The Bombay High Court recently directed the Mumbai Police to file an affidavit by May 5 in the plea alleging illegal quarantine of a member of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
A single Bench of Justice C.V. Bhadang was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Mahendra Singh, a member of CITU, alleging that activist and trade unionist K. Narayanan of CITU was asked to come to the police station while he and two others were distributing food and other essentials in Andheri (West) on April 21.
The petition, filed through senior advocate Gayatri Singh, said, “Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX) Abhishek Trimukhe and senior inspector Parmeshwar Gamane of DN Nagar police station asked his colleagues to leave. Narayanan was then taken to a private lab in Jogeshwari where he was tested for COVID-19 and told the results will be sent to his phone in 48 hours. As he was about to leave, he was quarantined and his phone confiscated.”
Ms. Singh said, “The petitioner wants to know the results of the test conducted on Mr. Narayanan and seeks copies of the same.”
“While there is a shortage of quarantine facilities for affected persons, why put an additional burden on the infrastructure by forcing non-affected persons into quarantine?” she asked, alleging that this was no different from wrongful detention.
The court then directed the police to return Mr. Narayanan’s phone and provide him with fresh clothes. The police, while agreeing to do so, denied that it had detained Mr. Narayanan.
The petition also says that Mr. Narayanan had been staying at CITU’s Andheri office, which is not a containment zone, since the lockdown began, and that none of his neighbours have been quarantined. “Therefore, his quarantine seems amiss, with the present norms of contact tracing and consequential isolation.”
The petition also alleges that none of Narayanan’s colleagues were allowed to meet him the day he was detained and he was not allowed to contact his family. It says, “Mr. Narayanan’s detention is an abuse of power and is solely exercised as a punitive measure to make an example of him.”
The court has directed the police to provide details of where Mr. Narayanan was intervened at, and when and why was he detained.
Published - May 03, 2020 01:32 am IST
