Delhi Police ‘Visits’ Minorities Panel Chief in Sedition Case

Zafarul Islam Khan’s lawyer Vrinda Grover has placed on record that the cops can not take him to the police station.

The Delhi police landed up at Delhi Minorities Commission chairman Dr Zafarul Islam Khan’s residence on the evening of Wednesday 6 May, a week after it booked him for sedition.

The case is regarding an FIR registered against Khan, based on the complaint by a Vasant Kunj resident. The Sections invoked are 124A (sedition) and 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of the Indian Penal Code.

While the police asked Khan to accompany them to the police station, his lawyer Vrinda Grover said that request was against the law.

Thank you #Kuwait for standing with #IndianMuslims! #Islamophobia #Islamophobia_In_India @kuna_en @kuwaittimesnews @OIC_OCI @Abdulmane@ZahraniAbidi @LadyVelvet_HFQ @DrAlshoreka @AHMAD_ALWAHIDAH @majedalenzi @JamalBahrain@arabtimeskuwait @gulf_news @arabnews pic.twitter.com/MdOOBviNdU

— Zafarul-Islam Khan (@khan_zafarul) April 28, 2020

A statement released by his lawyer, Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Grover, reads:

“You are informed that Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan is a senior citizen of 72 years age and he suffers from old age related physical illnesses that make him extremely vulnerable to the COVID-19 coronavirus . The law as per Section 160 of CrPC mandates that the police cannot compel attendance of a person above 65 years age at any place other than their residence for the purpose of investigation and interrogation. You are required as per law to question / interrogate Dr Zafarul Islam Khan only in his residence and you cannot compel him to go to any police station.

As Dr Zafarul Islam Khan’s lawyer I am hereby placing on record that as per law you cannot compel him to go to the police station. That would violate the CrPC and amount to illegal police action against the rights of my client.”

The police is said to have come with a large force to Khan’s residence in South East Delhi. However several locals, including Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan and former Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Khan gathered there in support of the Minorities Commission Chairman.

The police left without questioning Khan.

While the FIR reads that Khan’s post was “provocative” in nature and “intended to cause disharmony and create rift in the society”, he has told The Quint this case will not stand in court. In the post Khan had thanked the Kuwaiti government for taking note of the attacks on Indian Muslims and said that there would be an avalanche in India if Indian Muslims chose to complain to the Arab world.