New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (December 3) granted interim protection to from arrest to human rights activist Nadeem Khan, who has been booked by the Delhi police for “promoting enmity and violence.”
While granting interim protection of arrest to Khan, Justice Jasmeet Singh said that Khan should not be arrested till Friday (December 6) and remarked that the common man is intelligent and nation’s harmony is “not so fragile,” reported LiveLaw.
Earlier, the Delhi Police had filed a first information report and allegedly attempted to detain Khan, the national secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, after posts on social media by Hindutva supporters levelled allegations against him.
On November 29, Delhi Police conducted a raid at the Delhi office of the APCR. The following day, November 30, police attempted to detain Khan, at his brother’s residence in Bengaluru.
The court told Khan not to leave the national capital without permission of the investigating officer and directed him to join the investigation tomorrow (December 4).
Khan has sought quashing of the Delhi Police FIR. The court issued notice on Khan and APCR.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of Khan and submitted that the FIR does not disclose any cognizable offence.
The FIR, based on a video of Khan explaining the exhibition, charges him with promoting enmity between groups by depicting Muslims as victims and accusing ruling party leaders of spreading hate.
“Please understand, we are in a democratic country. The harmony of our nation is not so fragile. It is not so fragile that merely one exhibition, merely someone shouting, it cannot be. Consider people as intelligent…You repose very little faith in the common man. Common man is intelligent. Common man isn’t so fragile that merely one exhibition will…,” remarked the court when the Delhi police submitted that Khan was trying to destroy the peace of the country which could be demonstrated from the video.
