New Delhi: The city police was on Thursday directed
by the Delhi High Court not to harass people from the North
East and Ladakh because of their resemblance with Tibetans,
who were under the police scanner for protesting Chinese
President Hu Jintao's visit here for the BRICS summit.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw appointed a team of five lawyers to
meet the detainees to ascertain their genuineness and said,
"It is the duty of the police not to harass people in the name
of maintaining law and order in the city."
"We permit the team of lawyers to meet those persons who
were arrested and lodged in Tihar Jail or detained in police
stations to find out whether they are from Tibet or the North
East," the bench said in its order.
The court directed Delhi police to shift the Tibetans, who
were lodged in Tihar, to Ambedkar Bhawan where nearly 200
other Tibetans have been detained for staging protests.
The court, however, refused to restrain police from
detaining the Tibetan protesters to maintain the law and order
situation.
The bench passed the order on an oral submission by Arun
Asthana, a lawyer, that police is harassing people from the
North East and Ladakh as they look like Tibetans. Harassments
to citizens, Asthana said, are violative of their personal
liberty.
Asthana cited the experience of two lawyers from the North
East, who faced police interrogation this morning and said
"police has made these people's life miserable for last two
days."
Appearing for the Delhi police, Standing Counsel
(Criminal) Pawan Sharma told the bench that on March 27 an
order was passed by the Foreigner Regional Registration
Offices (FRRO) under the Foreigners' Act to detain Tibetans
who did not have genuine identity proof and indulged in the
protest here.
Sharma also submitted that 197 people have been picked up
from various districts and kept at Ambedkar Bhawan.
He added they would be freed as soon as the Chinese
President Jintao leaves the country on March 30 after the
conclusion of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa) summit.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 29, 2012, 18:18