Telangana HC asks 5 questions over Chintakinda Kashim arrest

Hyderabad: Expressing surprise that the police did not take action on Osmania University’s assistant professor Chintakinda Kashim for four years before suddenly arresting him on Saturday, the Telangana High Court on Sunday directed the Advocate-General to file a counter-affidavit to explain the five points.

The court asked the AG to explain the status of the investigation in two cases against Mr Kashim in 2012 and 2019 and why the police had failed to take action against him then.

In the case registered against Mr Kashim in 2016, 54 persons have been named, including his wife. The AG should inform the court how many persons have been arrested in that case. The court asked the state to inform it as to the application submitted before the court to declare Mr Kashim as an absconding offender.

It also sought an individual list of books, pamphlets, and documents the state finds objectionable against Mr Kashim.

The Gajwel police on Sunday produced Mr Kashim before the bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy when it was assembled at the residence of the CJ.

After hearing Mr Kashim, the bench observed that “repeatedly, this court is dealing with cases where alleged ‘Maoist sympathisers’ are being arrested.” The bench mentioned the manner of arrest, made either at the dead of the night or in the early morning, the manner in which the alleged Maoist sympathisers are being produced routinely before the magistrate, and sent to judicial custody.

The bench noted that “the fact that when detainees are produced before this court, they invariably claim that Maoist literature is being ‘planted’ at their residential places, and confessional statements are falsely drawn up by the police. All these points cause concern in the mind of this court, for, a slim possibility does exist that human rights and constitutional mandates are being violated by the state.”