'Amidst the dark shadow of India’s lockdown, the Delhi police – controlled by the Central government – has been busy with tasks entirely unrelated to controlling the Covid-19 pandemic. Its schedule is packed with searching homes and offices; confiscating phones and documents; and questioning, detaining, and arresting large numbers of persons. It is instructive that these arrests are being made when the Supreme Court has directed governments to decongest jails to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
'More than 10,000 Muslim migrant workers from Bihar and West Bengal residing at Painters’ Colony in Jaipur’s Nahri ka Naka area, who have only been given dry ration packets since the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, took to the streets on Sunday asking to be sent back home. They claimed that only around 400 packets, each containing a total of seven kilograms of flour, pulses, rice and salt, was distributed among 10,000 people last month. This, too, only came after volunteers of the CPI(ML), CPM and CPI in the area intervened.
'Family members of arrested Jamia Millia Islamia student Safoora Zargar say they are “appalled and upset” by the attempts made to slander her on social media, but her husband says he is keeping faith in the country’s judicial system. Zargar, a 27-year-old M.Phil. student from Jamia, is over three months pregnant, and was arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell on 10 April. She was later denied bail and, on 21 April, charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
'Safoora Zargar, a research scholar from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university, spent her first day of Ramadan in the high-security Tihar jail in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The 27-year old, in the second trimester of her first pregnancy, was arrested on April 10 and subsequently charged under the stringent anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 2019 (UAPA), by the Delhi police. Zargar was associated with the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), which organised weeks of peaceful protests in the capital against a citizenship law passed last December...'
'The Delhi Police on Tuesday booked Jamia Millia Islamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, in a case related to communal violence in North East Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act in February, PTI reported. They also booked former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid under the Act...'
'The JJ Nagar police have arrested around 59 people for allegedly instigating people in Padarayanapura to attack Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials when they arrived on Sunday night to take secondary contacts of a deceased COVID-19 patient into quarantine. As many as 50 platoons of the reserve force have been deployed in the area. Padarayanapura had been sealed and barricaded on April 10 along with a neighbouring ward after five cases were reported.
'Following the gathering of migrant workers at Bandra in Mumbai, hundreds textile workers in Surat too gathered around Varachha area in the city demanding passage to their homes. On Tuesday, hundreds of the workers gathered in Vrachha road demanding for arrangements to return home. “Our senior officials rushed to the spot and the people were persuaded to return to their homes without any further aggravation,” said RB Brahmbhatt, Surat Commissioner of Police...'
'“The administration is asking me to feed these workers. How can I feed them? You tell me how many times can I feed them? Eventually I have to cater to my family also right? How can they not be here and take care of this issue? If they are not fed, they will die. Does the government expect to leave that on our conscience?” Lubana sarpanch Karamjeet Singh tells The Quint from his village in Punjab’s Patiala district...
'A case that reeks of brazen abuse of power at a time when citizens are hard pressed to place full faith on the state machinery to contain the coronavirus pandemic has come to light in Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh police arrested Dr. Ashish Mittal on March 23, 2020. At the time, chief minister Adityanath had already imposed a lockdown.
'While quashing the "Leave India" notice issued to a Polish student for participating in an anti-CAA rally, the Calcutta High Court applied the principle that even a foreigner, who is in Indian soil, has the fundamental right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India...'
