolds, I changed into Baroda. I ran to the local clinic, wherein he changed into admitted inside the emergency ward.
As the ACP and PI came out of the ward, I approached them to invite approximately the status of the case. They were given indignant with the aid of my consistent questioning. “What is the repute of the case, sir? Why are you here within the hospital? Is Zubair on remand?” I had requested. The ACP saw considered one of Pathan’s friends filming the interplay and shouted, “Oye, band kar ye shooting! Band Kar! Band Kar ise! Abhi ke abhi andar kar dungi, time nahi lagega. Cyber regulation lag jayega Bina permission ke capturing ke. ( Stop this shooting! Stop it! Stop it now! I can place you behind the bar simply now; it’s going not to take a lot of time. You can be prosecuted underneath cyber regulation for filming an officer without permission)”.
“Don’t stop,” I said. ”Keep at it.”
The ACP then shouted at me: “Who the hell are you? Why are you asking him to film him? Don’t train my protocol.” “Please, don’t educate me on media ethics,” I replied. The ACP left the vicinity. A PSI rank policeman then got here ahead and requested me to come with the police as the ACP desired to peer me. At the other end of the sanatorium, which became extra secluded, the ACP and PI were expecting me. “Your profession will finish. IPC? Heard?” I became told.
I asked, “What did I do wrong?” My query angered them. The ACP asked a constable to position me in a automobile and take me to the Raopura police station. My telephone rang unexpectedly. As I picked up the call, they twisted my hand and took my cellphone. At Raopura police station, I was taken to the PI’s workplace. The ACP and a plainclothes policeman have been inside the room. “Do you want to create JNU right here?” I was asked. I retorted, “What is inaccurate in JNU?”
