PCI chairman slams detention of Iftikhar Gilani
Slamming the Delhi Police’s detention of senior journalist Iftikhar Gilani hours after Afzal Guru’s execution on Saturday, Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has demanded that the officers responsible be suspended and charge-sheeted.
Mr. Gilani, who works as an assistant editor for English news daily DNA, is also the son-in-law of Kashmiri separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani. On Saturday morning, he and his wife were detained for five hours by officers from the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, who also locked his two school-going children into the bedroom of their flat.
In a strong letter to Home Secretary R.K. Singh, Justice Katju termed the behaviour of the Delhi Police as “high-handed” and “outrageous,” comparing it to the methods of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. “If these allegations are correct, the concerned police officers, who committed these high-handed illegal acts, as well as those higher-ups who were instrumental in ordering these shameful and odious acts are prima facie guilty of serious crimes under Sections 341/342, as well as other provisions of the Indian Penal Code and are also guilty of gross and blatant abuse of their powers,” said the letter, written after Mr. Gilani sent a complaint to the PCI.
Justice Katju has given the government 48 hours to take action if Mr. Gilani’s allegations are proved. He demanded that the police officers responsible —including those who issued the detention orders — be immediately charge-sheeted and placed under suspension, and criminal proceedings be instituted. Citing the example of the Nuremberg trials, he warned that policemen could not hide behind the excuse that they were only following illegal orders.
The PCI chief also demanded that an apology and compensation be given to Mr. Gilani and his family. He added that the alleged ongoing harassment and surveillance of Mr. Gilani — who had also been arrested on false charges in 2002 — violates previous Supreme Court orders and also infringes upon the constitutional right to privacy.
Fellow journalists have also come out in strong support of Mr. Gilani. The Press Association pointed out that the DNA scribe is accredited as a journalist by the Government of India itself. “This kind of rude treatment meted out to Iftikhar Gilani and his family members by the police is totally uncalled for and has no place in a democratic country like ours which boasts of being governed by the rule of law,” said a statement issued on Saturday.
The Delhi Union of Journalists also called for immediate action against the police officials involved and said it would organise a protest meeting against their “unwarranted and blatantly illegal action.”
The Editors Guild of India asked for a police apology to Mr. Gilani and his family and an “assurance that he will not be harassed in the future or prevented from carrying out his journalistic duties again.” The Guild also expressed concern at restrictions imposed on newspapers in Srinagar over the past two days, and asked the government of Jammu and Kashmir to allow the press to exercise its constitutional right to freedom of expression. Newspapers in the Valley have reportedly been asked not to print or circulate their editions, and have also been prevented from uploading their online editions.
Keywords: Markandey Katju, Delhi police, Iftikhar Gilani, Afzal Guru hanging, Editors Guild of India
Mr. Iftikhar Gilani; his employers, the DNA; the PCI, and; the DUJ, will all serve the nation better if a case was filed against those who unlawfully detained Mr. Gilani and his family.
If there are no provisions in the law to file a case against the police force and if the Delhi Police continue to deny their role in the matter, then let the matter be investigated by the Delhi Police themselves; after all, in addition to being legally obliged to protect the rights of citizens, they must surely feel ethically obliged to unmask the men who had the audacity to impersonate their officers and besmirch their good name. Ahem.
I strongly agree with Katju Sir. Delhi police has taken an authoritarian and totalitarian attitude towards common people. Gilani's detention is totally unjustified. I am damn sure Delhi police might have harassed the family including two school going kids. Locking kids in a room is itself a form of harassment for children. The heinous action should be dealt with punishment alongwith suspension of police officers who acted on this.
Let me put some light on the issue. I want to tell this thing to Mr. Katju especially. India is a country where such things happen everyday. The police or the govt hardly has any consideration for violations of human rights. This thing happened to a person who is of little more importance than normal citizens so it came to notice otherwise everyday there are many such cases which are not even heard by outside world. Let away human rights violations but there are number of murders and rapes which are not even reported even worse reported but settled by authorities. I feel sad to say but it is a common thing for common man even after this much time after independence unlike for people at important positions.
This is what the police has done in Chattisgarh and in other places experiencing conflict. Those methods are now finally come to Delhi. How many parents, wives and children have been harassed for no fault of their own? Wasn't Soni Sori harassed because the police wanted her nephew?
The British have left. Isn't it time to replace the Police Act?
"Any discussion on police reform in India eventually gravitates towards the demand for replacing the Police Act of 1861 with legislation that is more in keeping with the times and prevailing democratic values. The Police Act, 1861 was legislated by the British in the aftermath of the Mutiny of 1857 or the First War of Independence."
Its time police training included ethics.
The honorable Mr. Katju has once again earned my unqualified
admiration for calling a spade ad spade. The action of the Delhi
police is absolutely unjustified in any democratic country. Which begs
the question, how far has India moved away from its democratic under-
pinnings, that our police can even think of acting in this fashion?
There is little doubt that our politicians have for long used and
misused the police for their own selfish ends. It is only natural that
the police themselves have been thus corrupted in their thinking and
way of performing. Where do any feelings for democracy or justice have
a place in an atmosphere of unbridled corruption? Do right thinking
Indians who join the police force have any chance of functioning in a
free and fair manner? These are questions for us as a people. Sadly,
the answers today may not be what we like, and unless our political
leaders at the top change their mind-set, there is no chance of any
change in the foreseeable future.
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