The Delhi Police on Thursday came in for some tongue-lashing by the Delhi High Court for subjecting people belonging to the North-East and Ladakh to harassment, taking them for Tibetans on the basis of their look-alike visage in their zeal to ensure fool-proof security for Chinese President Hu Jintao who is here to participate in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit.
Issuing directions to the city police on a mention of the cases of harassment of the North-East people by a lawyer, a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw directed the police to immediately stop harassing them and be careful on the identity of people while dealing with the Tibetan protesters.
Earlier, mentioning the incidents of harassment, advocate Arun Asthana submitted that the security personnel on duty stopped these people in the middle of the road and asked for identity proofs from them when they were on their way to work places.
Citing an incident on Thursday morning, Mr. Asthana submitted that the cops stopped two lawyers and interrogated their identities. He argued that harassment of these people amounted to violation of their fundamental right to personal liberty to move freely.
On being asked for the identity papers, these people were shocked and felt humiliated on being challenged on the bona fide of their nationality, the lawyer submitted, adding that several of them who were not carrying along the identity proofs were taken away to the police station for interrogation.
The Bench also set up a five-member committee of lawyers to meet the protesters lodged in Tihar Central Jail here or at police stations to find out whether there are persons among them belonging to the north-east. The Bench also directed the city police to shift all the detained Tibetans protesters to the Ambedkar Stadium, observing that they were not criminals.
However, the Bench refused to restrain the Delhi Police from detaining them to maintain law and order in the city.
