The way the victims were arrested and taken into custody under the National Security Act is now unfolded by the Allahabad High Court. The Court came forward to condemn the detention order passed by the District Magistrate against Dr. Kafeel Khan, who has specialization in pediatric medicine, and set him free yesterday from his illegal detention commenced on January 29, 2020.
THE FACT OF THE CASE:
Dr. Kafeel Khan gave his passionate speech in Aligarh Muslim University in support of anti CAA protest on the 12th day of December 2020 and he was apprehended by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in Mumbai Airport on 29th January. Thereafter he was given a bail and immediately after his bail, he was charged under National Security Act and have been in prison for about 7 months.
His Mother finally took a legal battle against her Son’s illegal detention and filed Habeas Corpus Petition before the Allahabad High Court. The Court upon scrutinizing the case records produced by the NSA Cops heavily condemned the Aligarh District Magistrate as latter could not comprehend the difference between the hate speech and the speech calls for unity.
Dr. Kafeel Khan in his AMU’s speech called for national unity and never made any hate speech that the provisions of the NSA could be applied on him, the Court opined.
In exact words of the High Court of Allahabad “A complete reading of the speech prima facie does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. It nowhere threatens peace and tranquility of Aligarh.”
How genuine a NSA’s case was came to light with Allahabad High Court set the scale of justice straight.
However, just think of a poor mother and her family’s trepidation over the continued media trial conducted by unfair channels and newspapers in the past seven months.
No doubt, NSA has constitutional validity, according to Supreme Court. However, how the provisions of the Act are so casually and unfairly applied on a victim just to settle scores over his / her beliefs and expressions has come to light with the intervention of the Allahabad High Court.
It is high time for the Courts to scrutinize the expressions aired by the Petitioners -whether it falls within the definition of sedition, hate speech or endangering peace and tranquility or was it just a put-up case to appease the vested interest by the investigating agencies.