The Delhi High Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Delhi Police while granting interim protection from arrest to human rights activist Nadeem Khan.
The activist was booked on November 30 on charges of 'promoting enmity' and 'criminal conspiracy' after a video of him went viral on social media.
The video titled, "Records of Hindustan in Modi Sarkar," showed a person identified as Nadeem Khan speaking about victims of hate crimes such as Rohit Vemula, Akhlaq and Pehlu Khan besides the mob lynching cases and the 2020 Delhi violence.
Justice Jasmeet Singh ordered that Khan not be arrested until Friday and directed the activist to join the police investigation on Wednesday. The court also asked Khan not to leave Delhi without the investigating officer's permission.
The court slammed the Delhi Police when they informed the court that Khan, who is the National Secretary of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) should be arrested as he tried to call several people including lawyers when police officers had gone to arrest him.
"That can't be a reason to arrest him. Anybody who's getting arrested calls people no? Where is the question…how do you go to Bangalore? You say, you go in police uniform in Bangalore to arrest him. How do you do that?” the court asked when it was informed that Delhi Police had gone to Banglore in search of Khan.
Granting him protection from arrest until Friday, the court directed Khan to join the investigation and to cooperate in the probe. He is also directed not to leave the national capital without permission of the Investigating Officer.
The court was hearing petitions filed by Khan and APCR seeking to quash the FIR filed by the Delhi Police.
According to a Live Law report citing the FIR, a sub-inspector, while on patrol duty, was informed by "secret sources" that a video was uploaded on social media that was causing "great anger among local people and could lead to violence.”
As per the FIR, the video featured a stall set up by the APCR at an exhibition held in Hyderabad and Nadeem Khan speaking about "Akhlaq, Rohit Vemula, Pehlu Khan, the 2020 Shaheen Bagh protests and Delhi violence." The FIR alleged that the video portrays a particular community as victims and incites people.
When the counsel for Delhi Police, Sanjay Lao, submitted before the court that Khan was trying to destroy the peace prevailing in the country which could be demonstrated from the video, the court remarked that the harmony of the nation is "not so fragile."
“We are in a democratic country. The harmony of our nation is not so fragile. It is not so fragile that merely one exhibition, merely someone shouting, it cannot be. Consider people as intelligent…You repose very little faith in the common man. Common man is intelligent. Common man isn't so fragile…” Justice Singh said.
"The country places great pride in our fundamental rights. Article 19(1)(a) is to be protected. If you think that a common man will get incited by this, the common man doesn't have the IQ to understand what is right for them… we are intelligent people. Please have some faith in the common man,” the court said.
Khan was represented by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal with Advocates Tara Narula, Tamanna Pankaj, Shivangi Sharma, Ahmed Ibrahim and Rupali Samuel.
The court is set to hear the matter next on Friday.