Mohammad Shoaib
Advocate
Uttar Pradesh

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on January 9 regarding the arbitrary arrest and detention of advocate Mr. Mohammad Shoaib in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Mr. Shoaib is an activist with Rihai Manch and the President of the Socialist Party (India).

Mr. Shoaib was placed under house arrest on December 18, 2019, to forestall his participation in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) based on an order passed under Section 149 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). He was told that the Circle Officer had summoned him and taken him to the Hazratganj police station at midnight. When Mr. Shoaib did not return for a long time, his wife called the district police chief and informed him of his health condition. After this, two policemen visited Mr. Shoaib’s house and took his medicines; they also assured his wife that he would be let off soon.
 

When there was no news about him for the next two days, a Habeas Corpus petition was filed for presenting him in court. Police records said he was arrested 2 kilometers away from his residence on December 20, 2019. Though Mr. Shoaib was not named in the FIR, he was accused of rioting, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy. The arrest memo was not signed by the police or any witnesses, and the remand order under Section 167 CrPC, submitted by the State, had the names of 36 people but not that of Mr. Shoaib.

On January 6, the Uttar Pradesh High Court give a week’s time to the Uttar Pradesh government to file an additional counter-affidavit giving the exact time and place from where Mr. Shoaib was arrested and as well as the details of his production before the judicial magistrate in the civil court before sending him to judicial custody.