In a weekly programme, organised by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Advocate Mushtaq Ahmad addressed the ongoing hideous and illegal activities of the police in the Jamia Nagar area. In his speech his main aim was to disseminate the knowledge of the rights of people, so that people can make use of them and defend themselves in any of future malpractices of police or any other authority. In recent weeks, illegal picking-up of youths from Jamia Nagar has become an order of the day as the police has started its highly obnoxious activity of picking up youths without any fault of theirs and without following any proper channel, required to be followed in cases of any arrest, in order to fulfil and serve ulterior motives.
“For any arrest to take place, it is required for the police officials to come in uniform with their name tag on it. However, we see that police officials generally do not come in uniform and hide their identity during the time of arrests. Another thing which is required is that they need to have warrant, in case the offence is cognizable, and along with that they are supposed to inform the local police and come along with them in order to arrest anyone. Police flout all these rules and arrest individuals. They do not even come in their police cars; instead, use private vehicles for such operations. Besides, they are also required to present the detainee within 24 hours of the arrest,” said Advocate Mushtaq.
The point he tried to drive home is that people should confront police officials as to why they are picking up. What is the offence? Why they are without uniform? Do they have arrest warrant? Where are the local police of the area? etc. “Asking them such questions would deter them to take away innocent youths,” he added. He further said, “Let us say even after confronting they take away the person then the first thing to be done is to make a call at 100, so as to register the complaint then and there. If possible take a picture or shoot a video of the arrest. Next an FIR in a local police station should be filed as soon as possible. Local organisations, like APCR, should be informed of the incident. Doing such activities would cut police claims, as in general police detains a person, keeps him in ‘other interrogation centres,’ give him a good beating, make him confess crimes and then produce before a magistrate saying they arrested the person 24 hours before.”
“In many cases the victims were freed the moment they were produced before the magistrate as it was proved that the person was picked up by the police way long before,” he added.