14 arrested in PFI case move Delhi HC seeking release

NEW DELHI: Fourteen PFI activists, arrested in a massive crackdown on the radical Muslim outfit over its alleged terror links, Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court seeking their release and compensation, claiming they were unlawfully detained.

Three separate petitions came up before a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma which granted time to the petitioners' counsel to file additional documents and relevant judgements to support their case.

The bench listed the matter for further hearing on November 21.

During the hearing, Delhi Police raised preliminary objection over maintainability of the petitions and said habeas corpus pleas cannot lie as most of the petitioners have been released on bail.

A habeas corpus petition is filed seeking direction to produce a person who is missing or has been illegally detained.

The petitioners claimed they were arrested from their respective homes here on the night of September 27 when police personnel in civilian clothes as well as in uniform barged in and picked them up without informing them or their families anything about the reasons for their arrest.

They claimed they were detained without following the procedures established by law and police took them to some undisclosed location.

The petitioners have sought an independent, appropriate enquiry against the authorities so the erring officials could meet the justice.

A large number of alleged PFI activists were detained or arrested in several states during the massive raids preceding the nation-wide ban imposed on the organisation on September 28.

The government banned the PFI and several of its associate organisations for five years under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA, accusing them of having links with global terror groups like the ISIS.