Take action against cops who detained Iftikhar: Katju to MHA
Acting on a complaint by senior journalist Iftikhar Gilani, Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has written to the Home Ministry asking it to chargesheet and suspend police officials who had kept Gilani under alleged illegal detention for five hours on Saturday after the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
Gilani, a government accredited journalist, works for DNA. The special cell of Delhi Police went to his house on Saturday morning and took him to the residence of his father-in-law where he and his wife were placed under detention for several hours, away from his children who were locked in a bedroom of his house. He also complained of harassment by Delhi Police. Gilani is the son-in-law of senior Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
In a letter to Home Secretary R K Singh, Katju, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, has said that Gilani’s complaint, if true, revealed “great high-handedness and outrageous behaviour” by Delhi policemen in “harassing and tormenting” Gilani and his family. He called upon the Home Secretary to take action within the next 48 hours by instituting criminal proceedings against the officers, and sanctioning “adequate and suitable compensation” to Gilani with an apology. Katju also warned police, asking them not to carry out “illegal orders”.
