The arrest of councillor Nisha Singh, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, during an anti-encroachment drive last week, has snowballed into a major controversy with members of civil society groups and common citizens accusing the police of “high-handedness”.
Ms. Singh, a Ward 30 councillor, was arrested during the Haryana Urban Development Authority drive to clear over 13 acre land of encroachment at Fathepur (Jharsa) village in Sector 47 on May 15.
Family and friends of Ms. Singh maintain that she was recording the action on her phone when police pounced on her. The police have charged the councillor with attempt to murder, instigating the crowd and under Section 3 of the Explosives Act.
“She had gone to the site following a call from the villagers and was within her rights as the area falls under her jurisdiction as the councillor. She asked for the court orders from the police to carry out the drive, but the police refused to show her the orders. Then the villagers started raising slogans and pelting stones. She was filming the entire thing on her mobile phone camera, when the police pounced on her and beat her up,” said Ms. Singh’s husband Bhupinder Singh. Her family is now demanding that the charges slapped on her are grave and be dropped.
Arti Jaiman, who runs a community radio, said that legal rights of the councillor were flouted. “She had the right to legal aid and the police should have informed her family about her arrest immediately. Also, she had suffered an injury in the spine, but denied medical assistance for almost eight hours. It seems the police were acting at the behest of the builders and were in a tearing hurry to finish it off at the earliest,” said Ms. Jaiman. Though Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Virk did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him, HUDA Administrator Anita Yadav said the drive was taken up in adherence to Punjab & Haryana HC directions.
Nisha Singh, a Ward 30 councillor, was arrested during the HUDA drive to clear encroachment at Fathepur (Jharsa) village on May 15
