Even if we assume that journalist had committed a crime, under which provision of law and under what procedure were they detained, assaulted, and locked inside a room? a question to be asked to higher judiciary, which supervises the functional aspect of the Omission and Commission of the Law and Order
Journalist Shaheen Khan was target of abuse and harsh treatment by the police, as said she “she could not breathe” while the Delhi Police “assaulted” and “brutally dragged” her up the stairs after she, along with her sister and colleague Nafisa Khan, were detained at Saket Police Station in Delhi on September 3.
Shaheen described how she endured the alleged assault and still took the mic to report the police brutality.
Will the police behave like "fence eating the crop" Shaheen reporters for 4 PM News Network, Shaheen and Nafisa, were covering the inauguration of private hospital Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital, where both questioned the unbecoming Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta took them to task for questioning them.
She said to press that “I did not question anybody there directly. I was simply shooting my segment, in which I raised a few basic questions. The government has a responsibility towards its citizens, right? But instead, it appears to be devoting so much attention to private hospitals,” Shaheen said.
Shaheen had questioned why elected officials were giving importance to a private hospital when women’s safety and law and order were still concerning issues in the city. This was a barely two-minute video. In it, she raised these questions and showed the venue and the surrounding area, which had been transformed and decorated for the event yesterday, even though it is usually littered with waste she said.
Illegally detained, threatened with an FIR, Shaheen and Nafisa were detained at around 11 am and moved to the Saket police station. Despite asking multiple times what their crime was, the two women were threatened with a first information report (FIR) and later assaulted.
The Station House Officer threatened us with an FIR and spoke about putting us in the lock-up in a filthy and unprintable language. The journalist kept asking them to tell us what their crime was, what we had done wrong, why they wanted to keep us in the lock-up and why they wanted to file an FIR against us, Police behaved like a Hindutva goons.
Despite Shaheen telling the officers that they were journalists, educated people, and willing to cooperate. But we were given no answers bu police officers physically demonstrated like personnel soldiers of Modi & Amit Shah. Instead, they said, put them in the lock-up.” Infact such erred police officers needs no place in public offices.
Initially, the women were told the officers were taking them home. But when they were brought to the police station, some police officers began threatening them. That was the moment she knew the police could do anything — legally or otherwise — and the only thought in their heads was, “Thet should inform their family.”
“Until then, they believed this was simply a routine detention. They thought the police would question them and let them go. But manuwadi policewomen in civilian clothes snatches phones, Amit and Modi private soldiers slapped them, as the journalists tried to call their family and scrolled through her phone’s contact list, a woman in a pink suit allegedly approached her and demanded that she give her phone.
Her name is Sonam Solanki, a manu lady soldier. She told Shaheen, ‘Give me your phone’. I asked her, ‘Why are you asking me for my phone, and under which law? Tell me what my crime is, and I will give you the phone’.”
Solanki reportedly asked her to “go upstairs,” and when Shaheen objected, the woman said, “I have to talk to you. My way of talking is very different the Manu goon said. Only later did Shaheen understand what Solanki meant by the remark. When the sisters asked permission to contact their families, their phones were snatched, and Solanki began slapping them. This lady Solanki needs to be encountered by the process of law as such police officers are liability on the State.
“The moment Solanki and other police officers snatched their phone, she began slapping Shaheen and her colleague journalist repeatedly. This happened in the reception area. If the CCTV footage has not been tampered with, all of this should be recorded,” said Shaheen.
When the sisters questioned why they were being hit, Solanki dragged them to another room. “We kept asking, ‘Why are you hitting us? What have we done? You cannot hit us. We have committed no crime, and even if you believe we have committed a crime, you do not have the right to beat us, said Shaheen.
They were reportedly dragged through the area where the SHO’s room is located, all while the officers pulled on their hair and clothes. “We did not know where she was taking us,” the journalist said. The CCTVs should speak about the crime committed by the police
While passing through the SHO’s office, Shaheen recounted that she managed to break free and sought his intervention. “Under what authority is she beating us? Please intervene,” Shaheen had asked the SHO, who, instead of helping, allegedly asked a police constable to “take them upstairs and teach them a lesson”. What an unwanted and abusive policing.
They beat us and dragged us by whatever they could grab — our hair, our clothes, said Shaheen. “We were brutally dragged up the stairs. I could not walk; I could not breathe properly. I kept saying, ‘Please stop, let me breathe. Tell me where you are taking me.’ But they did not tell us anything.”
She alleged that the room they were dragged into was not equipped with CCTV cameras. The assault, she said, significantly escalated inside the room. ‘They threw me to the floor. They kicked Shaheen, punched on her and slapped her repeatedly. They slapped Shaheen continuously. Then they picked her up and threw her onto a sofa. They began pulling her hair and scratching her face. Her head was banged against the wall. The CCTV wil speak the truth.
In the video posted by 4 PM News Network, Shaheen displayed the bruises she sustained after the reported attack. She claimed to have been assaulted with a baton, with Solanki reportedly saying, “Solanki said I will show you. You ask too many questions, she was treated like a terrorist. Useless and unwanrted Solanki unfit to be the police woman Solanki hit both Shaheen and Nafisa with the baton,” Shaheen alleged. Officer hits them more after learning of Muslim identity. Then came the Muslim question.
Shaheen specifically remembers when the officer’s demeanor changed. “At one point, when she became tired, she sat down at a table. The phone they had taken from Shaheen rang at that moment.”
According to Shaheen, when the officer looked at the journalist’s phone, there was a call from someone named Mohammad Khan. “The moment she saw the name, there was a complete change in her demeanor. She immediately got up from her chair and said, ‘Oh, you are a Muslim. Then I will hit you with four more baton blows and slap you four more times,'” Solanki private Policewoman, breaking down in tears.
‘The police tried to suppress the matter.’ Their brazen behavior, Shaheen said, remained the same even after the assault, when they had sought a medico-legal examination (MLC). Nitu, another colleague of Shaheen and Nafisa, said the police officials had not arranged the MLC and instead tried to work on a compromise.
“After the assault, they did not arrange an MLC. They wanted the journalists to compromise and suppress the entire matter. We then called the police ourselves on 100 and went for the MLC on our own,” Nitu done well.
Shaheen, Nafisa and Nitu claimed it was deliberately delayed by the authorities and took nearly five hours, and by the time they returned to Saket police station, it was 9 pm. Shaheen and Nafisa were later joined by several activists, journalists, as well as Indian Youth Congress members who demanded the registration of an FIR.
After that, they made us wait there until around 4 am without registering an FIR. Three SHOs came to the police station and eventually left. We were then told to remove two names from the complaint and that ‘whatever happens will happen’. But the FIR was not registered,” Neetu said.
On Delhi Police deleting their post denying the assault, Shaheen said, “The DCP posted a tweet and then deleted it. If what he said was true, why did he delete it? The DCP should be ashamed of making such a statement. Under what law are they trying to justify this heinous act?
Even if we assume that the Journalists had committed a crime, under which provision of law and under what procedure were we detained, assaulted, locked inside a room and had our phones snatched? We were literally kidnapped. On what legal basis was all of this done?”
Whatever they may have done, you could have registered an FIR against them and taken legal action. You could have prosecuted me according to the law. They would have cooperated with the Police. Now the turn of the police to dance at the tune of law.
As the law should take its own course. The policemen and women along with their (BJP and RSS private army soldiers should be brought to book and removed from service. We Indians do not need abusing policing.
