Human rights activist Mohammad Arif, who has been fighting against lynchings and encounter killings in Mewat, has alleged harassment by the Nuh police, saying that a police team on Tuesday carried out search at his house in his absence without a warrant and misbehaved with the women in the family.
Haryana state co-ordinator of Aman Biradari, an organisation that works for human rights, Mr. Arif, claimed that he was away to Punahana to conduct fact-finding into encounter cases in the area, when the police reached his house in Tain village.
Four policemen, led by Assistant Sub-Inspector Abid Hussain arrived around 8 p.m. in a PCR van and carried out a search operation, Mr. Arif said.
‘Illegal weapons’
Mr. Hussain directed the team to search for alleged illegal weapons hidden in the house, said Mr. Arif, who claimed that he got the information about the raid from a fellow villager and ex-Block Samiti member Subedar Khan.
Mr. Arif said that the raid continued for around 15 minutes. “My wife, mother and daughter were at home at that time. When he [Mr. Khan] informed me about the raid over phone, I asked him to rush to the house and film it. However, it was all over by the time he reached,” he said.
Mr. Arif, who has featured in the Limca Book of Records for setting up India’s first community radio-based consumer helpline, said he, along with his 70-odd friends and well-wishers held a protest at Gandhi Park in Nuh on Wednesday seeking to know as to how a raid was conducted without a warrant and demanding action against the four policemen. He said that he had been honoured by the district administration on several occasions for social work.
Mr. Arif said that it could be an attempt to mount pressure on him since he has been conducting fact-finding into alleged cases of encounters in Mewat, spread across Nuh, Mathura, Alwar and Bharatpur. He said there could be a larger conspiracy to arrest and eliminate him. “I have been conducting fact-finding into encounters into this region over the past decade. More than 50 people, all Muslims, have been killed in several encounters since 2007. In a few cases, the police did not even hand over the body to the families of the deceased,” said Mr. Arif.
SP (Nuh) Nazneen Bhasin said she was not aware of the matter and assured to look into it.
