By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Muzaffarnagar: Naseem Ahmed, the Pairokar of the seven women, who were gang raped during communal violence in Muzaffarnagar in September 2013, was detained on Wednesday. He was later released in the evening.
Ahmed (who, as a Paroikar fights the cases on behalf of those women) was accompanying K, one of the seven rape victims, whose case has recently been reopened when an unexpected incident led to his arrest.
TCN File Photo of Naseem Ahmed ((in spectacles, on the right) with a relative Abdul Jabbar (green kurta).
The Muzaffarnagar district court had issued summons to five accused a few days ago. Outside the court complex, Amarpal, one of the gang rape accused, had come in a SUV with several other men, aggressively approached Naseem and threatened him.
Naseem has been facing grave threats to his life consistently ever since the communal attacks of 2013 and has a licensed revolver as he perceived imminent threat to his life.
When Amarpal, accompanied by armed men, approached him, Naseem instinctively took out his revolver at which point the police posted at the Court complex immediately arrested him. Amarpal, the accused in the case, who threatened him, was not detained or arrested.
“A police personnel standing nearby acted in a biased manner. They detained me while letting those armed men go. They threatened to book me for misbehaving in court premise,” Ahmed said, adding, “I was in detention for over four hours. Meanwhile, calls and mails were sent to higher authorities and I was released in the evening after intervention from office of senior police officer,” he told TwoCircles.net.
Naseem has been assisting and facilitating the seven women in their legal cases. Earlier also there have been allegations on police of using ‘coercive methods’ to pressurise riot victims to withdraw FIRs.
There are seven registered cases of gang rapes during the September, 2013 riots and later another girl from Jogia-Kheda camp was raped. It should be mentioned here that there are reports of several rapes – some estimate it to be in 100 – but for fear of harassment and “shame it would bring,” most of them hence preferred to be silent.
Related:
Justice eludes rape victims of Muzaffarnagar riots
Police using coercive methods to pressurise riot victims to withdraw FIRs