NEW DELHI: Delhi Police acted with speed to address the grievances of students, who had been allegedly abducted, on the night before their habeas corpus petition was scheduled to be heard at a special sitting of the Delhi High Court on Sunday.
The activists’ counsels told the high court in the special hearing that after being detained illegally by the police on Friday, they were released in the early hours of Sunday, hours before the court sat for the special hearing.
The counsel informed the special bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja that after releasing the activists, the police “put pressure” on their families to withdraw the petition filed before the high court.
One student still under detention, court told
The High Court recorded the submission of the student activists and directed the Delhi Police to explain within a week the circumstances as well as the legal authority under which they were detained.
The counsel representing one of the petitioners alleged that all the male detainees were subjected to “third-degree” physical torture during the detention, while the women, including her client’s sister, were abused verbally.
The counsel of one of the students claimed that the activists had gathered at the office of the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch in Vijay Nagar, near the North Campus of the University of Delhi, to discuss the detention of another woman on March 12.
The woman detained on March 12 too has been released. The court was told that one student named Rudra was still under detention. The bench then said it would take up his matter on Monday. However, according to the sources, Rudra too was released after the Sunday hearing. The court will further hear the main matter on March 27.