SYED ALI AHMED
NEW DELHI, APRIL 5
The Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) has issued notice to the Delhi police raising issues pertaining to random arrest of Muslim youths particularly in riot-hit areas of northeast Delhi, demanding bribe to release them, prohibiting use of loudspeakers for ‘azaan’ in mosques and severely damaging a mosque in Mukhmelpur under Alipur Police station in northwest Delhi on April 3 even as the lockdown continues.
The commission has asked the police to submit its action-taken report within a week.
The commission, in its notice, said that the mosque was damaged in the night of April 3 when only three-four persons were there in the mosque premises because of restrictions owing to lockdown.
The panel notice said that it had received reports on April 3 via emails, whatsapp messages and phone calls from the northeast district that police were arresting the young Muslim boys randomly in dozens every day even before the lockdown. It said that this has continued under the lockdown as well.
“As the process of arrest went on unabated, Muslim women in large numbers in Mustafabad came out protesting against this objectionable and dubious activity at 8 pm on April 2”, the commission’s notice said.
The commission, notice said, had earlier also brought to the notice of Deputy Commissioner of Police, northeast Delhi that “the trend of randomly arresting young Muslim boys in the district was not acceptable”.
The notice alleged that some of the police officers in northeast Delhi were using the threat of arrests to extract money as “bribes” or “ransom”. Those paying the money ensured freed om of the arrested youth, the notice said, adding others were being simply booked.
The notice asked the Commissioner of Police S N Srivastava to instruct policemen to desist from random arrests as arrests must only be made when there was clear evidence about someone’s involvement in a punishable offence.
The Commission, in its notice, said, ‘once lockdown is lifted and conditions return to normal, we will take a closer look at these arrests”.
The minority body also raised a serious issue of police not allowing mosques in some of the areas to use loudspeakers for “azaan” (calling faithfuls to pray).
The notice said that “loudspeakers are used by mosques to announce that the time of prayer has come so that people may pray at home on time as there is a prescribed time for each prayer.
“Hence, prohibition of azaan on loudspeakers has no rationale or need. SHOs should be clearly told not to insist on prohibition of use of loudspeakers for azaan and should take action only if more than four persons gather for performing namaz while the current lockdown is effective”, the notice said, “as of now, under the current restrictions, a maximum of only four persons are allowed to offer congregational prayers at a time in a mosque”.
The notice also said that meat shops in some areas had been closed down which was against the lockdown regime which considered food stuff as part of essentials and shops selling such stuff could not be closed.
In a second notice issued on April 4, the Commission said that it had received a report and a video which showed that at around 8 pm in the night of April 3, around 200 people attacked a mosque at village Mukhmelpur under Alipur police station in northwest Delhi while there were two-three persons inside it. “The mob attacked the mosque, ransacked it, burnt it partially and demolished some of its parts including the roof”, said the commission in its notice.
“It was unbelievable that this could happen in the national capital. The issue cannot be patched up artificially by arranging a compromise where a religious place has been ransacked and partially burnt and demolished. If no proper legal action is taken, this lawlessness will become common”, said the notice further.
The Commission asked the police commissioner that an FIR should be lodged against the culprits. “Law should take its own course so that a deterrent was created in the minds of people as some had started to think that they would go scot-free after any crime committed against the weaker sections including Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis”, the Commission added.
(Syed Ali Ahmed is the Chief Editor of http://indiatomorrow.net)
