Don't harass people from NE, HC tells cops

The city police was on Thursday directed by the Delhi high court not to harass people from the North East and Ladakh because of their resemblance with Tibetans, who were under the police scanner for protesting Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit in New Delhi for the BRICS summit.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw appointed a team of five lawyers to meet the detainees to ascertain their genuineness and said, "It is the duty of the police not to harass people in the name of maintaining law and order in the city."

"We permit the team of lawyers to meet those persons who were arrested and lodged in Tihar Jail or detained in police stations to find out whether they are from Tibet or the north east," the bench said in its order.

The court directed Delhi police to shift the Tibetans, who were lodged in Tihar, to Ambedkar Bhawan where nearly 200 other Tibetans have been detained for staging protests.

The court, however, refused to restrain police from detaining the Tibetan protesters to maintain the law and order situation. The bench passed the order on an oral submission by Arun Asthana, a lawyer, that police is harassing people from the north east and Ladakh as they look like Tibetans. Harassments to citizens, Asthana said, is violative of their personal liberty.

Asthana cited the experience of two lawyers from the north east, who faced police interrogation this morning and said, "The police has made these people's life miserable for the last two days."