By TCN News,
New Delhi: Members of civil society have welcomed the Supreme Court notice of Wednesday to central and state governments to produce Bihar engineer Fasih Mahmood who was reportedly picked from his home in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia and deported on 13th of May on the request of Indian authorities but hasn’t yet been produced in court.
Barely a day after several civil rights activists and concerned citizens had publicly demanded that Fasih Mahmood be produced before an Indian court, the Supreme Court, hearing a habeas corpus petition of his wife, Nikhat Parween, issued notices to MEA, MHA, and four state governments Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra and Bihar asking that Fasih be produced before a court within 48 hours, the deadline for which ends in the forenoon of 1st June.
“We welcome this and hope that the SC’s notice will work where Nikhat’s applications and entreaties did not,” said civil activists in a statement on Thursday.
“Fasih’s disappearance is a gross violation of all established procedures and norms of deportation or extradition. The CBI’s belated move to extract a red corner notice against Fasih continues the farce of his illegal detention. Fasih is neither charged with a crime officially nor absconding; indeed he is being held in an unknown location with full complicity of the Indian investigative agencies. The red corner notice is thus malafide and a mere afterthought on the part of the agencies who faced with mounting media scrutiny and public pressure appear now to be at a loss as to how to produce him. Not only must Fasih be produced before an Indian court immediately, there must be an impartial enquiry into who ordered his illegal detention. Fixing of accountability is essential as violation of due process in the name of fighting terrorism is becoming increasingly rampant,” they demanded.
Signatories to the statement included Manisha Sethi and Ahmed Sohaib (one behalf of Jamia teachers Solidarity Association), Shabnam Hashmi and Bhawna (on behalf of ANHAD) and civil rights activists Mahtab Alam and Mansi Sharma.