India: CASR ON THE REPRESSION AGAINST NADEEM KHAN AND APCR TEAM

We hereby share a statement by Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) that we have received.

CASR STRONGLY CONDEMNS THE HARASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION OF CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST NADEEM KHAN AND APCR TEAM

On 30th December 2024, SHO [Editor’s note: Station House Officer, the police officer in charge of the police station] from Shaheen Bagh police station Delhi, arrived at house of Nadeem Khan’s brother in Bangalore to arrest him without warrant. Nadeem Khan is the National General Secretary of Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR). APCR is the civil rights organisations which fights for ensuring justice and raising voice against State atrocities. APCR also provides legal aid and assistance for cases of human rights violations throughout the country.

On 30/11/2024 at approximately 5 pm, the SHO of Shaheen Bagh Police station along with four officers arrived in Bangalore and asked Nadeem Khan to “voluntarily” accompany them to Delhi for questioning regarding a video circulating on Twitter. It is important to mention that they didn’t have any notice or warrant regarding the same. They only had a copy of FIR (FIR number 0280/2024, Shaheen Bagh, Police Station, N. Delhi) in which he has been named on the basis of a Twitter post by a well known right wing account. After harassing him and his relatives for more than six hours they produced a notice under Section 35(3) of BNSS, asking him to join the investigation. The  malicious intention of police is clear from the fact that the FIR against him was registered at 12:48 pm and the SHO arrived at his brother’s place at 5pm on the same day within 4 hours.

Also, a day before, on 29th November, the Delhi police raided the office of APCR without any authorised document, notice or copy of FIR. They reached at 9pm with more than 20 officials and enquired about the APCR from security guards present there. They came back again the next morning and questioned tge guards about the office bearers of APCR. Members and counsel representing APCR were not provided with the reasons for an inquiry. Despite their unauthorised raid and violation of due process of law, the head constable of Shaheen Bagh misbehaved with the counsel and openly threatened him with dire consequences.

Nadeem Khan and the APCR team of is facing intimidation in the form of an FIR and raids because of their intervention against BJP RSS led fascist project of Hindu Rashtra. Recently, the APCR team had petitioned against the ‘Bulldozer Raaj’ [Editor’s note: reference to the the use of bulldozers to evict and harass minorities, mainly Muslims] in India and Supreme Court ruled in favour of the masses represented by APCR against the BJP government and stipulated that strict guidelines are to be followed before demolishing any allegedly illegal property. Supreme court opined that the due process of law must be followed. The verdict was delivered by the bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice K V Vishwanathan in November 2024.

Also, APCR team has launched various fact- finding teams across the country, where right wing groups inflict violence on the minority community with support of state machinery. Nadeem khan has also been part of the fact-finding teams.

CASR believes that these raids and FIR are the tactics of BJP-RSS to suppress and silence the organisations and individuals fighting against the violation of human rights and raising demands about the release of political prisoners. Their special target is to dismantle organisations that provide any form of assistance to the already marginalized muslim community targeted by the Hindutva Fascist State.

CASR demands that intimidation and harassment of Nadeem Khan and APCR Team must be stopped immediately. We also urge all democratic and progressive organizations and individuals to come together and raise their voice against this kind of harassment.


CAMPAIGN AGAINST STATE REPRESSION
Organizing Team
(AIRSO, AISA, AISF, APCR, ASA, BAPSA, BBAU, BASF, BSM, Bhim Army, bsCEM, CEM, COLLECTIVE, CRPP, CSM, CTF, DISSC, DSU, DTF, Forum Against Repression Telangana, Fraternity, IAPL, Innocence Network, Karnataka Janashakti, LAA, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, NAPM, NAZARIYA , Nishant Natya Manch, Nowruz, NTUI, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad, Samajwadi Lok Manch, Bahujan Samajvadi Manch, SFI, United Peace Alliance, WSS,Y4S)