Form of words:
New Delhi: As of August 2020, the National Security Act – a law that allows preventive detention on grounds of defence, security and public order – was invoked against 139 people in Uttar Pradesh. Of these, people accused of cow slaughter are involved in 76 cases.
One such case was registered in July last year against three brothers of Imliya village in Sitapur district of UP. Parvez (33) and Irfan (21) were arrested on 12 July 2020, after police allegedly caught them with 60 kg of cow meat with equipment to kill cattle, while 40-year-old Rahmatullah the next day was arrested.
A month later, he was slapped with the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 and the National Security Act, 1980, while he was in judicial custody.
He was in jail for over a year before the Allahabad High Court quashed the NSA’s detention on a petition filed by him on August 5 this year. However, his plea turned out to be in vain as the HC order came after he had already been in custody for almost a year – which is the maximum period that a person can be detained under the NSA.
While state officials have defended the NSA’s decision to levy charges, alleging that the three brothers “annoyed the Hindu community” in the UP village, the accused claim they were “victims of politics”.
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Arrest at 5.30 am
According to the FIR lodged against the three brothers, which was accessed by ThePrint, some police officers were informed by an informer about two butchers who had brought beef to Rahmatullah’s house and were planning to sell it.
The police then arrested Irfan and Parvez allegedly red handed on 12 July 2020 at 5.30 am. Rahmatullah managed to evade arrest, but was captured a day later. The FIR was registered under the provisions of the UP Cow Slaughter Prevention Act 1955 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
While they were in custody under the first FIR, another FIR was registered against them on July 25 for the same charge under the provisions of the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.
The Gangster Act is a controversial law in the state and has been invoked indiscriminately against land mafia And journalists among others. On 19 November 2020, the Allahabad High Court also criticized The UP Police called for the law to be enforced in “trivial cases” and said it was being “misused by the police”.
On August 14, twenty days after the second FIR, the then Sitapur District Magistrate Akhilesh Tiwari passed an order allowing him to be detained under section 3 of the National Security Act 1980, which allows the central or state governments to pass orders of detention. allows.
His detention was later confirmed by the Uttar Pradesh Advisory Board as well as the UP government in October last year.
Thereafter the detention was extended from time to time. Under the NSA, a person can be detained for a maximum period of 12 months and an extension must be sought every three months after the detention begins.
According to the brothers’ lawyer Ateeq Khan, their detention was extended from time to time and they spent a total of 12 months in jail.
deficiencies identified by the court
While under the detention of the NSA, the three men were granted bail in the FIR under the Cow Slaughter Act on 27 August 2020 and in the FIR under the Gangster Act on 11 November 2020.
The August order, passed by an additional district and sessions judge in Sitapur, pointed to certain lapses in the prosecution case, most notably the absence of any public independent witness.
The court also pointed out that the veterinary officer had identified the meat by looking at it, but no forensic report was filed to prove it.
The FIR also states that the veterinary officer looked at the sack and confirmed that the meat confiscated was cow meat, adding that “the recovered beef was buried by digging a pit in the ground on the same day”.
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‘angry Hindu community’: NSA custody order
Meanwhile, the NSA’s detention order against the brothers cited Article 48 of the Constitution, which mandates the government to “attempt … to take steps … prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draft cattle.” Instructs to try”.
The order further said that the accused were making “all efforts” to get bail, observing that the accused would indulge in similar activities if granted bail.
The order also stated that their activities would adversely affect the maintenance of public order and would harm the communal harmony of the village.
Sitapur DM Vishal Bhardwaj also defended the NSA order in an affidavit submitted to the HC in January this year, stating that the accused had “committed a heinous crime and angered the Hindu community as they indulged in cow slaughter”. were involved”.
The affidavit said that after the news of beef was recovered and his arrest spread, “the law and order situation became tense, communal harmony deteriorated”.
‘political hatred’
The brothers had also filed a representation against the NSA order before the DM on August 24 last year. The letter, a copy of which was seen by ThePrint, claimed that all the charges and weapons allegedly seized from him were “false and fake”. He also accused the police of fabricating up the whole story.
The brothers also cited “political malice” as a reason behind the arrest in their letter. “A false case has been registered out of political malice so that the applicant or any member of his family cannot contest the upcoming elections,” the statement said.
A charge they still believe in. “We are just victims of politics” (We have just become victims of politics),” Parvez told ThePrint.
He also alleged that the whole matter was fabricated, claiming that when the police knocked on his door that night, Rahmatullah was not in the house and was instead at his in-laws’ house.
Parvez, after a full year in custody, sought compensation and accused the state government of “targeting Muslims”, despite the High Court eventually canceling the detention.
“We were in jail for a year, we should get compensation for our loss, our wife and children were bereaved,” he said.
Advocate Narendra Gupta, representing the brothers in the high court, also said, “Their plea was virtually fruitless as they had already spent a year in custody when the verdict came. Now they are entitled to compensation as they were detained at the behest of the state.”
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release after one year
The three brothers had filed a habeas corpus petition before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on January 5 this year. Exactly 8 months later, on August 5, a 26-page decision of the High Court canceled his NSA custody.
A bench of Justices Ramesh Sinha and Saroj Yadav made a distinction between a cow being slaughtered in the privacy of one’s own home and one being slaughtered in public.
It also noted that the second FIR under the Gangsters Act was not mentioned in the detention order, and that “there was no material to conclude that the petitioners/detainees would repeat the activity in future”.
Parvez told ThePrint that he was finally released on August 13, a year after he was first arrested.
However, the legal battle of the three brothers is not over yet. He is still facing trial under the two FIRs registered against him under the Cow Slaughter Act and the Gangster Act.
Their lawyer Ateeq Khan told ThePrint that charge sheets have been filed in both the FIRs and the brothers will now face trial in the case.
However, he says the investigation in the case has been “unfair”.
“The way people are being arrested in the name of cow slaughter is not right. I feel very bad as a human being if an innocent person goes to jail in the absence of a fair investigation. Police investigation is not fair in UP itself.
(Edited by Rachel John)
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